Best in up to 6 foot south easterly swells, and S-SE winds. If the sandbanks are good, you can get a long mellow ride through that might even link up with the takeoff zone at Greenmount, if you’re lucky.

Rainbow Bay is a good novice wave but like all of the Tweed point breaks, it is almost always crowded with locals.

The most famous (or perhaps more appropriately, infamous) wave magnet on the entire stretch of Gold Coast beaches is Duranbah. For consistency and pure punchy beach break fun, it can only be rivalled by South Straddie a solid 30 minutes north, which is why Duranbah is always so goddamn crowded!

The consistent, peaking left and right beachies all the way along the beach are due to sand deposited courtesy of the nearby Tweed River mouth. The ideal conditions require 3-6 foot SE swells.

Be prepared, D’bah is as crowded as it gets, with a heavy local scene.

Maheno Wreck is the best surf break that Fraser Island has to offer, located about 60kms up the beach. The wreck hull is great act catching deposits of sand, and a result there’s generally decent left and rights that churn through.

You’ll want a 6 foot E-SE swell to see this break at its best.  Crowds shouldn’t really be an issue at Maheno, but if you want to escape the rat race even further, head up the beach another 30 kilometres to to Indian Point, a nice wrapping sandy point break. Keep heading around the headland even further, and you’ll stumble into Waddy Point, a right hander that is super fun on its day.

This is one of the last chances you’ll get to score secret spots before you hit the more densely populated Sunshine Coast, so get exploring ….but be sure to down a few courage pills before heading out – there’s still a few sharks in the area so keep your wits about you!

The invention is really one you have to see to believe. It’s a home made flow rider, yep, a stationery wave that apparently mimics the feeling of getting a big juicy ocean barrel.  I actually thought this market had already been completely monopolized by the dudes who manufacture the wave machines for the likes of  Wavehouse in San Diego…but it seems that the ‘Aussie battler’ entrepreneurial spirit of Steve Kriticos, in true form, simply doesn’t give a shit about those Seppos and their over-priced toys and decided to have a crack at making something better!

This beast, the prototype Latitube, is stashed away in a secret shed in the Swimplex aquatic complex in Coffs, nestled at the back of a complex more well known for the myriad of chlorinated (or should I say urinated) pools and slides of various shapes and sizes that screaming kids flock to every summer holidays. If only they knew that behind the shed walls something far more exciting (actually, then they’d probably scream and pee even more….not a good idea!)

The story behind the Latitube, is probably best told by the inventor himself, so I’ve included the  original press release below:

STEVE Kriticos says his pipe dream, the Latitube wave simulator, has effectively captured the rush, velocity and intensity of a barrelling wave.The amazing development, stored in the Coffs Harbour warehouse of Swimplex Aquatics, presents massive international possibilities – not to mention a new meaning to the term “tube riding”.

Unlike other wave simulators and wave pools, the Latitube pumps water over a flexible 20mm mat know as “the curtain ride surface”, which is similar in feel to a backyard trampoline. Harnessing the energy of a 50,000-litre water pump, the prototype can change the shape and the type of wave the operator wants to ride.

The electronic settings can throw up left and right-handed barrels and pits ranging from 1.5 to 3 metres high.
All the while, the boardrider floats on water pumped through jets from a large water tank.
“Basically the Latitube reproduces the required liquid energy and velocity of a big wave,” Mr Kriticos said.
“It’s the invention I’ve spent years trying to bring to reality, and here it is.”
Placing total faith in his idea, Steve threw every cent he could muster into the Latitube.
After developing the concept, he reached an agreement with Swimplex Aquatics, the local company which recently completed the upgrade of the Coffs Harbour Olympic Swimming Pool.

