It’s an optimistic surfer that heads to Byron Bay over Christmas in the hope of scoring waves amongst the holiday crowds. But this year thing were different. The elements aligned to turn on epic right-hand barrels on the Town’s main beach.

“There was a big hype around the swell,” recalled born-and-bred local Nick Colbey. “It didn’t look that promising on Christmas Eve but by morning it was pumping… a lot of crew were calling it one of best days in the last five years.”
 
A huge easterly swell courtesy of ex-topical cyclone Fina was washing through the Pass, so the action moved down the beach toward town.
 
With the solid swell keeping many tourists ashore, the session was largely a local affair with Danny Wills, Garrett Parkes, Johnny Abeg, Sol Bailey and all the other local lads sharing waves in front of a crowd gathered in Main Beach carpark.
 
“It was massive out the back,” sad Nick. “It almost had a second-reef feel, there was heaps of wash-throughs in the bay. But the session had a really cool vibe. Christmas morning there were about 500 people lined up along the carpark shouting and hooting. It was pretty special.”
 
Despite this, the swell dished out some serious beatings, with Willsy reportedly left coughing up blood after a particularly severe altercation with the sandbar.
 
The action peaked over Christmas and Boxing Day, and thought the Swell hung around until New Year, most of the locals had had their fill.
 
“After that after that everyone was really surfed out… the Coronas came out and everyone was into the cricket…”