A surfing article I wrote, made the front page of a newspaper once. It was just a little local rag, but editors don't generally consider surfing to be particularly newsworthy, even on the sports pages, much less the front page. Avoca Beach, on the Central Coast of New South Wales is different. Avoca is the quintessential "Surf City."
Until the freeway from Sydney was completed in 1988, Avoca was just a sleepy little beach town. Its population consisted mainly of retirees and surfers who gravitated there from Sydney to take advantage of the Central Coast's plethora of waves. Those surfers created the Avoca Boardriders Club. With a population pool of a only a few thousand to draw from, it's astonishing that this club can boast of having played a big part in the careers of at least 5 of the world's top surfers - Ross Clarke-Jones, Bryce Ellis, Shane Powell, Adrian Buchan and Matt Wilkinson.
There should be one more name on that list - Mark Sainsbury. Sanga has been credited with inventing the floater. If he didn't invent it, then he certainly mastered it and popularized it. We'll never know how far he could have gone in surfing because, after blazing a trail through the Australian amateur and junior ranks, he was just setting his sights on the pros when he died suddenly from a brain aneurism while surfing out at Avoca Point in 1992. Virtually the entire town turned up for his traditional surfer's wake out at the Point and a plaque in his memory remains on the cliff face to this day.
Avoca Beach began to change after the freeway closed the gap between Sydney and the Central Coast. The area boomed, Avoca became gentrified and housing prices soared. Nonetheless, competitive surfing is still a big part of the lifestyle there, as 18 year old Wade Carmichael's budding career can attest. For an inside look at some of Avoca's other future stars, check out the Avoca Boardriders Club website.
Written By: Rob Schneider