Snapper Rocks
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Snapper Rocks is a small rocky outcrop on the northern side of Point Danger at the southern end of Queensland's Gold Coast. It is a famous surf break and today the start of the large sand bank known to surfers as the Superbank.
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[edit] Surfing
Snapper is a point break with a takeoff behind the sharp rocks if the tide is low, then peeling off over sand into Rainbow Bay, which is the small bay curving around between the rocks and the Greenmount headland.
Since 1995 the Tweed River sand bypass system has pumped sand from the south side of the river mouth across to the north, to try to keep that entrance navigable for boats. The sand is pumped back into the ocean from outlets at Snapper Rocks, Kirra and Duranbah and the sweep has created a large sandbank, known as 'The Superbank', which stretches from Snapper Rocks to past Kirra Point.
By 2006 the sand had built up so much as to completely fill Rainbow Bay, and hugely extend Greenmount and Coolangatta beaches. Greenmount and Snapper were in the past two distinct surf breaks, but in the right conditions the wave now breaks down the length of the break. In very big swells the wave carried right through past Kirra Point. Such waves have been surfed, albeit by a lucky few, giving a total ride of some 1.5 kilometres in about four minutes.
In March 2006 a succession of major storms, generated by an offshore cyclone, eroded much of the sand which had built up along the Superbank, forcing the postponement and eventual re-location of the Quiksilver Pro (the first event on the ASP World Tour) from Snapper Rocks to nearby Duranbah. It is expected that The Superbank will return to its previous form once the sand builds up again, although it is possible that the shape of the famous wave may have changed.
[edit] Pool
In 1956 Jack Evans built the Snapper Rocks Sea Baths, with an adjacent shark pool for public viewing. Later that year the Boyd brothers, local fishermen, caught two bottlenose dolphins in the Terranora Creek which Evans took and put in the pool for the Jack Evans Porpoise Show (which moved around to Duranbah in 1961). Only remnants of the pools remain today.[1][2]
[edit] References
- Snapper Rocks.com. History of Snapper Rocks. Retrieved on February 15, 2006.
- Gold Coast Australia. Gold Coast Beaches. Retrieved on March 15, 2006.
- ^ Jack Evans Porpoise Pool at Picture Australia
- ^ Famous faces and places at the Gold Coast City Council
