Beginner friendly spots - Sunshine Coast
Welcome Captain Kook, I'll leave the Sunny Coast crew to field this one.
Sunshine main beach was good last time i stayed there in 92 or 93..got two weeks of fun surf and by myself every time. also anna bay gets fun sometimes and handles the northerlies a little bit
I reckon you would get more enjoyment from mountain biking, there's great tracks up behind Tewantin, crowds not a problem, you can hire a bike and give it a crack, guaranteed fun. Or you can flap around with the 20000 other sheep at Noosa and leave frustrated and angry. That being said the waves are pretty much always small and forgiving pretty much everywhere, all the time.
South
-Happy valley
-Dickies beach
-Moffat's good for mals, once have some confidence
Central
-Alexander headland
North
-1st point
-Noosa river mouth
-Sunshine beach
Or pretty much any beach break on the sunny coast on higher tide's most days.
Low tide Platform on a 6-8ft east cyclone swell. Just paddle straight out, you won't even get your hair wet.
Haha Zen, i once surfed boiling pot about that size at 12 years old and shit my pants..couldnt get a wave either and my parents waited hours for me to come in. scary spot for a beginner.
zenagain wrote:Low tide Platform on a 6-8ft east cyclone swell. Just paddle straight out, you won't even get your hair wet.
Lol, I live within walking distance so I can vouch for that...yes great advice...!
One of my favourite waves and I've left a fair bit of skin out there.
(indo-dreaming's list is pretty good)
Thanks for the tips guys.
indo-dreaming's list looks good.
a tip you should use for future surfs when your not comfortable with big surf is head to a beach facing a different direction to the swell direction or hidden by a headland sort of thing.. you will improve a lot and then get more comfortable in heavier waves..
groundswell wrote:Sunshine main beach was good last time i stayed there in 92 or 93..got two weeks of fun surf and by myself every time. also anna bay gets fun sometimes and handles the northerlies a little bit
Alexandria Bay? Gets good waves, nth end protected in a northerly, sth end in a southerly. Bit of a nudist beach though. Nth end used to get female european backpackers, the sth end was old men. I'd advise sticking to the north end haha. About a half hour walk from the carpark at Nationals.
Along the beach from the groyne to the rivermouth is usually a bit bigger than the points, but still pretty protected. Usually pretty weak waves as the swell lines stretch right out in the bay. Good for kids or learning.
I didn't like Sunshine Beach when I was a little kid though, open beach so catches any swell, and can get strong rips and a nasty shorebreak. Usually has good banks
yeah gragagan alexandria bay thats the one...nude beach which i found interesting as a kid..long walk though so keeps the crowds down.
Thanks groundswell for the tip on beach facing direction.
Alexandria Bay noted gragagan.
The closest to where I live is Happy Valley, probably will try that one out first.
Get some skills happening in gentle, rolling white water first CK.
learn to be able to steer the board left and right.
it's amazing how many beginning surfers can't execute basic board control, making them extremely dangerous to other people in the water.
It should be pretty easy to find gentle, rolling white water away from everyone in your area.
stay away from shore dumps.
Good luck.
Any other good stories from your SC trip in 92/93 groundy? I’ve got a house full of family and an epic groundy tale will cheer me up no end. C’mon, throw one down for some Xmas cheer!
Haha thanks i guess this isnt an epic tale but went fishing one afternoon at sunshine beach with my cousin whos a gifted fisherman and we caught a bucket full of whiting all too small and we were about to let them go when a Chinese lady offered us $10 for the bucket i think she made a soup out of them...feel bad about it now...last time i was at voodoo near cronulla i saw a Chinese guy had a bucket full of baby leather jackets..my older brother picked up the bucket and threw the fish into the water..the chinese or asian fisherman was furious.
WTF?!
I was expecting a bath full of custard, some dodgy pingers and a small but enthusiastic donkey.
What a let down.
Thanks Zen. That gave me some respite.
My younger brother hated eating meat as a kid and my step mum cooked us steaks for dinner one night early in our trip..my brother chewed the steaks but put the pieces in his pocket..then threw them in the bin in our bedroom..a week or two later my step mum found shit loads of maggeots in the bin and went psycho at us..i didnt know what the hell she was on about until years later my brother told me.
I think Groundy's account has been hacked.
haha i led a boring early youth...all i cared about was surfing and skating..no pingers or coke yet..then when i reached 18 or something i started over compensating.
ahh, the mysterious anna bay. Did you really need to spell it out gragagan... Not recommended for learners, numerous inexperienced oceangoers have drowned in there
and groundswell, sorry you missed all the fun then, because there were many good times to be had at Sunshine in those early 90s, a very different place to what you see now
Just stay away from other people, find an empty spot of beach to yourself. There's plenty of long open beach stretches to do so.
Dickies/Moffs/Alex/Sunshine - I wouldn't recommend such crowded spots. They might be more learner friendly waves at times, but they're not such learner friendly crowds these days.
Happy's/1st Point - The spiritual homes of learners it seems, go nuts with all your learner brethren in soft easy waves. Especially inside Happy's, a lot of learners, surf schools, Brizzos and kids giving it a go and having fun.
Just PLEASE employ some basic surf etiquette especially rule #1 which seems to be left off the list far too often - if a spot's crowded, go find another spot!
Have fun Captain K.....Please wear a legrope......Loose stray boards are Evil
https://www.swellnet.com/news/surfpolitik/2015/02/13/longboarders-legrop...
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2021/02/09/things-left-u...
Surely sunshine beach isn’t somewhere a beginner should be considering.
Find a small day at dickies beach or Maroochydore/Alex head, and start in the white water
Sunshine coast only has beginners waves I think.
Maybe Noosa when its off its head with a mad cyclone.
too true
evosurfer wrote:Sunshine coast only has beginners waves I think.
Maybe Noosa when its off its head with a mad cyclone.
Yeah beginner to lower intermediate heaven unless solid swell.
But Platforms sure isn't neither is Caloundra reef both for pretty decent to good surfers.
A few other waves are really only intermediate up spots too, the island as so far out, Point Cartwright as although wave is easy is true reef and groyne, and yeah boiling pot even though sand bottom has some bite and some nasty rocks to get washed up onto, few other lesser known spots too.
Hi all, this is my first post.
I'm an newbie looking for beginner-friendly spots in the Sunshine Coast. Will be learning on a 9' longboard. Still need to work on my paddling technique and endurance so wouldn't mind finding a spot with more forgiving conditions.
Any ideas?