Fawcey's Gateway to the North

No roady North along the well worn track to Byron Bay and beyond is complete without a few certain stops along the way. Some of which will be kept secret, yet there is one that any surfer on their own pilgrimage of surf discovery worth their salt, will know about and include.

Crescent Head.

Long referred to as “The Gateway to the North”, this right hand point is a thing of beauty. Almost exactly halfway between Sydney and Byron. Once considered a “High Performance” wave, Crescent is a 300 metre running right, sand over rock set up. Best surfed around the 4-5ft mark. Any bigger than that, and it tends to swing wide of the point and it’s cutback central.

I’ve done the drive many, many times over the years, and I’ve never skipped Crescent. Not once. Even if I know it’s flat, I will still stay for a day or two or a week… Just in case.

Sure there’s waves on the way, but there’s something about Crescent Head that makes it the first real wave on the pilgrimage.

Pioneered by local surfers such as Bob Evans, using borrowed clubbie boards in the 50’s, it wasn’t until the likes of (soon to be Australias first World Champion) Midget Farrelly and Alby Falzon, (soon to be the man behind Morning of The Earth), arrived around the late ‘60’s that Crescent popped up on Australia’s, and the worlds, surfing radar.

Running off the back of 10 years of social reform, drugs, rock and roll and anti-establishment feeling, for the surfing Baby Boomers coming of age and acquiring a license, and in most cases, a borrowed car, the lure of these fabled long right hand points of the North were too much to ignore. With a burgeoning Australian surf culture and media, California’s Rincon and Malibu were all over the media, yet to these guys, Nat Young, Bob McTavish, Midget and the like, they were still just photo’s in magazines of waves wrapping round long points. But now with Australia’s surfing “age of exploration” there were returning surfers with whispers of points of the same quality up North… Long points… With no one on them… Who wouldn’t give the finger to Authority, borrow mum’s car and hit the road? I have many times at a whisper of an empty wave, although I don’t need to borrow the old ducks car as much nowadays…

In a time of long range forecasts, web cams, and what seems to me, surfing’s drift from its roots, Crescent Head still maintains a sense of authenticity and counter culture bubbling away among the rocks of the point.

On my most recent trip North this fact, and my love of Crescent was cemented. I arrived late on a Saturday night, leaving Sydney late in the afternoon and straight lining it to Crescent. A swell had been forecast and had hit Sydney in the morning, so my exodus was moved forward a day to chase it. Arriving at the point in the inky darkness of a summer night, I could hear the waves rolling in, and I could also see the lines of vans in the car park. All giving their finger to the “NO CAMPING” sign hovering about over their heads.

Now it’s hard enough to sleep when you know there’s waves, let alone when the waves are literally at your feet. Such is the beauty of giving the finger to authority and camping on the point at Crescent*.

It wasn’t the waves that struck a chord with me when I kicked open the door to perfect 4ft Crescent Head in that sleepy dawn light. Just before the sun gets its shit together and starts frying your eyeballs on this side of Australia in the morning.

It was the People of Point. Coming in from a surf around 8 or so, most van boots were open, some choosing to snooze, some cooking breakfast, all watching the waves and laughing. There were youngsters, scantily clad Scandinavians, and the stereotypical Old Salty Dogs who’d come from all parts of the coast, people from near, and a lot from afar, all drawn to Crescent Head and held enthralled by nothing but the waves.

And that’s what does it for me. It’s not about who’s the best surfer out there, it’s not the board you’re riding, it’s not your flashy wetsuit, or your shit city attitude out in the water… That gets ironed out pretty quick out there with a well timed drop in or a quiet word, it’s having a laugh with the old boys over a coffee at the back of the van or talking shit with complete strangers out in the water, brought together by the Point, and the vibe of surfing one Australia’s waves that’s managed to stay true to itself.

But it’s also knowing that this is only the Gateway… And there’s plenty more to come on the road North.

And at the end of the day, if Crescent isn’t working, it’s always 6ft and offshore at the Country Club.

Thanks to Longview for the opening shot.