Surfing Crescent Head

The interesting thing about Australian surfing culture is it’s so young some of the pioneers are still alive, yet so much has changed and evolved over its short history.

Even though Australia was first introduced to surfing in 1915 by visiting Hawaiian Duke Kahanamoku when he demonstrated standing up on a wooden board at Freshwater beach in Sydney, it was a slow burn and many of the country’s biggest surfing discoveries didn’t come until decades later.

And right now I’m sitting at one of those discoveries where it took more than three decades for the ripples of Duke’s astonishing demonstration to hit its shores.

It was not surfed until 1950 before rapidly becoming a mecca for surfers across the country and later, the world: Crescent Head on the mid-north coast of New South Wales.

A huge crescent-like headland and cobblestone shore help capture the sand flushed (at some ferocity on big tides) from the Killick Creek to produce right-hand waves that can roll on for hundreds of metres, gifting some surfers the longest ride of their life.

Crescent Head is one of Australia’s National Surfing Reserves which seeks to recognise, protect and preserve the cultural and environmental significance of a surfing location.

It was when Surfing World Magazine arrived in the early 60s with some of the nation’s best surfers including Midget Farrelly, that the secret was out and surfers from generations over have been coming to Crescent Head hoping to score the wave of their life.

I reckon I’m walking past some of them now — a bunch of likely lads, covering several generations, they have a camp table covered with cheese, cured meat, wine and beer. Surfboards stacked in the back of vans open at the boot and reverse parked onto this uninterrupted ocean view.

They are telling me some of them have been coming here for decades from Newcastle. What keeps bringing you back? “This,” surfer Michael simply replies.

“There’s nowhere else along this coast you park up so close to the wave, surf, sit here and watch the surf over lunch and then surf again.” Although I’m not sure if Midget and the boys were setting up carpark charcuterie boards back in the day.

Turns out we are all staying at the Macleay Valley Coast Holiday Park which sits as close to the surf as you can be. With some sites hugging the river inlet and beach, I’ve watched campers cast a line from their deckchair targeting the ample black bream on the flat tide.

The Macleay Valley Coast Holiday Parks encompass the coast along the Macleay River area and have to be some of Australia’s best kept secrets along this coast. I only discovered the parks after being targeted on social media with some stunning coastal scenery.

I’m on a powered site with my dog Mallee as we travel around Australia, she’s taken off after some rabbits so I wander the entire park looking for her with little hope, but discover the park has a huge range of accommodation.

There’s plenty of cabins of all sizes and ranges, wetsuits hung over railings, outdoor settings facing the river ready to take in golden hour and right now the finishing touches are being added to their new safari tents.

These tents are beachside luxury with full bathroom, lounge, private patio and BBQ and swinging day bed all taking in uninterrupted views to the river and beach.

There’s much to explore and with the swell still building, I surf the open beaches in the area known as Goolawah to the south.

Wandering through rainforest, Mallee and I emerge on a beach with fun waves breaking off a big headland. There’s a great vibe in the water — a bunch of older blokes from Sydney’s Northern Beaches, a young family from Wollongong (mum and dad taking turns surfing, while the other looks after the kids on the beach) and a bloke who looks really stoked: “My second surf in Australia!” the Englishman tells me. He’s back after travelling the country as a backpacker 20 years ago.

What really elevates this natural wonderland is surfing among it — going from being a passive observer of the beauty to, in special cases, being enveloped within it. I’m duck diving under waves, dolphins dodging my clumsy effort, feeling the ocean rhythm as I drift over crystal clear unbroken swells and then managing to catch a wave in the middle of it all.

It’s idyllic days like this that illustrate why surfers say what they do is a lifestyle, not just a pastime, exercise or sport. For me, surfing is what underpins this whole trip: how I fill my days, clear my head, absorb the surrounds, explore the unknown, earn my beer and food and help determine my next adventure.

It’s why surfers for generations until the end of time will continue to pull up to the Crescent Head carpark hoping to score the perfect conditions, and why those same surfers are always trying to discover the next Crescent Head. There’s a lot of coastline out there. Just don’t bring the surf magazines this time.

+ Christien de Garis was a guest of Macleay Valley Coast Holiday Parks. They have not influenced or read this story before publication.