south straddie

Why paddle/taxi when you can walk? Localsonly you make Jesus cry. Learn to stand up and you too can walk on water.

it's already crowded and if the taxi goes someone else will cash in on it. Don't stress about it now, it is and has been for a long time over!

how old are you you gay little prick..shut the fuck up and piss off to myspace or something..someone had to say it

i surfed there quite a bit last year and every time that it got bigger it got a little uncrowded not to say theres anything wrong with that. Anyway staddie is a place that doesn't handle that much swell all that good it sorta breaks out on the bar and crumble for about two ks before reaching the shore break a bouyt 1 mm from the shore and i think should be best left for those criplled fullas who ride the seabiscuit off cuts of surfboards.

which locals only?
where do you surf?
who are you?
youre not form there mate you are a dick.
local blow ins only.
blow in locals.
worlds biggest fuckwit locals only?
no locals more like it.
locals suck.
get out here

I remember visiting there once and paddling back while the tide was going out and getting taken a fair way out feeling like a piece of shark bait. I don't live in QLD but it seems a bit soft to get a boat over there.

soft ´tis.
the ONLY excuse would be the 10 minutes of time saved from the return trip. and in equal inconveniance the occasional SCRATCH from the rocks. nothing else.
if you catch a boat jazzy i dont doubt that you cant ride an alaia. your arms would be too soft.

does it really matter anyway, boat or no boat the place still packs out when it is good, just like anywhere in the world. Get over it.

@ Jazzy

Maybe you could better use your time on the internet by doing an online education course?

You could enroll yourself in a very basic english/grammar related subject, then when you type dribble on the internet you wouldn't sound like an uneducated and dumb redneck piece of trash.

But you sound really hardcore and scary ha ha.

I've got a solution for you 'locals' just paddle your SUP over instead of catching the boat or worrying about the sharks eating some blow-in. Ha, ha. It's always good seeing the boys getting stuck into each other. Play nice and respect to you all. Even ol' 'Locals only' and 'jazzy' I'll strap an esky to my SUP and bring some coldies to settle everyone.

locals only, just got back from overseas, was packed, sure there may be the odd spot, but it is getting to the point where most of the good waves have been packed out.

Been up to the Gold Coast 3 times surfed Straddie didnt bother me with the paddle situation, seemed so insignificant, should try surf the more isolated spots in Vicco, no boardshorts and boats round here

20 people at straddie, how long ago was that? I moved here 10 years ago (yep, still a blow in) and surf there on weekdays and there would minimum 40-50 guys there going years back. If you ask me its a hard spot be local as main beach is the closest you can live, and a lot of guys within 10min drive from the spit that have been surfing the spot for years. Have paddled and caught the taxi but usually get there on mates boats and anchor off.

Sure not having the taxi may reduce the numbers but a good break on the goldie is always going to be crowded which is a fact of life. (p.s. paddle across with a booger cause they have their legs in the water going across)

God i use to hate that when i lived up that way, if you catch the water taxi, your a soft cock who doesn't deserve to be over there, do the paddle, you should have to pay your due's, it's not an easy paddle but it's not hard either.

This forum would be great reading for psych students. Didn't realise how fragile the ego was of the average TOS surfer. So much self worth built on a 5 minute paddle! Or was that 3 minutes tough guy!? Imagine going on a skiers forum and reading a bunch of guys puffing their chests out over walking up hills while the poofters who don't deserve to be there wimp out on the quad chair.... Who exactly are you trying to impress because it won't be the guys who drive past you in the boat or the chinaman fishing off the rocks? If you doing it for exercise "good on yah mate", can I get yah autograph? If you really think in these patterns you should be spending less time here and more time on self help sites! Get a few more dimensions to your life cause if you look in the mirror and all you see is " hard core surfer" you'll have a long hold down when localsonly finally steals a car, runs you over and ends your steller free-surfing career.
As for the crowds get used to it - you live in australias fastest growing city and most popular domestic tourist destination, and the punters aren't coming here for rock climbing..... You're as bad as the whinging couple who live in an old high-rise complaining about the new high-rise being developed across the road. It's a Free country guys - if you don't like the CITY you live in ..........
As for the 12 year old piss poor retarded kid who started the link - well done son, keep up the good work !!!

