Kirra surfed three ways: Left, Parko. Middle, James Woods. Right, Jack Robinson. Photos: YouTube//Screenshots
If you’ve got your finger on surfing’s pulse, you’re well aware of the ridiculousness that Cyclone Alfred is creating on Australia’s Gold Coast. If you live on Australia’s Gold Coast… well, you’re probably surfing.
For a few days now, Kirra has been absolutely firing. The Gold Coast is a place that breeds a glut of great surfers, but it’s swell events like these that separate the good from the great.
“The crowds drop right off when it’s like this,” Craig Halstead of Surf on Mars, who filmed the footage you see below, explained via email. “The sweep is horrendous, so it’s die-hard paddlers and Jet Skis only.
Although Kirra is routinely very, very good — it’s not one of the world’s most famous waves for nothing — recent days have been next-level. Not ruler-straight lines that you doodled dreamily in your school notebook, but incredible nonetheless.
“It’s the first proper cyclone swell we have had in quite a while and it’s been awesome,” said Halstead. “This is the first time I can remember a swell with a cyclone so close to us and it’s pretty wild and windy.”
Cyclones, of course, can be damaging to life and property. The surfing is a silver lining on a dark cloud, and Cyclone Alfred is still ramping up.
“The cyclone hasn’t crossed onto the land as yet and there is already some flood damage on the Gold Coast,” Halstead continued. “It will probably get worse over the next couple of days and the swell will get too big and out of control, leading to some severe coastal erosion.”
For now, though, surfers are getting their fill while the cup is overflowing. Surfers like Jack Robinson and Parko, who are both featured in Surf on Mars’ most recent YouTube installment. And that surfer who gets the best barrel(s) of the bunch? It’s James Woods, surfing a twin fin. And yes, he paddled into it.
“Finally got the one I was looking for,” Woods wrote on Instagram. “Three days, 15 hours, beat downs, near-makes and one gem to make it all worth it. STOKED!!!!!”
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