Surfing Waves

Hey guys, I'm calling on all those living and surfing in Sydney for some advice. I am a recent graduate (22) from NZ and looking to move to Sydney at the end march; start of april to find a job in the city . I would class myself as an beginning intermediate (can pump, weak snap and have a good bottom turn)

I was thinking about looking to move to Manly as it is on the coast with surf and an easy 20-30min boat ride into Sydney city; so i have been told. Anyway i was wondering where are the good breaks to check out and surf when i get there (that arent heavy localism spots or insainly over-crowded if you dont mind me asking ) and also where would be a good place to look for a flat so that it is close to a good surf break for my level yet easy to get into town for work everyday?

Any advice would be great. Also if one of you guys in Sydney needs a surfing buddy i would be more than happy as I am going to Sydney not knowing anyone and a surfing buddy is always good to have

Cheers SF

Hey SF,

Sydney's great. I moved here two and a half years ago from the UK, and have never looked back

All the city breaks can get insanely crowded, so you'll settle into the routine of surfing the city beaches during the week, and then driving somewhere a little more quiet at the weekend. You dont have to go far.

Manly is unimaginably crowded most of the time, second only to Bondi. Further north (Dee Why etc) is less crowded (but still crowded) but is a pain to get to the city for work. The ferry crossing is only about 30 mins, but doing it every day plus the rest of the travelling will be a real pain.

I work near the city, and live in the eastern suburbs near maroubra - still crowded, but not as bad as bondi or manly, and easy to get into work. At the weekends, cronulla or further south is easily accessible.

Localism isnt so much an issue as crowds & talent - a lot of breaks you dont need to be a local to get a wave, but you do need to be very very good. You'll find me elsewhere

But most spots are fine for an intermediate, and if you're willing to travel for an hour, you'll find a peak to yourself

Thanks DBB,

Yea i would be willing but wont be able to import my car/buy a new one over there for a while so itl be public transport and the beach closest to where i choose to flat where i will be surfing. So would you recommend the eastern suburbs? i hear Coogee beach (where it says you are from) is a nice laid back town compared to some of the other places at the moment it is between there and Manly (will have to ride the ferry 1st before i decide if i can do that everyday )

Haha well as far as talent goes you will also find me elsewhere

Hey mate, coogee is an alright place to live, 1 bus away from the city, the beach itself is pretty closed off and the breaks are lol well the breaks are just shories, its only on really really really big days when coogee gets abit of action. But dont be deterred, it is right in between 2 good beaches, tama and maroubra. I personally have never surfed tama, but it gets some pretty good swell, as for maroubra, its a long stretch of beach, so you'll find a spot which will be sweet for you and the more skilled people around you.
Just my 2c

Hey cheers guys, yea im thinking Coogee sounds like the place to live (rethought about the ferry and decided yea its not worth it) as Coogee is real close to town (only like 8km away - 20min bus ride) and seems real laid back. So is Coogee beach surf shitty, and worth the trip down to Maroubra every time i wanna go for a surf? (like what the wave like - rideable with face? does it peel at all or just dump?) only pics i have seen have been when it was MASSIVE

Just I wont have a car etc so would have to bus down there all the time after work to surf and will have nowhere for my stuff while i surf

Coogee is very rarely surfable - only when there is a massive groundswell will Coogee get any surfable waves. Otherwise its just a beach dump.
When everywhere else is maxed out though, coogee can occasionally be the place to head towards.
Alternatively if you're a bit brave you can hit Gordons bay bombie - a pretty evil break involving a very long paddle out

Just north of coogee you've got bronte, tamarama, McKenzies, and of course, Bondi.
And south you've got Maroubra.

All of them will need a bus (okay, you could walk them, but your wax will have melted by the time you get there). Basically, you'll need a car at some point.

If you're going to be starting off with no car (trust me, you will end up getting one pretty quickly) then I'd try Maroubra - not the best suburb but no real issues.

drowningbitbybit wrote:Coogee is very rarely surfable - only when there is a massive groundswell will Coogee get any surfable waves. Otherwise its just a beach dump.
When everywhere else is maxed out though, coogee can occasionally be the place to head towards.
Alternatively if you're a bit brave you can hit Gordons bay bombie - a pretty evil break involving a very long paddle out

Just north of coogee you've got bronte, tamarama, McKenzies, and of course, Bondi.
And south you've got Maroubra.

All of them will need a bus (okay, you could walk them, but your wax will have melted by the time you get there). Basically, you'll need a car at some point.

If you're going to be starting off with no car (trust me, you will end up getting one pretty quickly) then I'd try Maroubra - not the best suburb but no real issues.

