Kirra, two weeks ago. Sometimes, just occasionally, the Gold Coast is the best place in the world.
photo: Trent Mitchell / Coastalwatch.

If you live on the Gold or Sunshine Coasts, you’re among the very few people in the country who get truly excited at the thought of a cyclone. This video on Coastalwatch from January 16 shows why.

Every surfer has grown up with the myth of Kirra, but for the last decade, it’s been just that; a myth. Buried by sand pumped from the Tweed rivermouth, the most famous pointbreak in the southern hemisphere has spent too long laying dormant. But with the Gold Coast council now working with long-time locals like Wayne Dean and Rabbit Bartholomew the sand is better managed, and when Cyclone Vania hit a couple of weekends ago, the results were insane.

With another cyclone, TC Wilma, moving into Queensland’s swell window in the next few days it would be well worth clearing the schedule and checking for cheap flights to the Goldie . As you can see, the sandbanks are pretty well groomed …