Mooloolaba Spot Guide

The Sunshine Coast's hardcore surfing center, this wave is a thick right that draws off man-made groins just south of the Mooloolah River and grinds along with a tube section for around 100 yards before smashing directly into the far groyne. Another 100 yards further up the point is Platform, a mean, sucking, ledgey right tube over rock reef. A top-to-bottom tube is followed by a closeout which sometimes links down to the normal Point Cartwright takeoff zone. The Platform is a serious wave when it's on and shouldn't be fooled with by less-experienced surfers. Around the headland heading south, you'll find a right-and-left reef named Secrets, exposed to the south, which starts breaking at four-feet or so and keeps going in a bigger swell. Plenty of beachbreaks beyond that.

Going the other way, Mooloolaba is framed at its northern fringe by the mellow rollers of Alexandra Headland, where a right reef leads into sand-bottom peelers, good for just about any surfcraft. Alex has a San Onofre sorta vibe, though the waves are a bit hollower than that famous old zone. Head north of Alex to Maroochydore for a very cool rivermouth left in a good E swell, running off a small sandbar exposure called Pincushion Island. A little further north again, you'll look offshore and see Mudjimba, or Old Woman Island, and its excellent though extremely inconsistent left.