Enjoy Skimboarding in Australia

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Photos compliments of Gaz Murrell
Australia 2001
Boardheads2.com

I live on the east coast of Australia near Newcastle, which is about 1.5 hours north of Sydney. The beach where I have been skimming on and off for around 20 years or more is called Nine Mile Beach. At either end of Nine Mile are Redhead and Blacksmiths Beaches which are good for swimming and surfing but not as good for skimming. Take your pick along the rest of the beach for good areas for skimming. That leaves you with a huge amount of beach to choose from. I skim at Belmont South which is about halfway along Nine Mile. It picks up more of the swell than at either end. No such thing as crowds as I skim by myself. The beach normally has a deep gutter that runs along the shore allowing waves to reform and break on or close to the shore depending on the tide and swell size. Conditions can vary quite a lot. Some days the waves break too far out to get onto. Other days there is not enough water in front of the shorebreak and it can get quite heavy at times. At high tide the shore is usually fairly steep with the shories in nice and close. Depending on the movement of sandbanks, at low tide you could be skimming on the flats. The attached photos were taken at Belmont South over a couple of days just after I snapped my board in half. I would describe the conditions as good. Please let me know what you think and how you would rate the conditions in comparison with your own? I have seen it better than this and I have also seen it a lot worse. It may be a little difficult to make out the steepness of the shore and the size of the waves in these photos but hopefully it will give you an impression of what is like here. The wave sizes in these photos are around 3 to 5 foot on the face. It does get bigger but it also gets nastier. There are a few other beaches around here that offer similar conditions but with this at my back door I have not bothered to try too many other spots. I will, however, have some more photos of another beach here that I can send to you, when I get them developed. I am still working on arranging some action shots to send you. Regards, Gaz Murrell