Main, I think your missing the point, it's not about ego or proving how hardcore you are or something like that.

These are the fact's

Straddie/T.O.S is one of the best beachies anywhere and it's a stone throw from a highly populated area, sucks in the swell, couldn't be more perfect,its like some greater being created it that way, the fact that you have to go to a little effort makes it even better, god forbid it even gives the city kids of today a tiny taste of what the surfing spirit is about Adventure!, the natural set up should naturally thin the crowd out a little, but then one guys greed to make a quick $ screws it up for everyone.....like really there's a million ways to make a buck and this guy ruins it for everyone just for his own selfish greed...to me thats about morals.

I Personally can't beleive he gets away with it, where i live now, the guy would need body guards 24/7

Indo dreaming, you dont get how straddie is for locals.

i surf there 5 times a week on top of full time work commitments. Dont give a toss about this adventure you talk about...

If i want a magical journey ill roll a blunt, if i want to fit in as many waves in a 1-2 hour session than ill use dale.

i hate when some random tells me how i should be surfing my local.

People need to concentrate purely on their surfing and less on all the bullshit associated with it.

Then maybe there wouldn't be so many kooks around!

So whats a local there?....i dont live on the coast anymore but did for about 5 years and being younger and doing the surf/party/dole bluge trip, surfed everyday as long as i could, generally for me it was either straddie or burleigh..(beachies if had too)so i have a fairly good idea of what it is like, sadly doesn't sound like things have chsnged to much.

The spirit of adventure was just a small point....the big point is one guys greed screws everyone else over.

why do i care?...well i dont all that much cause i dont have to deal with it anymore...but i saw this topic in the forum and was kinda shocked and pissed that the dude still screwing everyone as for a while he got shut down, something to do with not having the licences/paperwork to do what he was doing.

Looking at all the other comments here, there is one common thing that crew agree on (that I also noticed when i surfed there) and thats when he's not running crowd numbers are lower another common theme in the comments and that is the attitude that if I stop taking the boat over then it wont matter and he will still keep operating, which is a piss poor atitude..it's a cliche but true that everyone makes a difference.

BTW. everyone like it or not was a kook at some stage and theres nothing wrong with kooks where i live now the average standard of surfing is way lower than the goldie, more kooks means more waves for me : )
Some of the best guys i have met i guess you could call kooks and some of the best surfers(including pro surfers) have great surfing abilty but are complete knobs.

indo dream
full time working couple with two kids at school who play sport all weekend - my ADVENTURE is getting out of the house for a few hours to go for a surf maybe once or even twice a week if im lucky !!

not complaining about having a wife and active tin lids here (far from it) but everyones in a different boat here (no pun intended). Paddling time takes away surfing time for me so its a no brainer. Im sure Im not the only bloke who bolts for a surf while everyones still asleep and races to get home again for domestic duties ...

Dales a good guy who's given plenty of guys free trips. If he was motivated by greed theres plenty of easier ways to make more money..

Not to be mean or anything but if you dont have enough time to go to straddie go to an open beach then dont wreck it for us,and to ed i seriously do not know what you are talking about? if you are a straddie local and catch the boat you cant be a local your just a person that goes there alot, you dont know how that break used to be. Straddie locals are people who have been paddling and know what it was like in the old days.i used to go over sometimes and the surf would be pumping and there would only be a few people out, and i can say for a fact that when the boat isnt running the number of people over there is significantly reduced. a common reason people say for catching the boat is that they dont have enough time, sorry to say it quite bluntly but if you dont have enough time, dont go. ask yourself if the boat wasnt there would you still go over, and to most of the people that catch the boat i dont think you would paddle. but the people that would paddle but still catch the boat what is better getting over there quicker and getting back quicker or it being less crowded all the time. and this isnt about thinking im tough paddling, just that he has wrecked what strad used to be

gcoast-bodyboard I reckon thats dead right, nothing to do with being hardcore or whatever, its just that those who knew what it was like before the boat remember that it was uncrowded perfection on the gold coast, everyone else stuck to the beachies or wherever else and it helped spread the line ups. Now every man and his dog jams into the same few hundred metre stretch and its full of aggro and drop ins and kooks and blown waves and bad vibes.

