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Burleigh Heads |
 The Largest Surfing EncyclopediaA-Z: A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Advertisement
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The long, thin deceptively gentle tubes of Burleigh provide one of the most alluring images of Australian surfing. Its warm, green waters also play host to what must surely be one of the largest single-break surf populations on the planet.
Burleigh Heads lies around eight miles south of the tourist empire of Surfers Paradise and 60 miles southeast of Brisbane -- the nearest major city. It is an ancient lava rock headland that is a continuance of an inactive volcanic mountain range. Burleigh influences numerous coastal features in the region -- all the way to Byron Bay some 100 miles to the south. It is a close neighbor to some other spectacular right pointbreaks, including Snapper Rocks, Rainbow Bay, Kirra Point and Currumbin, all of which can be found within 10 miles to the south. Burleigh itself depends upon sand flow from the mouth of the Tallebudgera River, south of its headland. Prevailing south swells and winds draw the fine river sands around the headland and form it into a long sandbar of varying quality down the northern edge. When the sandbar is set correctly, it creates a super clean, long right barrel through a series of sections capable of holding swells (particularly from the southeast) up to 8 feet and sometimes bigger. Burleigh's surfing history spirals back into the volunteer surf clubs of the '20s, several of which sprang up along the stretch between Point Danger and South Stradbroke Island. They served isolated communities of fishermen and vacationers from the farming country just inland, who came down to enjoy the fine white-sand beaches and ultra-clean water. Hard-core tourist development to Burleigh's north helped increase the surfing population through the '60s and early '70s. Paul, Rick and Gary Neilsen, Peter Drouyn, Tony Dempsey, Richard Harvey and former Sydney surfer Gordon Merchant spearheaded this movement. As the '70s wore on, guru shaper Dick van Straalen fed boards to the emerging school of brilliant young Point surfers: Tony "Doris" Eltherington, Guy Ormerod, Peter Harris, Eric van Druten, Paul de Paiva and the famous duo of Joe Engel and Thornton Fallander -- all surfers whose styles were marked by an extraordinary ease in the tube. Regular visitors included the all-star lineup from Kirra, Michael Peterson, Peter Townend, Rabbit Bartholomew and numerous others. In 1977, Burleigh was the venue for the first Stubbies Classic, the surf contest generally regarded as the beginning of big-league world tour competition; won by Peterson over Mark Richards, it was the first big pro event to feature man-on-man heats, a competitive form still used in ASP event today. Being the closest of the classic Gold Coast points to the city of Brisbane and the tourists of surfers, Burleigh suffered early, and often, from heavy crowds in the lineup and from equally heavy tactics by hard-core locals, who thought little of physically attacking clumsy interlopers and enforcing a climate of intimidation, particularly on smaller days. While a thick layer of respect (not to say fear) still permeates the local consciousness, there are just too many regular Burleigh surfers for such tactics to be effective nowadays. A nice morning surf at the Point is now shared by hundreds of surfers of all varieties: longboarders, bodyboarders, grommets, women, veterans and surf-skiers. Weaving through the pack will be many surfers of distinction, ranging from pro heroes Luke Egan and Mark Occhilupo, six-channel guru Allan Byrne and soul ripper David Rastovich, right throu gh the core locals like Dwayne and Peter Harris, Ryan Gray, Nick Heath, Brad Jeffries and many more. -- Nick Carroll, January 2001
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