Kirra, Queensland

A beachside neighbourhood at the southern end of the Gold Coast, Kirra is spoken of in reverent tones by surfers as one of the finest sand-bottomed point breaks in the world. It forms part of Coolangatta, hard against the New South Wales border, and its name is shorthand for long, hollow, high-speed barrels.

The wave is a right-hander that peels along a sand bank off Kirra Point, capable of producing racy tube sections that run for hundreds of metres in the right conditions. It is an advanced wave when it is truly on, prized for its speed and the way it links with the wider Superbank sandbar formed by an artificial sand-bypass system that funnels sand up from the Tweed River. On smaller days the inside offers more approachable sections.

Cyclone swells drive the best surf, so the prime window runs through the Australian summer and into autumn, roughly December to April, when tropical lows in the Coral Sea send east and south-east swell up the coast. Offshore south-west winds groom the point. The bank's shape can shift with the sand-pumping regime, so its quality varies season to season.

Kirra sits within a relaxed strip of beachfront cafes, surf clubs and the low-rise charm of Coolangatta, a world away from the high-rises of Surfers Paradise up the coast. It is easily reached, minutes from Gold Coast Airport, and its beaches are patrolled and family-friendly outside the big swells. When Kirra fires, word spreads fast and the lineup fills within hours.