But I doubt it can be changed now, its too late. There's 20 boats or skis parked out the back of the line up on good days, and plenty of paddlers. Straddie will never go back to the way it used to be, probably just like Kirra will never be quite the same. I think the gold coast needs to seriously consider surf regeneration programs to cater for the masses, such as artificial reefs, more sand pumpers, and even proper man made waves for flat days.

On the subject of skis though, those twats on the jetskis at straddie are getting closer and closer to surfers in the water, nowhere near the required 60m (I'm pretty sure its 60m?). Fine if they're in their own spot, its cool to watch, but not when they're slowly edging their way closer to the surfers.

gcoast bodyboard,

im guessing your part of the "pussy boogers" group at straddie, who are all under 21.

Think they are hard. Have their emo hair cut.

More concerned with bodyboard fashion than going for a surf.

Refuse to use dale cause they dislike what he stands for.

Dont have to worry about a job.

Attend Griffith Uni thanks to mummy and daddy.

Graffiti the pipe and litter the beach.

am i getting close...

When you go to bed you pray to wake up as nick gornall.

If your the local you claim to be, then you would know dale bought that business off another guy that used to operate it there.

This has been going on for a long time, now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin,
shit happens, I-Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it.

Ed

I have been reading through this post for the last few weeks, and every single time someone comes in to try and tell all of the people that read this post about how it used to be, and about how cool it would seem to look at the spit and see heaps of people, but paddle over and see almost no-one out, no buildings, no tourists, no people yelling in the lineup, no snaking just pure riding waves most of the time, and the people that were over there you knew them like mates. But you undermine them, criticize them and for what.

to answer your questions no im not part of the pussy booger group
i stated in my post i have nothing to do with the people who think there better then everyone else paddling
surfing is a time to getaway and just relax for a little bit, and sure if im into bodyboarding why not support my sport buying a few things here and there from a bodyboard shop.
this is something i cant agree with, i havent caught the boat once
Do have to worry about a job
Finished uni
I would never ever graffiti anything and litter there, given the amount of waves i have gotten there i respect that place however i can, when i go
when i go to bed i fall asleep
But i do agree with you its too late for it to go back to how it used to be, but maybe some things can be arranged like dale not carrying people every day, nmaybe like 1 or 2 days every week where he doesnt carry people

Ive also read here that 10 years ago crowds wern't that bad...but i can tell you that's not true maybee 15-20 or more?...10 years ago thats when i was surfing there and it was crowded whenever it was clean and flat to head high, best session i ever had over there though was actually one sunday arvo, freak heat wave like 40 degrees, all car parks were so full, parked real far away, thought it would be packed but just had to get wet, the spit beach was packed with people, i padddled over and to my suprise there was only about 30 guys over there head high, offshore and as good as gets i surfed a few peaks past the pipe, just four guys and perfect the best beachie session ive ever had...but that was freak...normally even ten years ago there was 100's of guys out, especially small clean mornings.

BTW. guys go on about sharks and that, but only time you need to worry is early morning when the trawlers are comming back in, but the worst thing about the paddle over, is when those big blue jelly fish are thick or on a run out tide with heaps of swell, scrambling up slimmy/slippery rocks on the other side.

PS. for those that haven't done it, it's also a good snorkle along the rock wall, heaps of fish, big manta rays in the deep, gotta watch the fisherman lines though.

I think guys go on about sharks mostly as a crowd deterrent than anything, I've been doing the seaway paddle for a good 10 years and I'm yet to see a shark. The divers see them hanging around the mouth but they dont bother nobody, they're just waiting for a lazy feed.

