Noosa is without doubt my favorite place to visit in Australia. The town itself is spread out of a large area set back from the main beach making getting around town a pain without a car, but from this main beach a National park covering nearly 500 hectares and has 5 distinct bays along the coastline, each facing in slightly different directions with differing bottom features, some are sand, others are super shallow boulder dodging reefs.
My first introduction to Noosa was the YHA hostel, right by the main beach. Set in beautiful grounds, with a fantastic bar and cheap restaurant, I cannot recommend this hostel enough if you’re looking for somewhere to stay in noosa. There are other Hostels such as the Koala, but this was a pretty scummy hostel, and I wouldn’t recommend them, but they are popular with the gap year students who pour through the town.
The surf in Noosa is First Rate, but generally needs a big swell to get it going. Huge expansive bays mean you can ride a wave for several hundred meters. Some of the smaller bays even connect up on the biggest of days meaning huge rides. On one cyclone swell I got a wave from outside Johnsons to 1st point and it took me about 20 minutes to walk back!! I could barely move my legs! When it’s big enough to be world class it generally means it’s maxed out all the way down the east coast which means every surfer from as far as the Gold Coast pours into town. It can be absolute chaos! And when it’s not pumping the place is infested with longboarders!
Noosa is truly the land of the longboard in Australia. I’ve never seen as many “pretty” people stand in the middle of their board not doing anything, and ruining what otherwise would have been a nice wave!
A Bay is the furthest beach, and faces east.. this picks any ripple in the area and so I great for those flat days. However watch out for naked men as this is a nudist beach!
Granites is the 1st of the points. It’s a pretty mellow right hand point break that can throw some decent barrels in the right swell. However the best feature is the fact it’s over a mile further than Tea Tree, and so tends to have a lot less longboarders riding it.
Tea Tree is a spectacularly beautiful bay with wonderful long lefts.. but is generally full of longboards which make actually getting a wave hard work.
Boilers is a full on hell man wave.. Most of the surfing pictures shown with the article are of boilers so you can see what I mean. It’s saving grace it’s so full on that it tends to be shortboards only.
Johnsons and First point are smaller bays slightly further towards town. Both of which I’ve had great waves on. As they’re further around the headland they cut out a lot more swell than the other points and can be much more suitable to less experienced surfers.
There are several beach breaks along the Main Beach in noose, with several groynes and the river mouth creating some nice banks for the right swell.
by :
Sie Baker