Beginners Spots around Australia's sunshine coast

[armilla]

Hello,
I come from Taiwan and plan to go to Australia (Sunshine Coast) stay two months for studying English. My school located between Noosa Hill and Noosa Heads, I will get there at the beginning of November. I surf longboard in Taiwan but still a beginner, I can only handle the waves about shoulder high and can’t make a turn smoothly…. never surfing abroad…so here is my question,
1、Because I can’t take my board with me to Australia, where can I find a cheap secondhand longboard for temporary used?

2、Which spot you can suggest that near my school and suit with a “”beginner””? I saw a lot of surf video shot in Australia and feel so nervous about…

3、I plan to buy a new board when I leave Australia, but I don’t know how to take the board with me, I ask my airline but they refusing my offer of taking longboard as a luggage . So I really need to know if Australia has any company like UPS can transport board overseas, (but UPS are too expensive… )

I will very very appreciate your response!!

[farside]

Welcome Armilla,
You are about to come right into my very back yard where I have surfed almost every weekend for 30 years....... it is longboard paradise.

Where 2 find cheap boards:
You tell me and we will both know....there are plenty of surf shops that will fix you up but expect 2 pay for it...400-500 $au will get you a clapped out dinged up piece of sh*t...so dont expect to much.
If you are going to buy a new longboard board you will pay 1000 - 1500 $au, if you plan on getting one when you leave you should just buy it up front when you get here and enjoy it ..DO NOT by a board, board shorts, tee shirt or even wax in Hastings Street as it is an over priced rip off strip for pretencious tossers. Give Classic Malibu or Laguna Bay Longboards a burl, they are both in the Noosaville area.

Where 2 surf:
It depends upon how much of a beginner you are but between the river mouth and the groyne on Main Beach is a great place to start.
Depending on the swell size and direction, Noosa is famous for the point breaks in the National Park and these are not hard to find ...just follow the crowds....even on an average day there will be 10000000 people swarming all over them. If the points are really working they are awesome but not a place for beginners.

Board Carriage:
Mate....Australia is unoffically the 51st state of the USA, we have UPS, Fed Ex, DHL but i would suggest you just try another airline. Australia has the biggest travelling population of surfers on the planet so transporting boards from here to pretty much anywhere in the world is very very common.

If I can offer one other piece of advice...Noosa is old school and pretty laid back but please remember to respect the locals, respect the environment and play nice.