surf report

The team at Ballina Byron Rental Cars have been having too much fun to get the surf report updated as often as our customers like. So, while we like getting the email requests for feedback on local conditions we've run out of time to put our customers into reliable cars AND to get some waves for ourselves.

Our alternative is to give you some links courtesy of Coastalwatch, which has helpful web cams in 3 local spots (Ballina, Lennox Head and two in Byron Bay) and a whole host of others up and down the coast.  The links have undoubtedly saved us all some time and added to the quality of our lives. The Ballina surf cam occasionally goes off line, like many of them do - either due to technical problems, or to local wavehogs with too much time on their hands.  It looks down Lighthouse Beach and pans across to North Wall and back towards the old surf club site.

The Lennox Head surf cam looks out from the surf club on Seven Mile Beach and pans up the beach to the Boat Channel and  towards (but not quite to) the Point, back along the beach and north past the Sport and Rec Camp at Lake Ainsworth. Staff from the Ballina Byron Rental Cars team are keen members and proud supporters of the local Lennox Longboarders Club that meets every month at Lennox Main Beach and which runs the icon surf event - the Lennox Longboard Classic.  Our family and friends back in Coffs Harbour have even caught a glimpse of us on the spycam once or twice  - never carving it up like the youngsters, but always having fun, which at our age we reckon is more important.  Thankfully having fun and being friendly in and out of the water are the primary concerns of the club, so we feel right at home.

The Byron Bay surf cams are fantastic. Coastalwatch deserves a vote of sincere thanks for their efforts in placing plenty of surf cams in popular surf spots and for improving the functionality of their system, so nowadays you really can get a lot out of it.  The new surf cam is at The Pass in a great elevated spot amongst the trees. As it pans across from The Pass to the crowds of masochists surfing the Wreck and swimming at the Surf Club, it picks up some excellent scenery.  Even if you're not into surf sports the view is still well worth taking time to enjoy.  You can just make out Mount Warning in the distance and the beaches stretching up towards Brunswick Heads.  The camera moves back towards The Pass, going through Clarks Beach and giving visitors a pretty decent long shot of Julian Rocks.  It spends plenty of time at the Pass to allow keen surfers to work out if a trip from Ballina or Lennox is worth the drive.

The Byron Bay surf cam obviously coves a lot of the same geography as the camera above The Pass, but don't let that fool you.  With Byron surf camera placement much lower to the ground you get an entirely different, and complementary perspective on the area, and on the surf, if it's happening.  While preparing this update to the Ballina Byron Rental Cars Surf Report web page we were experiencing a heavy duty southerly swell that was clobbering most of the exposed beachbreaks.  Checking out the Byron and The Pass web cams made us green with envy, as we saw heaps of people in nearby Byron catching wave after clean wave. The images were quite clear, and sometimes surprisingly close up.   Of course there was always the ‘oh no!' moment as you witnessed a drop in and ding-in-the-making at The Pass.  But still we think it's pretty neat technology and you should use it, whether you choose to rent a car from us or not.  Anyway, back to the surf cam - it seems to fixate on The Pass for quite a while, taking close ups and pulling back, before it commences a pan along Byron Main Beach towards the Wreck then back along to Clarks Beach and out across the water back to The Pass. 

Over the past couple of years we've seen some pretty good snippets of surf at The Pass which saved us a lot of running about between beaches.  And it has helped us to enjoy a relaxing latte at our favourite cafes as well. We hope you get some use out of the web cams, but if you still want to email us for a local's view on the conditions that's OK.
For any information please feel free to contact us.