After talking to a local surfer on my last coach, I decided to stop at a town called Coolangatta to view the Gold Coast Quicksilver Pro 2012 surfing competition. 



Coolangatta is the first town in Queensland and is part of the Gold Coast region. I had to set my clocks back 1 hours as the coach went from New South Wales to Queensland (this state does not have daylight saving). 



Coolangatta is an up market holiday town, with mainly Australian holiday makers. Everyone
in town was talking about the surfing competition, where 20 of the worlds best surfers compete in knock out rounds over 1 week. After checking into my hostel I headed straight for the competition. The beaches were lovely and had view of the surfers paradise skyscrapers
further round the coast, very unusually view on the horizon.



I watched stage 3 of the competition, consisting of 12 heats, in which 2 surfers enter the water for 20minutes and compete for the highest judged score. There is a lot of waiting as the surfers watch the waves and decide which ones to ride. When they pick a good wave it is very impressive to watch as they cut along the waves, doubling back and performing tricks on the top of the wave. The big waves are surprisingly close to the beach and there is a good atmosphere with music playing and live commentary.

 
 
 
I only stayed in Coolangatta for 24hours but a good experience to watch the pro surfing. Also hostel had free washing machine so nice to get a backpack full of clean clothes!