Photo: Andrew Christie
Location: South Narrabeen, Sydney Australia.
If Australia is one of surfing’s greatest nations then Sydney might just be the world’s greatest surfing city. With four-million people sharing the world’s largest natural harbour and 50-miles of coastline, blessed with incredible waves year round, Sydney is a modern metropolis on the water, with a storied, gritty surfing underbelly.
From Isabel Letham famously riding waves with Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku at Freshwater Beach in 1915 through to a string of world champions including Tom Carroll, Mark Occhilupo and Layne Beachley, and on down the line to modern stars like Molly Picklum and Jarvis Earle, Sydney’s competitive bloodline runs deep. While the greater surfing community might know and toast the world champions, it is the hardcore local boardrider scene that is the DNA everything is built upon, and from Maroubra to Avoca and Newport to Bondi, host Ashton Goggans meets a cross-section of crusty locals, and explores the world class waves they live and breathe.
On the back of radical surfing Sydney was not only responsible for the surfboard revolutions of the Brookvale Six and the invention of Simon Anderson’s thruster, but spawned an irreverent and sardonic multi-million surf industry of its own. If that’s not enough, the good old Aussie cafe, complete with avocado toast, washed down with a flat white, has become a global phenomenon, and they were largely born of the beaches too.
None of this exists without the waves however, and from Cape Solander to North Narrabeen, Deadman’s to Voodoo and beyond, Sydney boasts world class surfing around every headland. Press play above and explore it for yourself. #nocontest #sydney #australia