Kirra Surf Guide

Kirra Surf Guide

Kirra Point is the logical northern limit of Coolangatta, Queensland's most southeastern town. It's flanked at its top end by Big Groyne that finishes Coolangatta Beach, and at its bottom end 400 yards down the line by Little Groyne, protecting Kirra Beach to the north. Between the groynes is the original point, a scattered lava outcropping extended from a headland to its south. Also between the groynes is stretched the long ribbon of sand responsible for Kirra's super-tube magic.

Because it's tucked inside the line of Point Danger, the place gets less swell than any of the other Gold Coast points. Kirra wakes up in solid E and NE swells from cyclones and long-angled South Pacific fetches. These swells hit the sandbar at a nice 45-degree angle and suck their ways with increasing intensity toward Little Groyne and sometimes even past it. When the sand is right it's literally sectionless, the barrel forming and reforming like some sort of incredible moving version of a wave machine, yet with all the weight of the ocean pushing behind it. Large volumes of water run down the outside rim of the sandbar, which makes paddling back out a grueling proposition; many experienced Kirra surfers just get out of the water at a ride's finish and jog back up along the rim of the point to the jump-off point.

The sand is not consistent; it shifts between groynes, and in the past it's even created a heavy big left across from the natural point, which shows in very N-angled cyclone swells. But it's rare that you won't find a good 100-yard tube section somewhere along the groyne-to-groyne stretch.