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The Ultimate Guide to Cronulla Surf

by Joseph Richard Francis January 13, 2023
written by Joseph Richard Francis January 13, 2023

Cronulla surf is great for escaping the busy beaches of the Sydney CBD, but it’s not only about thinning out the crowds. Right points and barreling reef breaks make it a stomping ground for serious rippers, and there’s fantastic consistency through a long surf season.

An introduction to Cronulla surf

Cronulla surf

In a city that’s got surfing on basically every nook and cranny of its long shoreline, the southern suburb of Cronulla is often regulated to the backseat. What surf traveler is going to drive the 30 minutes out of Bondi or the hour from Manly to score waves when they’re right on the doorstep. Well…quite a few, actually. The reason? Cronulla is three miles of pure consistency, with emptier waves than in the city center, breaks for all levels, and a long surfing heritage that goes back more than 50 years. It’s just an all-round great place to start a surf trip in NSW.

The breaks run the gamut from heavy reef slabs like Voodoo to sandbank A-frames for all levels. They’ll work different at different points in the bay and as the swell moves from SE to NE between winter and summer, though Cronulla surf is know across Sydney for its consistency. We say this: If you want to escape the mega crowds of the mainstay breaks further north and enjoy some of the most reliable spots on the southern beaches, come down and you won’t be disappointed.

We might use affiliate links in this post. Basically, you click em’ and we get a little something from your booking or purchase. They help us keep offering more and more in-depth surf guides to awesome places all around the globe. So, thanks for that!

This guide is just one part of our complete guide to surfing in Oz and Sydney

Cronulla surf at a glance

The good…

  • Protected right points on the south side of the bay
  • Super-heavy lefts and rights
  • Sandbank waves for all levels
  • Smaller crowds than central Sydney

The bad…

  • Exposed to wind
  • Hard to reach on public transport from Sydney
  • Some localism

What’s in this guide to surfing in Cronulla?

  • An introduction to Cronulla surf
  • Where is Cronulla?
  • Cronulla surf spots
  • Where to stay when surfing in Cronulla?
  • When to surf in Cronulla?

Where is Cronulla?

Cronulla is on the southeastern side of Sydney as a whole. The area fronts a long, arcing beach and bay that’s around three miles from end to end. Surf happens at every point in said bay, from the gnarly reefs of the north to the more protected point down south. It’s best to have your own car to get Cronulla way. There are train to Cronulla train station from the CBD but the trip is over an hour in all, plus there’s walking to be done between the individual breaks.

Cronulla surf spots

There are a handful of well-known Cronulla surf spots, starting with the heavy reef lefts of Voodoo and going all the way to the high-performance wave at Sandshoes on the outer reefs to the south of the main point. Here’s a look at the whole lot of them…

Voodoo

Half a kilometer off of Potter Point on the far north side of Cronulla Beach, Voodoo can come alive in the huge winter S-SE swells and offer some mega left barrels. It’s a slabby number that’s only really for pros and aspiring pros. The take off is on a steep wall straight into a big pit where you’ll be able to see the reef staring right up at ya.

Greenhills Beach

The Merries Reef that lies off the coast about 100m kinda’ stops a lot of the summer E-NE swell running through into Greenhills Beach. But there can be days when there’s a small south swell that will refract into the bay and give fat, bowly waves that are fun for longboards and minimalling. You’ll need to watch the wind, though, because a touch of it can ruin the whole party.

The Alley

The Cronulla Alley is a fun collection of sandbanks that will shift and change up all year, offering rights and lefts and sometimes closeouts when it’s too big. The spot is very regularly surfed by both travelers and the local crews, who are known to be a little vocal in the water. There’s space though, with multiple take-off zones and some fun, hotdogging waves.

Cronulla Point

Cronulla Point is a freakishly consistent spot in the winter months, getting swell after swell after swell from the SE quadrant without the blustery S winds to mess the whole thing up. It’s where Cronulla surf culture really began back in the 50s and 60s and continues to remain very popular to this day. Perfect intermediate break in the 5-8 foot range, but there might be some localism.

