The Superbank, readily accessible by car and surrounded by high-rise tourist apartments, probably attracts 10 times that number of surfers. Surfers plus associated beach tourism in the Coolangatta/Kirra area probably contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to the Gold Coast economy.
BRING BACK KIRRA
Some in the area believe dredging has to stop or at least be regulated so nature can take back control of the beaches. Gold Coast resident Bartholomew rejects calls for an end to Superbank.
"The call to destroy Superbank is outrageous," he says. "The incidents are very isolated. I agree it is too crowded. It can be very intense when it's good, but the trade off is that it is so much more consistent now. It breaks 300 days a year."
"It's a challenging wave. You take-off deep behind the rock and it's a really steep take-off and it is not a user friendly wave. The pecking order peels down the bay."
The aggression and crowded nature of Superbank has sparked a strong push for the restoration of nearby Kirra, whose tubing wave is still regarded as Australia's best even though it has all but disappeared due to the dredging that created Superbank.
The restoration of Kirra, which is backed by the Gold Coast deputy mayor David Power, would disperse the current crowd of surfers but also fuel the lucrative surf tourism industry.
"Now there is really only one spot with a decent wave. They're hassling out in the water and there's threats, it's pretty nasty," said Betts, a long-time Gold Coast surfer.
"I will not go there even if it good, it's just not worth it, it's too crowded."
But for most surfers the best reason to bring Kirra back to life is to ride the hallowed wave, listed by international surfing magazines as one of the top 10 waves every surfer must ride before they die.
"One of the reasons to bring Kirra back is it was regarded as the best wave on the planet Earth," says Bartholomew, who in the 1970s was one of the surfers who dominated the Kirra line-up.
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