Indo-dreaming thats about right mate, back then a crowded day would be 20 or so spread out over a couple of peaks near the pipe, these days a crowded day is 100+ along the stretch from the wall to the lagoon. The thing that thins out the crowds is the swell size, the crowd was minimal today (even though the boat was going) because it was solid 4ft+ and pretty heavy, such an amazing day over there and plenty of waves for everybody.

And Ed, he bought it off a guy that used to operate but there was about a year or 2 gap between the other guy finishing and Dale starting. Those days in between it certainly did go back to the way it was and you could score epic days at Straddie with half a dozen people there, usually under 20 people, and I can even say I had it to myself on the odd occasion. As for everything else you said to gcoast-bodyboard, well I think its pretty much highlighed yourself as being a bit of a douche. Good on him for not sinking to your level and retaliating.

geez, I've always toyed with the idea of heading over TOS to check it out but from all the agro I've been reading on here I think I'll give it a miss...which I'm sure will be pleasing to hear for some.

I have to agree with what a few logical minds on here have said. The crowds on the GC (incl. TOS) are here to stay and will only get larger. Get over it. No amount of agro is going to fix it, and you'll only be making it a bad time for everyone around, and yourself.

Seriously, think about how everytime your going "ANGRY ARRRGGH F*CKEN BLOW-IN KOOKS CAN'T CATCH WAVES I WAS HERE FIRST GO SURF SOMEWHERE ELSE YOU'RE PROBABLY A KOOK FARKEN C*NTS " and how negative you feel being like that. Not enjoying your surfing much are ya? By just accepting the crowd situation you'll stop being so negative and will ultimately enjoy your surf more.

You have just described a mate I surf with perfectly Mowgli. At first it was funny, as the crowd would move away and you could almost hear a collective groan from any surrounding surfers when he'd arc up. After a few months it gets kinda tiresome, especially when theres only a few surfers around and he's mouthing off.

Here we go its "my opinion", again.

Mate you just contradicted yourself twice.

Telling me how good it used to be back in the day, then highlighting how "amazing" it was today!

Then you complement gcbodyboard for not sinking to my level by retaliating...Yet you do just that, by calling me a douche.

Funny how my comments can bring you out of the wood-work.

Enjoy having our little debates on here.

Feel free to call me an out-right douche. Its" your opinion".

But im glad to hear you had a good session today.

i was out the day before with similar conditions.

Haha ed I guess we've clashed before hey? I dont contradict myself mate. Fuck off yes I do!

You do love that enter key though dont you?

But seriously, sorry for calling you a douche, pretty weak over the net. I apologise.

Nothing like some good sessions at our beloved Straddie to bring back the good vibes, its been pretty epic the last few days! Regardless of whether the boat has been operating or not, or how crowded it was or not, once you get a couple of pumping Straddie barrels and bowls under your belt its easy to forget the troubles of this world!

agreed!

Awwwwww..... group hug!!

I miss my beloved TOS the way it was too. I grew up at Narrowneck and used to ride my pushie up to the Spit and paddle over pre-boat days. Later on I had a mate who would pick me up behind my place in his tinny and we`d shoot up through the Broadwater, out through the Seaway and anchor up offshore. Used to pump yabbies and fish on the way home. Never once saw a shark but did see a bloke land a 4ft long Sail-fish right in front of Wavebreak Is. about 15 years ago. I shit you not, that spun me out.

The boat thing was bound to happen. I had the idea myself years ago when I was at uni. I suppose it would come as a bit of a shock to me if I was to return now, but I`d take a crowded sesh there anyday compared to the filthy freezing water I surf in daily here. Can`t complain though, it`s been pumping here for the last month.

But I can`t complain anyway. I`m just happy I grew up surfing. People seem to forget that.