Shark Island

A slabby, sucking barrel that’s beaten even the best of them awaits on the craggy reef shelves of Shark Island, right at the southern end of Cronulla beach. This one’s not for the faint hearted and is known as the home of one of the world’s most ridiculous body boarding comps each year – ridiculous in the sense that it breeds near-death experiences. Some surfers will look to it on big S swells in the peak of the winter months, when a frothing keg runs like an Indo rifle barrel off the edge of the reef. We prefer to watch.

Sandshoes

The southernmost spot in Cronulla was named way back in the day by the first surfers who came out this way. What they found was a high-performance right that hoovered up swell from the S-SE to give hollow, steep faces that were perfect for all sorts of maneuvers, all breaking over urchin-infested reef (hence why you’d need sandshoes to conquer it). It continues to reign as the locals wave.

Where to stay when surfing in Cronulla?

Cronulla certainly doesn’t have the same massive selection of places to stay you get around Bondi and Manly. But that keeps the huge crowds out of the line up. And there are still one or two really nice places to rest up between sessions here.

Rydges Cronulla Beachside

Rydges Cronulla Beachside is one of the only fully-fledged hotel options in this suburban corner of south Sydney. But it hardly rests on its laurels. There’s a lovely outdoor pool, relaxing gardens, and plush suites with a maritime theme.

Check availability

Beautifully renovated quiet unit in Cronulla

The Beautifully renovated quiet unit in Cronulla is exactly what it says. Score a pad to yourself, live like a local for a bit, and take some time to surf all the spots up and down the bay. You get a living space, a kitchen, and a comfy bedroom, all with a bit of a surfer vibe.

Check availability

Step-by-step guide to planning your [yoast_kw] trip right now

Step one: Book flights to the [yoast_kw]…We use Skyscanner and only Skyscanner for this. The reason? We’ve always found it the best site for comparing deals from basically ALL airlines and somehow seems to offer deals that beat going direct.

Step two: Book your surf lodge. There’s Booking.com. That has consistently unbeatable rates for hotels and a nifty map feature that lets you check how close EXACTLY that hotel is to particular breaks. Or Book Surf Camps, which is the numero uno online booking platform for fully-fledged surf-stay packages.

Step three: Book surf lessons and other activities For advance booking, you can use GetYourGuide or Viator. To be fair, though, we usually just leave this until we’re there – it’s easy to book in person in most surf destinations.

When to surf in Cronulla?

Cronulla surfers

Like many of the surf spots in Sydney, Cronulla works on a whole range of swells and it’s very rarely flat. That said, the winter months send up the biggest S-SE pulses, which are the ones you want to see Sandshoes and The Alley firing off those ideal right shoulders one after the other. The southern parts of the bay are better at that time too, since there’s fairly decent protection from the S winds that come between May and August. Surf in the summer comes from the E and sometimes NE, working well on the sandbanks in the middle of the bay. It’s usually a lot smaller, so beginners and lower intermediates could consider swinging by around December-March.


We might use affiliate links in this post. Basically, you click em’ and we get a little something from your booking or purchase. They help us keep offering more and more in-depth surf guides to awesome places all around the globe. So, thanks for that!

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Joseph Richard Francis

Joe “Rich” Francis has been surfing for the best part of 15 years. He’s nowhere near as good as he should be at the end of all that, but hey ho. Born and bred in Swansea, South Wales (the current base of The Surf Atlas), Joe is a seasoned adventure travel writer with completed publications in the surf-travel and adventure-travel sphere for major publications like Lonely Planet and The Culture Trip.

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The Surf Atlas is written by surfers, for surfers. We're a team of ocean-loving people that includes writers in Australia, Wales, and Europe, each passionate about spending as much time in the saltwater as they can.

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