On February 2nd 2016 we left for a surfing and SUP surfing lap of Australia, a complete circle of the mainland focusing on surfing as many iconic spot as we could as we passed. We would also try not to get eaten by sharks or bashed and abused by heavy locals.
When I say ‘we’, I refer to myself, my wife and our two daughters aged 2 and 4. To do a quick lap of an island as big as Australia is impossible, you need time and you need to do lots of driving. Australia’s area is 7,682,300km squared, as a comparison the entire UK is 241,930km squared, so you can fit about 31 UK’s into the land mass of Australia. There is 38,877km of coastline and a highway that pretty much runs right around the edge, unlike a surf trip overseas there are no flights required, no borders, no currency exchanges and no language barriers. It is the ultimate homegrown surf road trip.
With the house rented out, a truck and a caravan loaded with too much gear and with very little idea of what we were doing, we left. Heading south out of driveway, we hoped for the best.
One of the biggest problems of the planning was not what caravan to take or what car to use, but what board to take. In our case we took our most versatile boards. I took a 7’10 Naish Hokua and a 8’2 Starboard inflatable .The Naish to surf and the inflatable to paddle lakes and surf with the kids. We also had a Donald Takiyama 8’ Scorpion surfboard and a kid’s 7’ soft top surfboard.
