Sunshine Coast Travel & Surf Guide

About Sunshine Coast Surf Travel

Welcome to the glorious Sunshine Coast of Australia. Rich in quality waves and surf culture, when there’s swell it can be downright magic. The marquee spot on the Sunny Coast, as it’s sometimes referred, is Noosa Heads. An idyllic set-up featuring a handful of different point setups, most recently the area has become of longboard Mecca of sorts as the local scene is thriving with stylish waveriders and out-of-towners are common and bring an international vibe to the area’s lineups. But don’t be lulled into thinking the Sunshine Coast is all about logging. Over the years this distinguished stretch of Queensland coastline has turned out some world-class surfers, including Gary “Kong” Elkerton and, most recently, Julian Wilson, who grew up around Coolum. It’s not the most consistent surf zone in Australia, but with accurate forecasting tools and expert, real-time surf reports it won’t take long to understand why the Sunshine Coast enjoys the reputation that it does.

Noosa Heads:

A right pointbreak series of almost mythical dimensions, Noosa’s natural beauty is balanced by its staggering inconsistency. The five separate points — from the top, Granite Bay, Ti-Tree, National Park, Johnsons and First Point — all face north, away from the predominant southeast swell, and for real surf rely on wickedly angled cyclone swells and long, Fiji-based easterly wind fetches. At times they’ll lie virtually dormant for months, while most surfers head south toward Sunshine Beach and Coolum for consistent beachbreaks. Yet when the right swell does arrive, it’s pretty fricken sick. Granite is a solid half-hour walk through the bushland of Noosa National Park, and is usually the least crowded and least spectacular of the five. Ti-Tree drives long rights off a bouldery headland into a changeable sandbar/rock setup with some good barrels on lower tides. National Park, right on the park’s border, is what most old school Queensland point surfers think of when they say “Noosa”: a dramatic and difficult takeoff zone known as Boiling Pot, followed by 250-500 yards of reeling, sectiony wall, sometimes running right through Johnsons bay further down the line. First Point, tucked just outside the corner of Noosa’s main beach, is a perfect easy peeling wave absolutely ruled by longboards, and the site of the annual Noosa Surfing Festival, probably Australia’s only real nostalgia-based surfing get-together.

The points are all very sensitive to wind direction; anything from either of the north quarters will play havoc with their thin-lipped long looping walls. Northeast seabreezes can be hidden from in the northern corners of Sunshine and Alexandria Bay, which face out to the east on the other side of Noosa Heads and pick up whatever swell happens to be moving.

Mooloolaba:

The Sunshine Coast’s hardcore surfing center. This is the original hometown of Gary “Kong” Elkerton and Sasha Stocker, among other sturdy, no-BS Aussie power surfers, and they learned many of their lessons at a surf spot called Point Cartwright. This wave, a thick right, draws off man-made groins just south of the Mooloolah River and grinds along with a tube section for around 100 yards before smashing directly into the far groyne. It will gather a crowd of many different surfing types and the mood can get a little aggressive at times.

Another 100 yards further up the point is Platform, a mean, sucking, ledgey right tube over rock reef, ruled these days by Sasha in the footsteps of Kong. A top-to-bottom tube is followed by a closeout which sometimes links down to the normal Point Cartwright takeoff zone. The Platform is a serious wave when it’s on and shouldn’t be fooled with by less experienced surfers. Around the headland heading south, you’ll find a right-and-left reef named Secrets, exposed to the south, which starts breaking at four feet or so and keeps going in a bigger swell. Plenty of beachbreaks beyond that. 

Going the other way, Mooloolaba is framed at its northern fringe by the mellow rollers of Alexandra Headland; a right reef leads into sand-bottom peelers, good for just about any surfcraft and ridden mainly by the cruisy older crew on longboards and mid-lengths. Alex has a San Onofre sorta vibe, though the waves are a bit hollower than that famous old semi-hoax zone. Head north of Alex to Maroochydore for a very cool rivermouth left in a good east swell, running off a small sandbar exposure called Pincushion Island. A little further north again you’ll look offshore and see Mudjimba, or Old Woman Island, and its excellent though extremely inconsistent left. It’s 1,100 paddle-strokes off the beach and you’ll think about sharks all the way.

Caloundra:

Some of the harder-core Sunny Coast locals say unkind things about Caloundra: “Clowntown”, they call it, thanks to the crowds of holidaymakers and weekend warriors who tend to stream into this southern Sunshine Coast town from Brisbane (it’s even closer to the State capital city than is the upper Gold Coast). It seems a bit cruel, especially since Caloundra is home to some great Aussie surf lore and legend. Ma and Pa Bendall, Queensland surfing’s patron saints, who pioneered wave-riding north of Stradbroke Island in the 1950s and on, were based here, and the barrels of Moffat’s Reef were made anonymously famous in Jack McCoy’s hilarious early-’80s video, “Kong’s Island” (if you get the vid anytime, it’s the thick offshore left pit).

The most thoroughly ridden wave here is Moffats Point, a rock shelf reef leading to a rolling point wave that on a good day will run to the beach 300 yards from takeoff. A little bowl section halfway down the line reminds some people of Angourie. The Point is very consistent, breaking in just about any swell and picking up a surprising amount of southeast angle. Expect to find a lot of longboards and older experienced surfers. Glance north from the Point takeoff and you’ll be staring down the barrel of “Gunner’s Reef”, as Moffat Reef’s is sometimes known. An outside right and left peak, with an inside left, the Reef is a top to bottom barrel for experienced surfers only. Picks up all swell direction; an offshore wind is a necessity or one will be smashed by the crumbling lip onto a Bed of Urchins.

North of the Reef, Wurtulla Beach lays down a comfortable claim to the best beachbreaks in this part of the Australian coast; it’s comparable to Hossegor on its day, which will be a medium east swell and light offshore winds. Wurtulla gets a lot of its value from an offshore bombora that helps break up swell before it hits the inner sandbars. Those same hard-core Sunny Coast boys will tell you tales about this bombie in giant swells; guess you’ve gotta see it to believe ’em.

Surf Hazards

Big cyclone swells can whip up the surf on the Sunshine Coast and create hazardous currents for swimmers and surfers, so be mindful of when and where you’re paddling out. Also, Blue Bottle jellyfish can be a problem in this area. Their sting is not to be trifled with.

Surf Pollution

Like most all surf spots around the world, be mindful of water quality after periods of heavy rain on the Sunshine Coast. By and large, the waters in this area are relatively healthy, but big storms can flush inland waterways and create water quality that may be detrimental to humans.