📍Coolangatta QLD 4225, Australia
1954 – 1975“Wayne Bartholomew was born in Murwillumbah, New South Wales, in November 1954, and grew up in Coolangatta, at the southern end of Queensland's Gold Coast, with his parents, Donald and Betty, four sisters and two half-sisters. Coolangatta was then a sleepy seaside town of fibro holiday houses, milk bars and surf clubs, with some of the best point breaks in the world on its doorstep. He went to Miami State High School, and was a quick, energetic boy everyone called Rabbit. He began surfing at thirteen, in the summer of 1967 to 1968, at Rainbow Bay, the beach below Snapper Rocks, on a reshaped longboard from the local Deane brothers, Wayne and Robye. He surfed Snapper, Greenmount and Kirra every day, and the short-board revolution was sweeping Australian surfing. He idolised the local hero Michael Peterson, and he learned to ride Kirra's long barrels, developing a stylish, aggressive approach. By his late teens he was one of Australia's best surfers. In the winter of 1975, he travelled to Hawaii with Shaun Tomson, Mark Richards and other young Australians and South Africans, and their aggressive surfing at Pipeline and Sunset Beach challenged the local establishment, a story told in the book and film Bustin' Down the Door. In 1978 he won the world title, and later he served as president of the Association of Surfing Professionals, reshaping the professional tour. Coolangatta honours him as one of its greatest surfers, and he still surfs the points where he grew up.”
🗺️ Approximate location today
📍 Street view today