Our other alternative is to give you some links courtesy of Coastalwatch, which has helpful web cams in about half a dozen local spots (Ballina, Lennox Head, two in Byron Bay plus Brunswick Head and Cabarita Beach) and a whole host of others up and down the coast.  The links have undoubtedly saved us all some surf and travel time and added to the quality of our lives.

HINT. Just click on the play button when the display panel appears and you can watch the local surf in real time.  PS Don't blame us if the cameras are sometimes off the air either due to technical issues, or perhaps some local frustrated wavehogs.  Aside from The Pass, and occasionally at The Point, when there's too many tourists trying to learn to surf, or when it's pumping and there's also too much testosterone about, the local breaks are usually quite cruisey - just the way we like it. 

Lennox Head Longboard Surf Classic 2010

The Ballina surf cam looks down Ballina's Lighthouse Beach and pans across to North Wall and back towards the old surf club site.  It has plenty of coverage to say whether we should go or should we stay [at home].

The Lennox Head surf cam looks out from the recently repainted (but still desparately in need of TLC) Lennox Head surf club on Seven Mile Beach and the camera pans up the beach to the Boat Channel and towards (but not quite to) the Point, back along the beach and north past the Sport and Rec Camp at Lake Ainsworth. We are keen members and proud supporters of the local Lennox Longboarders Club that meets every month at Lennox Main Beach and which runs the icon surf event – the Lennox Longboard Classic.  Our family and friends back in Coffs Harbour have even caught a glimpse of us on the spycam once or twice  – never carving it up like the youngsters, but always having fun, which at our age we reckon is more important.  Thankfully having fun and being friendly in and out of the water are the primary concerns of the club, so we feel right at home.

Today's Lennox shot shows low tide, so not for the faint hearted. Still the weather is 100% on yesterday. Let's hope for some more dry weather.  We deserve it. Gromfest is ON this weekend 9-11 July. Cold wind but a serious competitive arena. Surfers from Japan, NZ, S Africa and Sth America plus a lot of Aussie talent. Should be good to watch!

Lennox Head - here is today's image

The Byron Bay surf cams are fantastic. Coastalwatch deserves a vote of sincere thanks for their efforts in placing plenty of surf cams in popular surf spots and for improving the functionality of their system, so nowadays you really can get a lot out of it.  The newer surf cam is at The Pass in a great elevated spot amongst the trees. As it pans across from The Pass to the crowds of masochists surfing the Wreck and swimming at the Byron Bay Surf Club, it picks up some excellent scenery.  Even if you’re not into surf sports, the view is still well worth taking time to enjoy.  You can just make out Mount Warning in the distance and the beaches stretching up towards Brunswick Heads.  The camera moves back towards The Pass, going through Clarks Beach and giving visitors a pretty decent long shot of Julian Rocks.  It spends plenty of time at the Pass to allow keen surfers to work out if a trip from Ballina or Lennox Head is really worth the drive.

The Byron Bay surf cam obviously coves a lot of the same geography as the camera above The Pass, but don’t let that fool you.  With Byron Bay surf camera placement much lower to the ground you get an entirely different, and complementary perspective on the area, and on the surf, if it’s happening.  While preparing this web page we had been experiencing a heavy duty southerly swell that was clobbering most of the exposed beachbreaks.  Checking out the Byron and The Pass web cams made us green with envy, as we saw heaps of people in nearby Byron catching wave after clean wave. The images were quite clear, and sometimes surprisingly close up.   Of course there was always the ‘oh no!’ moment as you witnessed a drop in and ding-in-the-making at The Pass.  But still we think it’s pretty neat technology and you should use it, whether you choose to buy your surf gear from us or not.  Anyway, back to the surf cam – it seems to fixate on The Pass for quite a while, taking close ups and pulling back, before it commences a pan along Byron Main Beach towards the Wreck then back along to Clarks Beach and out across the water back to The Pass. 

Over the past couple of years we've seen some pretty good snippets of surf at The Pass which saved us a lot of running about between beaches.  And it has helped us to enjoy a relaxing latte at our favourite cafes as well. We hope you get some use out of the web cams, but if you still want to email us for a local's view on the conditions that's OK.

Brunswick Heads surf cam would be pretty useful for boaties and for other observers who want to see the river, or to watch the world stroll by the riverside path.  However, so far we've not seen too much to excite us.  Anyway, perhaps that's just our bad timing.  The camera starts with a distant view of the Brunswick River, then pans  slowly south along the beach on the southern side of the rock wall.  At this point you can get a good hint of surf conditions, but be quick, as it then pans back to the north to give a great close up of a section of the south wall - one wonders why? The camera pulls back, then pans north, giving a rather pleasant river view.  At the same time you get a reasonable snippet of surf conditions on the other (north) side of the Brunswick River; a bit distant perhaps, but certainly good enough to make out if it's good or not so good.  For some obscure reason the camera moves west and hovers fixated on the mangroves in the river with a shot of the navigation lead mark in the foreground.  It must love that spot because it seems to freeze there for ages.  If this happens while you are watching we suggest you click on the 'live' stills.  They have a good selection of shots taken over time.

A little further north towards the Gold Coast you have the surf cam at Cabarita.  We don't often frequent this break, but try the surf cam anyway. By the crew out, it is either good, or they have nothing else to do with schools being out....

 Cabarita Beach NSW 'Live' Still 2 July 2011 

Out of the Blue - Ballina Surf 23 September 2010

Just in case readers are getting the impression that the only things we have here is quality surf gear (clearly), the occasional tornado (regrettably)and murky brown water (from nature being much too generous with her rainfall allocation)... here's one out of the news in spring last year. From the Ballina Advocate 23 September 2010 comes an article on tow ins at the Ballina bar.  Email us if you want copies of these images.