One Shot: Simon Longhurst.
By Simon Longhurst.
Knights Beach. A surf break touted across the eastern states as nothing but a filthy close out. I can’t argue with that, it most certainly is.
I moved to Adelaide from the south coast of NSW about two years ago. Accustomed to surfing a variety of high quality beach and reef breaks, I was pretty keen to get in the water down in South Australia and test out those long period swells I’d seen littering the charts.
My first experiences with knights beach were not too pleasant.
Watching groomed 18 second lines stack the horizon (this is normal down here by the way), only to be greeted by a beach filled with way too much sand, rips and a poorly aligned wedge.
After speaking to some of the locals, I was reassured that it gets much better than just a 2-3 second ride into a keiki close out.
As the only half decent option, an hours drive from home, I have been driving to this beach regularly in search of my surfing fix and to find out what the locals are on about.
Sure enough, about 30 surfs and about a year a half later, I was lucky enough to witness what the locals were referring to as pumping knights. 4-6 ft wedges into some pretty amazing bowls (pictured).
Although it may be another 30 surfs until I surf ‘pumping’ knights again, I’m starting to love the place for the following reasons:
– it’s never flat. Due to this reason alone, I find myself in the water a lot more than I would if I was living back on the south coast waiting weeks or months for a decent swell.
– the locals are legends.Although I’ve only recently moved to South Oz the locals at knights are some of the most welcoming people you’ll meet, and the bodyboarding community is really tight knit and get behind the sport.
-There’s always a bowl. An extension of the first point, but as every wave closes out, bowls are extremely common. So it’s a great place to practise.
Thanks to Jesse Ehlers for taking the above image.
