Australia's tubing Superbank is arguably the best beach break wave in the world, a man-made wave that can run for kilometers, but this surfer's paradise has revealed a dark heart of surfing.
When the ocean produces lines of barreling waves, some 500 surfers from around the world can litter the long line-up, hungry for the perfect wave.
"At its best it is heaven on earth," says Wayne "Rabbit" Bartholomew, former world champion and president of the Association of Surfing Professionals, the sport's governing body.
But Superbank, on Queensland's Gold Coast, can be so crowded that blood has been spilled, by accident and in anger.
Australian big wave rider Dylan Longbottom, who rides 10m plus waves, had his jaw broken and cheekbone fractured in an accident with another surfer at the break.
While in January a local surfer was fined and ordered to pay damages after being found guilty of serious assault on a surfer and beachgoer at Superbank over surfing's cardinal sin — "dropping in" or stealing another surfer's wave.
"It doesn't take 'em long to realize the milk of human kindness ran sour here long ago," wrote Sean Doherty, editor of Australia's surfing bible Tracks magazine
"The propensity for this place to corrupt is frightening," said Doherty in a recent editorial on Superbank titled "Human Soup," which described how greed for the perfect wave was corrupting surfing's mellow nature.
"Have we crossed the tipping point where the bank's good vibes are outweighed by the blackness that lives in the heart of men?" asked Doherty.
GOING OVER THE FALLS
But it is not just surfers who are asking whether the pleasures on offer at Superbank are worth the cost.
The Gold Coast City Council in southeast Queensland state has commissioned a study into the sand dredging which created Superbank, fearing it has degraded beaches and may place at risk millions of dollars in surf/beach tourism.
The dredging of the nearby Tweed River to ensure its mouth stayed open for fishing boats has seen more than 3.7 million cubic meters of sand shifted since 1995.
The bulk of the sand settled on a handful of beaches to the north, linking Snapper Rocks, Rainbow Bay, Greenmount and Kirra into one long and wide stretch of sand, and accidentally producing Superbank.
The beaches have expanded from their original small crescent shape, leaving many beachgoers unhappy and local businesses suffering.
"The beach is so wide that it is like crossing a virtual desert to get to the water and people are not happy with that," said councilor Greg Betts.
"We have people coming for annual holidays to Kirra and Greenmount and they are saying to unit (apartment) operators they will not be coming back next year because they no longer like the beaches," Betts said. "The beaches on the Gold Coast are the lifeblood of tourism."
The Gold Coast City is Australia's premier tourist destination, attracting almost 10 million overnight and day trip visitors each year. That's over 80,000 visitors a day and most head to its long, sandy beaches.
Tourism contributes more than A$2.4 billion (US$2 billion) to the Gold Coast's gross regional product, says the local council.
Initial research by Griffith University into surfing's economic benefit to the Gold Coast found that surfers spent A$20 million a year visiting just one surf break.
The break, South Stradbroke, is an island off the northern end of the Gold Coast accessible only by boat or by paddling across a dangerous seaway. A total of 11,500 surfers make 64,000 surf visits to South Stradbroke in a year. Some only buy wax, but others purchase boats and jet skis to reach the break.
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