“We could see the instant potential and possibilities for this product when Steve came to us four years ago,” company director Geoff Leaver said.
“The Latitube has worldwide potential and it sure has been a long road getting to its launch.”
Tested out by former leading Australian bodyboarder Michael “Eppo” Epplestun, the Latitube got a big thumbs up from the one-time world champion. “He loved the potential of being able to train people to surf on it, and improve their wave riding technique while standing there right next to them.” Mr Leaver said the company has approached the Lands and Property Management Authority over the scope for a wave simulator to be included in an aquatic centre proposal, suggested for the Coffs Harbour Showground. “While it’s still very much just a proposal at this point, we believe it would be a great tourist attraction in Coffs Harbour, where the Latitube has been developed.

“The thing about the Latitube is that two girls, who were first-timers to surfing, were riding the wave simulator at the launch like absolute professionals,” he said.

My take on the Labitube (and I might be misinformed, as I am yet to try one, or speak to Eppo or Steve about it), is that they will be a lower cost alternative to the standard options on the market. The question is, how low is ‘lower cost’?

If the entry cost really is that low, we might be seeing watery gadgets popping up in not only the drab water parks that get over-run with kiddies every Christmas holidays, but maybe even in the backyards of kids-with-rich-parents across the Australia, even the world. And let’s be honest, there is a massive void in the market at this point of time in Australia which I am guessing is due to the high entry costs.

Let’s face it, that Flowrider at Dreamworld requires the equivalent skill-level as riding a kids’ toboggan down a gentle ski slope….and delivers equivalent levels of exhilaration too, so the Labitube would be a welcome addition to any water park.

Kudos, and good luck Steve, I hope to be getting virtual barrels on the Labitube with you real soon mate.

http://latitube.com/

The label’s called Rocket Lips, and already has a sweet selection of vintage boardies available, in a range of old school patterns and floral prints.

To get your hands on a pair of these retro boardies, just visit Froffn.com

The end result is a Matrix-style 360 view of surfers busting out. This is new ground for the surf industry, and I daresay it will not be the last we see of it.

Watch the vid below from beginnging to end. I’m sure you’ll agree, it oozes radness.

When it comes to eye candy, I always thought that the footage in the animated 2007 box-office movie Surf’s Up (the one with the penguins in it) would be the coolest non-authentic surf footage I would ever see on a screen.  Until I saw this Frenchman’s awesome work.

Strictly speaking, this isn’t actually an animated movie at all, it’s a stop motion surf movie created with lego men and an assortment of other real world props. For those who haven’t heard of the stop motion technique before, that way that it works is to film one ‘still’ image at a time rather than film with a movie camera, and then ‘glue’ all the images together. In other words, it’s super arduous, but also a very unique and enjoyable style to watch due to it’s tangibility in comparison to animation. I believe the stop motion method was also the method they used for shows like our favourite plasticine friend Gumby back in the 90′s.

Anyways, less talk, more action, check out the vid (and make sure you have a beach towel handy to wipe up the drool).

Now the question that beckons, is where we score ourselves a big blue plastic tarp to set up our very own version of Teahupoo.

If you have any ideas where we can get our hands on a super-large tarp, or if you have actually tried this dry-surfing phenomenon for yourself, please leave a comment below.

I came across these bloody amazing Kahuna Big Sticks earlier today and nearly fell off my chair (although ironically, the purpose of these things is quite the opposite).  The idea behind these Kahuna Big Sticks, is to provide you with grounding when riding your mal skateboard, in order to carve harder than you have ever carved before.  And judging by the pictures, I am guessing these things work…

And if you’re worried about looking like a kook using one of these Longboard Walking Sticks, then don’t worry, this guy is on your side!

I don’t know why, but I really really want to try one of these things out. Mr Kahuna, if you’re listening, Australia wants to see how good your Kahuna Big Sticks actually are – send some over!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who likes cruising the web on dark and gloomy days looking at pics that remind you of those not-so-gloomy days when everything is just…well, just damn perfect.  And this is one of those sites, and one I will be visiting every now and then to remind myself of what really makes us happy. Hand-crafted goodness. Sick.