Big Muddy

Last week on the 29th a large tropical low formed ever Fraser Island just off the Queensland Coast. While it never made it to Cyclone level the low was named "Herbert"and spun in place for over a week before tracking North, sending powerful SSE winds and huge surf towards The Gold and Sunshine Coasts. Massive rains and wild storms inundated Southern Queensland. While most points and beaches were huge and out of control, selective, sheltered spots were in classic form. Noosa Heads was six to ten foot and perfect, Mooloolaba was pumping, and tow teams were charging Burleigh Heads, Rainbow Bay, Currumbin, and Coolangatta which at one point was hitting a solid 15-20+ feet according to Coastal Watch and off shore buoys.

By Saturday morning the swell and winds had backed down to modest proportions rerendering the coast semi-surfable to the rest of us mortals. After a week and a half of watching perfect surf on the web cams, out of my reach, I rented a car, packed the board and headed to The Goldy in search of some surf.

First off I checked out Burleigh Heads which sits just north of the Tallebudgera Creek. The creek was now a full on river there were reports of massive flooding miles up stream and tons of silt, drift wood, logs, dead cows, and who knows what else, was flowing out to sea and into the Burleigh lineup. The point was six to ten foot and semi surfable, there were some guys out but with the hazardous conditions and large debris floating on the inside, I opted to drive further south to see what conditions were like elsewhere.



The first shot was taken by Coastal Watch on Thursday up the road at Currumbin (note PWC on left of screen for scale) and my shots were taken Saturday at Burleigh.