"Coolangatta. Beautiful place with a horrible vibe."
Despite its superficial dazzle, Australia’s Gold Coast ain’t always the pretty, warm-water paradise you might imagine.
Kelly Slater keeps a three-million dollar pied-à-terre in a suburb they call “meth alley.”
As one resident wrote on a forum,
“Palm Beach. Full of druggies and bogans and has a very high crime rate. Last time I was down there, there was a chap on his balcony with guns to two people’s heads screaming and yelling. The SERT team came out and ushered us all into random people’s garages and stormed the unit complex. From what I heard afterwards the ended up shooting the dude from the road. It was like something off TV! Time before that the local video shop was broken into. It’s getting worse. Really beautiful beach though.”
As is the case is these sorta places, it don’t take much for matters to escalate real fast.
Like this wild melee at Snapper rocks as a surfer rains hellfire on a kid bodyboarder who’s dropped in on him, only to get a beat down from a former pro booger who dispenses a right hook of his own, a difficult manoeuvre while prone.
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The response is instructive.
“Coolangatta. Beautiful place with a horrible vibe.”
“There’s no etiquette at Snapper, worst place in the world for snaking, drop ins and general fuckery.”
“Hi everyone. My brother and I are coming over from W.A next month and I was just wondering where the best place to get snake-bashed would be?”
“Punching a kid multiple times in the head because he drops in on you on 3-foot wave is weak and embarrassing at best.”
“A drop-in has consequences. That’s why the GC is a cesspool.”