Margaret River: Surfer's Point

Maybe it's something to do with the changes to this year's ASP rankings, but 31 of the Top 45 will be showing up in Western Australia next week for the Drug Aware Pro at Surfer's Point Margaret River. Dream Tour vets Mick, Parko, Taj & the Hobgoods will be there along with the new crew led by Owen Wright & the Gudauskas brothers. Forecast appears to be promising, so looking forward to some cracking action.

In the meantime, here's our bit on the best of the West:

"Take Wallcliffe Rd to Prevelly Park. Head for the car park at the river mouth.

Most (in)famous big wave break on the WA coast. Surfers's Point is a L & R peeling either side of a shallow ledge reef. Holds up to 25ft. Tricky paddle out & shifting peak in bigger swells. The left can be a vertical drop takeoff, followed by a long sucky bowl section, then a great long whackable wall.

The Rivermouth just North is an occasional beach style option. From the car park you can see Southside (Suicides!) just South.

Goes without saying that you need to be expert to survive here on big days. Quite apart from the wave itself, there's also hold-downs, being caught inside, broken boards & strong currents to think about."

Click here for more info on surf spots around Australia.

Surfest in Newcastle

This marks the 25th year of Surfest, run on the New South Wales central coast. About a 2 hour drive north of Sydney brings you to Newcastle, which lays claim to being the world's largest coal export port and home of 4 time World Champion Mark Richards. Surfest was started back in 1985 to try and shake the grimy industrial image of the city and since then has become Australia's largest surf festival. Past winners include legendary names that include Tom Curren, Occy, Kelly Slater and current World Champ Mick Fanning.

This year's lineup includes current WCT surfers Drew Courtney and Ben Dunn, along with tour veterans Occy, Sunny Garcia and Nathan Hedge. Here's our take on this world class spot:

"Merewether is the southern end of the Bar/Dixon/Park Beach trio. The Ladies' reef works just off the rocks - heavy R breaking on patchy reef and sand. Holds up to 15ft swells (best in 6-8ft) and can get very powerful. Serious local crew with many surfing legends here. If there's solid SE swell head S to Leggy Point and S end of Glenrock Beach to get away from the crowds. On the way there you may see Shallows."

Click here for info on more Aussie surf spots.