Surfbeat: Winter means big waves
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Surfbeat: Winter means big waves

Winter means big waves on the Surf Coast.

After a fantastic run of surf during April for the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, the good run of waves continues into June and hopefully July.

This June has been a cracker with reasonably warm weather, lots of sunshine and great waves. Bells Beach has been blessed with some excellent surfing conditions, while along the Surf Coast plenty of places have been breaking including Point Impossible, Lorne and just about everywhere in between.

There has even been a few ‘secret’ and not so secret spots getting plenty of swell and providing fantastic surf, if you know when and where to look. Knowing when and where to go can be the difference between an average surf with a lot of people, or a fantastic surf and few people around.

I had a great surf recently at one of the more popular beaches in Torquay with just two surfers out. It was a late Saturday afternoon… plenty of swell around, so most people were hitting the popular spots, but with an incoming high tide options were dropping off the chart.

I checked out one of my favourite small wave spots that doesn’t break often and sure enough… small offshore peelers were rolling along the reef… no one out. By the time I returned with my trusty nine foot longboard, the surf had increased and only two other people out on mals. It was one of the most fun surfs all year. Beautiful clean little two foot waves rolling along the sand covered reef for 50-60 metres and only the three of us out as the sun set in the distance. Sure the waves weren’t big or challenging, but for their size they had a perfect shape and that was all I wanted.

The next two months are the big ones. July and August can throw up monster waves along the Surf Coast. A couple of years ago Bells Beach was hit with two massive swells where solid 10-15 foot waves rolled into Bells during a very cold August.

You don’t need to go to Hawaii or other parts of Australia to find big surf… we get some of the best big waves in the world right here on our doorstep.

Keep an eye on the charts and when one of those dirty big lows starts to form in the Great Australian Bight this winter, head down the coast… you might see some of the biggest waves of your life.

Written by John Foss