It’s been a moot point for decades. While in one sense D’bah is more Gold Coast than a meter maid riding a dolphin at Sea World whilst eating a banana, technically the punchy beach-break is in NSW. “There’s the divide right there,” suggests Josh Kerr while sipping on his morning take away from the Little Mali coffee shop, where all the local pros get their java hit. He’s pointing to the middle of Boundary Street, which runs from the top of the D’bah hill through the back of Rainbow Bay. “That block of units over there is in NSW and the one next to it is in Queensland he continues.
Frequent border patroller, Asher Pacey, further explains the accepted thinking on D’bah’s place in the surfing framework. “I think D’bah is unofficially in Queensland. “People definitely associate it with Gold Coast surfing culture,” insists Asher.
Right now the WSL and the top 34 are gearing up for relocation over the border to D’bah because of the lackluster conditions that have plagued the Quiksilver Pro. As it stands the event looks likely to be torturously book-ended by cyclone swells. The WSL have worked hard to the keep the official announcement about the potential move under wraps. In the new whiz-bang world of WSL the narrative has to be controlled and every development – even if it means a re-location to a lesser wave – has to be presented as an exciting new adventure for the contest and its audience.
While the world’s best surfers and the WSL care little for the imaginary lines, which constitute borders, such things are relevant to border town councils; particularly when they have invested heavily in the contest themselves.
Although not able to give an exact figure, councilor Greg Betts indicated that the Gold Coast City Council makes a significant cash contribution to the Quiksilver pro and also provides assistance in kind with any logistical or practical obstacles that may arise. According to Mr. Betts, the Gold Coast City council provides support to the Quiksilver Pro with a view towards driving tourism to drive tourism. “We want to draw people here and get that economic benefit.”
The Council is also a stakeholder in the Tweed River bypass with the NSW and Queensland state governments. “We’re a financial contributor to the sand pumping because of the benefits it delivers to Gold Coast beaches,” suggests Councilor Betts. In real terms, that means the council is also injecting cash to help keep the Superbank in shape. If the Gold Coast city council is co-founding both the Superbank and the event itself, the last thing it really wants is for the Quiksilver Pro to go down in NSW. “From our point of view Snapper Rocks is in Queensland and D’bah isn’t,” suggests councilor Betts, later qualifying his view. “We want to see a successful event whether it’s at Snapper or D’bah. If the waves are not there the show must go on.”
Although the Gold Coast City Council is publicly making a good show of accepting the realities of running a surfing contest, it’s clear they would much rather see it all go down on the Northern side of surfing’s Gaza strip.
If the event does relocate to D’bah tomorrow, it’s going to be interesting to see if the commentary team gets caught up in the prickly debate about which state D’bah really belongs to. One thing’s for sure. If Joe Turpel comes back from an ad and announces with all the stoke he can muster, “Here we are back on the beautiful Gold Coast at D’bah,” you can be sure there will be a plenty of sticklers watching on and shouting at their screens. “You’re in Fa$!*ing NSW Joe.” And if he gets it technically right and throws NSW in the mix the Gold Coast City councilors will probably be pulling their teeth. Good luck with that one Joe.
