VOICE OF AND FOR THE SURF
YOU’VE got to be doing something right if you can hang on to one of the most coveted, enjoyable jobs on the Gold Coast for almost 30 years.
Sea FM surf reporter Andrew McKinnon knows how lucky he is to have turned his lifelong passion into a 28-year career in a notoriously fickle industry.
McKinnon, known to most as Andy Mac, will file his final report for the commercial FM radio station on July 28, just days after he celebrates his 64th birthday.
His longevity on the airwaves is even more remarkable when you factor in the dramatic changes in technology he’s seen — from the introduction of mobile phones to the proliferation of ‘surf cams”.
McKinnon has always known what he was talking about. A lifelong surfer who counts-wave-riding greats Wayne ‘Rabbit’ Bartholomew, Peter Townend and the late Michael Peterson among his closest mates, McKinnon is himself a former World Longboard Champion surfer.
A product of the pioneering days of professional surfing on the Coast, McKinnon has transformed his own reputation and that of the sport he loves from a pastime viewed as being “for surfing hippie dropouts” into a global phenomenon that is now integral to brand Gold Coast.
His love of surfing and the ocean has also made him an articulate and devoted advocate for beach preservation and conservation. He was instrumental in the success of the 2009 Save Kirra campaign but perhaps his proudest achievement was successfully lobbying to have the beautiful stretch of coastline from Burleigh Heads to the NSW border declared the 8th World Surfing Reserve in 2016.
McKinnon also went out on a limb to encourage debate about ways to deal with overcrowded surf breaks, floating a proposal for artificial reefs and rock walls to be built along the Coast to create more waves.
McKinnon says the Gold Coast’s spectacular beaches and headlands have been instrumental in his long-running success as a local radio surf reporter.
“There are so many beautiful surf spots to report on,” he says.
In a city where surfing is worth almost $3 billion to the local economy — and in which so many residents surf — it’s a shame we don’t have more voices like Andy Mac’s.