Kelly Slater at Kirra : photo Brad Neilson

Kirra SurfStock

Kirra SurfStock a 3 day Surf Music festival to be held in November 2009

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 27 April, 2009 : - - Following in the success of the Australia Day Paddle Out, the Kirra Surfriders club (KSC), the Kirra Surf Club (SLSC) and the Surfrider Foundation will join forces again to host the 2009 Kirra SurfStock.

A three day Surfing Festival from November 6th, 7th, & 8th featuring multiple surf events such as the Mick Fanning/Michael Peterson Rising Star Junior Challenge and a range of surfcraft comps from club teams, Longboards, SUP (Stand Up Paddle Boards), Surfboats, Surf schools and even Touch Footy on the beach.

Live music with at least one Internationally famous band on the beach plus loads of activities including Surf Woody’s and Kombi’s, skateboards, movies, photos’s and art embracing the surf culture of Kirra, helping to raise funds for non profit ocean environmental groups like the Surfrider Foundation.

The campaign to Bring Kirra Back is very much alive despite some classic Kirra waves during the last 2 months of epic swell conditions.

While the old famous Kirra Point is still a thing of the past, the new outside bank at Kirra produced some mindblowing tubes for the pro’s on their jet ski’s courtesy of the 2 metre easterly swells generated by continual low pressure systems.

The fact is that the new bank now referred to as KAK (Known as Kirra) will only work with a 2 metre plus swell but recent swell events have helped to move sand from Coolangatta into the Kirra Bay and for the first time since the late 1990’s and prior to the Tweed Sand-by pass pumping operation, Kirra’s waves are breaking closer to the Big Groyne, an encouraging sign.

It’s still along way from the original Point waves with 6 wave line-ups refracting down the Kirra Headland in all size swells but the signs are there and should be taken into account. The recent storm swells have wiped out the SuperBank, a creation of the Sand-by pass operation from Rainbow Bay to Coolangatta and owing to less sand being pumped from the major outlet at Point Danger; Kirra has had a chance to move its bank shoreward. Nature has exerted some major influence while the sand bypass operation has had its share of problems with the Fingal inlet that draws sand unable to pump the volumes it had during the last 8 years.

The idea of a secondary outlet for North Kirra is dead in the water with recent objections from coastal residents from North Kirra to Burleigh not wishing to see a repeat of the Kirra oversupply of sand situation.

Meanwhile the beach amenity at Kirra remains a vast uninviting sandy desert impacting on local business and the marine environmental question of the sunken devastated Kirra reefs underpin the impact of the 25 year contract between NSW and the Queensland State Governments including Gold Coast City Council to continue to pump sand at any cost.

Most people are of the opinion that the Governments and Council should be adjusting the volumes of sand and only pump when needed, pump on demand. A positive example of pumping sand at Duranbah Beach has saved its beach amenity after some of the worst beach erosion seen in the last two weeks.

Back pumping was never part of the Government contract to pump sand yet Fingal Beach, NSW is in obvious danger. The greatest question of course is to the whereabouts and contents of the 25 year contract and even the FOI act has failed to uncover the finer details much to the frustration of Currumbin LNP MP Jann Stuckey.

Her Labor opponent in the last election Michael Riordan despite losing votes at the QLD election has vowed to broker a meeting between the QLD Minister of Sustainability and Climate Change Katie Jones and the NSW Minister of Lands Tony Kelly to discuss the matter of sand and the contents of the illusive contract between their respective Governments. One thing for sure that was not written in the Contract was the impact that the sand pumping would have on the Gold Coast Point Breaks starting with Kirra.

The man made infrastructure has the potential to restore beach and create perfect waves if given the chance. The new young engineers and new Governments have shown a willingness to find the best solution for both and help restore the Gold Coast to its internationally famous surf, sand and boating lifestyle.

The Bligh Government stands by its 1.5 million dollar pledge to help restore Kirra yet the dialogue between State Government and Council is slow to act on improving the beach amenity with the creation of sand dunes and proper walkways. Currently nature is doing a better job than the so called experts some of which have very little to do with the beach, surf and dive culture.

The coastal community expects more and one of the reasons that 5,000 people turned up at Kirra on Australia Day - they care about their Coast and would like to see a positive outcome!

For more info contact Andrew McKinnon co-coordinator of the Kirra SurfStock 09 on 0412 754974 or email mckinnonandrew@optusnet.com.au   

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Andrew McKinnon

Culture - Surfersvillage