Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin

GOLD COAST BULLETIN

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Wednesday, March 12, 2014

MORE breaks, night surfing, certifying board riders and patrolling beach wardens were all being floated as ways to combat the Gold Coast’s overcrowde­d waves. Surfing’s most prominent minds came up with a range of solutions to ease congestion at the city’s best breaks and to protect the $3bn surfing industry.

The issue of overcrowdi­ng raised its ugly head again when the world’s best board rider, Kelly Slater, claimed the Coast had the world’s busiest breaks.

The 11-time world champion questioned the future of our best surf, saying it was unsafe and unenjoyabl­e.

“It’s really, really tough for one person to get space in the water and it’s mostly not fun,” Slater said.

“It’s really unsafe – there’s just people all over the place.”

Gold Coast Surf Council president Dan Ware said it was time to seriously consider building more artificial reefs and groynes to create additional breaks, and spread surfers along the Coast to ease pressure off Snapper and Duranbah in particular.

He pointed to the $800,000 spent by the city council to expand the groyne at Kirra as proof of their value to the booming surf industry.

Mr Ware said the possible financial pain needed to be balanced by the overall economic impact and way of life surfing provided on the Gold Coast.

The idea won strong support from other surfing groups, including Gold Coast World Surfing Reserve committee chairman Andrew Mckinnon, who rated the surf at Kirra this week “almost as good as Snapper”.

Mr Ware said there was also merit in night surfing.

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