Yea I was wanting to import my current car from NZ but one of the import conditions I saw when I was skim reading was that in Aus you have to have owned it and used it for 12months (which I sold my old car for this one - which I love and only had it since Jan this year )

Are cars expensive over there? Can ya get shitty run arounds just to get to the surf for under $3-4k

Cheers for that, gutted I thought Coogee would have some sort of wave hahaha nbd as you said its close to Bondi and Maroubra. Oh well, once over there I guess I will search for a flat in that general area. I've seen a couple of good ones on a website in Randwick and google maps say that its only 5.2km to Maroubra and Bondi (still a big ass walk but not really that far at all), so could be an option going a little further inland. Ha I guess I wont fully know until I'm finally there and looking

Nah, dont bother trying to import a car. The 'decontamination' they do will cost you thousands.
Cars for a few $K are all over the place, no problem.

Randwick is alright, but coogee and the surrounding bits up and down the coast are a lot nicer. MIght as well live next to the sea even if you cant surf straight outside your front door

drowningbitbybit wrote:Randwick is alright, but coogee and the surrounding bits up and down the coast are a lot nicer. MIght as well live next to the sea even if you cant surf straight outside your front door

Hahaha yea bro fully

Cheers for all your advice DBB, will post back here if I got any other questions if thats cool. As I'm not over there until the 22nd of March so may have a few more

22nd March? Hey, thats only a few weeks away.
I thought that it was one of the 'Im gonna move to Sydney (maybe, one day)' threads

Water is 23C at the moment so a good time to get over here.

Oh hey DBB, a quick question. Which board would be the best for me to take over (eventually will bring over both my boards and even invest in a new one but for my first 3weeks over there I can only bring one of them) I have a shortboard 6'6" x 19 1/4 x 2 3/8 squash tail (was my 1st board so is a bit beat up but still all good haha) and my other board (and i have been using this board exclusively for the last 5months for Wellingtons shitty waves) is a 6'4" x 20 1/4 x 2 3/4 hughes fish (the link model, has a real funky tail) but is a 5 fin (so quad for the smaller surf and I use the tri setup for chest+ waves)

Cheers,

SF

supafly,
i lived in manly back in 03 for a year doing my dive instructors course, such an awesome place and although i was there before i really got into surfing, i did my first ever surf lesson there, i remember there being pretty decent waves most days, 3-4ft as me and my roomies would always go body surfing every morning and the area had a really cool vibe, never had any localism probs, though it did get pretty crowded at times. obviously DBBB has more knowledge of the area than i ever would, all im saying is that i loved manly and would go back there in a heartbeat, hoping to move there myself one day. hope you enjoy it wherever you end up.

Supafly wrote: a shortboard 6'6" x 19 1/4 x 2 3/8 squash tail... 6'4" x 20 1/4 x 2 3/4

There's always room for a fish in the quiver, but if I had to stick to one board in Sydney, it would be the shortboard. Waves tend to be quite fast, and not the long fat waves that suits a fish.

Hey cheers for the input Deepwaterdesigns, eventually i would like to live up on the northern beaches. But i think for ease of getting to the city for work (1 bus as opposed to a ferry then a bus as well) the eastern suburbs are a more viable option until i can comfortably negotiate/familiarise myself with the area.

Wicked thanks again DBBB, i knew that would be the case but just wanted to check. Ha will be weird going back to my old board, I havent needed it here for a LONG time

Sup guys, arrived in Sydney yesterday early morning. Staying with my auntie for this 1st week in Earlwood (miles away from maroubra ) then my uncles for 2weeks in Denistone (also miles away from manly) and have to catch 2buses to maroubra with a big ass walk to the bus stop hahahaha.

I can see me taking an unfortunate break from surfing until i can find a job and a flat. Which fingers crossed doesn't take too long. As i can see carrying my board for and hour on the buses will be a pain in the ass.

Just thought i'd give you guys an update

Weather's nice at least

Hahaha yea bro, tis real hot 2day not used to this heat will hopefully make it out to Maroubra on fri if all goes well. Hopefully the waves and the crowds/locals are nice to me and not to intimidating for my 1st surf in Aus

Get used to having things being a pain in the ass in Sydney. The place is full of poofters.

Hey guys,

Surfed Dee-Why today for like 5hours was great to get back into the water. It was pretty good in the morning but the wind picked up in the avo to mess things right up. I love it how it progressively gets bigger and less crowded the further down the beach you go

I was out at DY (twice) as well on Friday, might have seen you out there. I think it was too sucky and straight/fast for most, they got out and it actually improved . Curl Curl yesterday early morning was good, some 5 footers, got one or two stray 6 footers in the arvo as well with 20 Knots Southerly, haha it was like Victory at Sea.
I often get my longest rides in on-shore blusters, as the waves don't close out as much, even the bomb sets.
Got one big left that went on forever. The quality hasn't been good but hey, you can't complain having a 4 day weekend and some actual surf. Autumn is ramping up, it's only going to get better!