As we all start looking towards the Gold Coast and the start of the Championship Tour, our mind’s eye starts drifting to the perfection that is the Superbank, reeling along that perfect, ruler-edged sandbank forever and a day. It doesn’t last long however, and if you were to look beneath the veneer of the last few year’s worth of competition, all the amazing footage came out before the first day of the waiting period, and the actual events have been dogged with average to shit waves for the competition. Anyway, it is a dreamy location, and we wouldn't have it any other way, but here are few of the other facts that need to be considered when reflecting on the Superbank.
1. The Superbank gets supershit at times. It all depends on the sand flow and whether there will be sand for the event. It’s hard to tell if the WSL has any form of communication or co-operation from the local council with regards to the sand getting pumped, but without sand we can’t expect much. A few years ago I was in attendance, and for the week prior to the event the lineup from Little Marley to Greenmount was just fat left-handers. Then they turned the pumps on, and we watched from the 15th floor as the sand snaked around the corner from the pump outflow, and 48 hours later the bank started forming. It is that simple.
2. It gets super crowded. It was in 2014 that the Quiksilver Pro Goldie had one incredible day of competition, and the bank was just a sublime line of perfection as far as the eye could see. The problem was that there were at least 600 fucking pairs of eyes watching that sublime line of perfection, and in the final hour of light that day, 612 surfers were counted in the water, not counting the streams of surfers walking around and up the point to the jump spot. I caught three waves that evening. ‘Not bad,’ I hear you saying. They were a straight close-out, a wave on which a longboarder dropped in on me and rode in front of me and raised his fist at me, and a fading insider that gave me enough momentum to lie down and get washed in. Still, I surfed with 612 people, which must count for something?
3. It’s pretty talented. You would think that with so many people surfing it on any given hour of any given day, that there would be a fair share of kooks out there, surfers that you can paddle around, outsmart and just plain outsurf due to your superior fitness or better surf smarts. Not true. The lineup is spilling over with talented QS surfers, even more talented CT surfers, bristling alpha males who need to piss on their territory, skilled longboarders, tube riding specialists and a crew of barrel-conscious groms coming up fast that there is very little space to move. On top of this there are a number of very talented young girls who are out there on every swell as well.
4. Duranbah doesn’t accommodate the spill. It’s a great wave ole D’Bah, but it’s just as crowded in a different sort of way. It also has some horrible territorials, and it’s so easy to get ridden over. The further you edge towards the Froggies end, the shitter the waves get, until eventually you’re surfing two-foot wind-fucked lefts while looking into the guys getting full barrels on the main peak. Fuck that. Kirra on most days when the swell is small is polluted with the scourge of SUPs. Fuck that too.
5. Goofy-footers also love it. Don't for a split-second think that because you surf with your left foot forward that you are going to have any advantage over the screw-foots. In fact, when the Superbank is firing and has a little bit of size and some room to move, some of the best tubes are ridden by the goofy-footers. If you see a goofy-footer dropping into a hell-pit further up the point, be careful before taking chance because if you do drop in on a goofy local you just might get a Tomo up your naught, and that’s going to hurt.