It was a crappy 2ft, wobbly, windswept morning as I watched Dale drop off a boat load of kooks on top of me, and it got me thinking. How much cash would I have parted with over my time here, if I have caught the taxi? Let us do the math. 16 years surfing TOS, roughly 3 times a week, give or take. At $5 a trip that’s $780 a year, making a grand total of $12,480 over the full period. Now I’ll be the first to admit that the total is not entirely accurate because it doesn’t take into account other factors, for example – time away from the Gold Coast, no Dale/Old dude (I can’t remember his name). Surely we can agree it is a considerable amount of cash regardless. I could buy my own boat with that, but I think I will continue paddling.

Bring back the old days when the rule was - if you saw someone jumping off the boat, they were fair game for a fade or burn. Good times. Haha, this one time....

I`ll call it whatever the hell I want. I`ll call it Never Never Lollipop land if I want to. 25 years ago when I was first surfing South Straddie (there are you happy?) it was affectionately known as `The other side`, hence the nomenclature.

Are you even 25 years old? You write like an ADHD 10 year old with Aspergers syndrome. Your parents must be so proud.

Also, I agree with you. Fuck twelve grand on a boat, you should put it towards an education.

Finally, where are you really from mate? I`m guessing Nerang.

HAha funny thread. "Aspergers syndrome"

From what I have heard..! Dale sold his business to some bloke that hates to work.
It kinda felt like that the other day and less Bzo's.
Seemed to work fine, especially around 10am,...!

Wow Welly, where'd you dig that one up?

I think that was one of the very first times I'd posted on swellnet as I was a long time reader but the wanker above prompted me into action.

Wonder if he's still a local? Or managed to finish high school for that matter.

Dug it up from "Never Never Lollipop Land" Zen

surfed it yesterday morning. Definitely better crowd-wise without the boat running. not often you get 2 ft E swell forecast and can get a peak to yourself up the beach for half a session

Stubbled on this thread looking into Straddie history since moving here from the Uk. Looking for someone to do that paddle across sometime soon it sounds like a right buzz.

Heading down there tomorrow morning to crowd your break lol, hopefully tag along with someone then.

Otherwise.. hit me up

Welcome aboard ...TheMassaB
Wed Feb 13th Winds NW/N swinging stronger N/E
(The Spit Wall / Jetty is your best option on Strong North Winds)
Just saying don't paddle over to TOS without a local tip off.

(Local Tip off)
a) Climb South Wall Marker rocks to get a glance over the north Wall. Don't sneeze!
b) Scale Main Path Dune above Jetty. Lean on left leg/shut right eye to squint TOS

(Swellnet Stu's recent excellent TOS wrap has the most detailed surf History)
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-analysis/2018/01/22/south-straddi...

http://www.goldcoast.qld.gov.au/thegoldcoast/stradbroke-island-south-his...

https://boatgoldcoast.com.au/south-stradbroke-heritage-and-recreation/

https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_295614/ff7_1_2012_p13_16.pdf?Ex...

Stus article was a master piece and the comments that followed is a place in time I wish I was part of it.

It was also what put me onto the idea of paddling over in the first place I never even knew it was a thing until you all spoke about it. Internet for you thanks fellas lol.

I headed over Wednesday morning and noone around me was keen to do it so I joined them at The Spit. Crowded as usual with some greedy buggers out there but who's fussed its all fun and games.

Plenty of lads complaining it was there wave though, worse than back home. Sounded like spoilt kids complaining to their mothers because the bigger kids won't let then on the swings haha. "Surfed this break all my life, I don't recognise any of these cu*nts" "Surfing is gay I'm going to ride MX instead". Always cracks me up that the east coast of the UK is similar. Egos and too much of it. Besides your name isn't on it mate and you didn't show anyone a receipt so pipe down its only a wave.

Love GC though fellas paddling out in boardies alone is a blessing hopefully see some of you out there soon.

Hey mate, do you know a place called St. Agnes in Cormwall?

A good mate of mine owns a cafe called 'Genki Cafe' there. I met him here in Japan (where i live). Apparently their bacon baps are really good, whatever a bap is?

btw, i've surfed South Straddie dozens of times with only a couple out. Once conpletely alone and as epic as epic can be. i think the boat really screwed it.