The Ultimate Guide to Surfing in Yamba
Surfing in Yamba means beach breaks and points that work pretty much all year, all in one of NSW’s coolest towns. We can’t see how you CAN’T love it here.
An introduction to surfing in Yamba
Yamba is bloody lovely. There, we said it. But don’t go telling everyone, because this town’s already being hailed as “the next Byron.”
We roll our eyes when we hear that. The reason Yamba is so nice is precisely because it’s NOT Byron. Or, at least, there aren’t huge crowds of kombucha-drinking, botox-pumping, flat whiters here yet and the town is alllll the better for it.
Sleepy but vibrant, Yamba sits at the mouth of the Clarence River. It feels a bit like an island town, as you have to drive through thick piney woods and over little waterways for about 20 minutes to get in from the coast highway.
Surf waits on three sides thanks to a trio of urban beaches.
The most exposed is Pippi Beach, which throws out bowly shorebreaks that work best with north winds. On the inside, Yamba Beach and then Turners are better protected, work with more south winds, and suit learners right up to good intermediates.
We could spend weeks and weeks kicking it in Yamba. Great cafes, easy-going living, fine coast hotels, and just an all-round away-from-it-all vibe makes it one of our East Oz favs. We’ll be back soon.
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 Australia and New South Wales
Yamba surf at a glance
The good…
The bad…
What’s in this guide to surfing in Yamba?
Where is Yamba?
Yamba is smack dab in the middle of the Northern Rivers region of northern New South Wales. It’s about an hour and a half’s drive from Byron Bay (to the north) and the same from Coffs Harbour (which is to the south).
A car hire is a must if you ask us. There’s hardly a whiff of public transport here and you’ll need wheels to make it back and forth between the working breaks, not to mention into Yamba in the first place, which is about 20 minutes detour from the main coast highway that runs the length of NSW.
Your best bet? Catch a local flight into the Ballina Byron Airport and pick up your car from there. The drive from the airport to Yamba is just over an hour and it’s a nice one.
Use RentalCars to search for hires and consider Jucy – who we’ve found to be the cheapest company in eastern Oz.
Yamba surf spots
In a land so rich in right-hand point breaks, Yamba flips things up a little with its triumvirate of reliable beachies.
They’re pretty good stuff, since there are two beaches that sort of angle north and another that faces east, meaning every swell and wind direction is taken care of.
Notice how the local crews switch and change between each spot as the conditions alter.
On top of the beaches, you’ve got Angourie Point, which is a proper regional setup with some firing right-hand walls and barrels on its best days.
Let’s dig down a little deeper…
Iluka
We hesitate to list Iluka here since it’s the beach over the Clarence River from Yamba. You can literally see it from the town, but there’s no way to get there but with a 40-minute round trip that takes you through the coast forests and back to the main highway before skirting the rivermouth to the north.
It’s a bit of a ballache to be frank. The reward will be way fewer crowds than in Yamba proper, and a run of beach that sucks up loads of NE-E swell to give wedgy breaks that are fast and fun. There’s also a wave off the top end of the breakwater, the opposite number to the left you get at Turners.
Sharks are fricking everywhere here.
Turners Beach
There are two spots at this well-sheltered beach on the north side of Yamba. The first is the main beach break, which is a bit like Main Beach but a touch punchier, with sets of A-frames that have fast lefts that break into the rocks and softer, slower, bowlier rights. There’s also a left that can fire off the harbor wall when it’s massive in the NE channel and mid-sized in the SE channel. At low tide, they can even get hollow and barrel a bit but it won’t ever be a long ride. Most days, Turners is a great intermediate playground and a top place to move to once you’re done messing around on Main Beach.
Main Beach
Yamba’s Main Beach is tucked under the Yamba Lighthouse and the South Head that separates it from Pippies. That offers plenty of protection from both N and S winds, plus a good tempering of dominant winter SE swells.
The upshot? This is the beginner beach of Yamba, and, unless it’s a big head-on E swell, the place that will always have the smallest, most playful sets. It’s an easy walk down from the parking above, and usually barely a paddle out to be spoken of. Expect mush and some light A-frame green waves to practice on when it’s within the 3-5 foot range.
Pippi Beach (Pippies)
Pippies is the long and lovely beach that flanks the eastern side of Yamba Town. It actually runs almost halfway between Yamba and Angourie, and would go all the way were it not for the rocky outcrop of Barri Point in its middle. Thanks to its exposure to those dominant winter and fall SE swell channels, and exposure through to the NE channel, this one’s the staple of the local crews.
It’s almost always working, though the quality of the peaks varies largely on wind direction (strong E and SE winds can mess the whole thing up). On top of that, it can max out on occasion – the banks here hold to around 8-9 foot and then begin to fail.
The best conditions for Pippi are usually mid-sized NE pulses that wrap around the rocks and punch through into the northern end of the beach to give some fat A-frame waves near the town center. The spot will get busy because it’s so reliable but there’s space.
Angourie
Angourie is little more than two streets lined by downright gorgeous
coastal homes about 5-10 minutes’ drive through the flats south of Yamba. It’s even more remote, even sleepier, but is home to the legendary rights of Angourie Point – some say the best point break in the whole of Oz, and it really is epic
stuff.
The town also has the sucky cobblestone reefs at Spookies and some lefts
on the south side of the headland. Generally, it’s best suited to advanced
surfers who know what they’re doing and are comfy being in a lineup with the
best in the region.
We have a complete guide to the surfing in Angourie right here
Where to stay when surfing in Yamba?
Yamba is a pretty cool town and that means some pretty cool hotels to go with it. Because it’s small enough to walk around, almost all of them are close to a surf beach. Here are the standouts…
- The Surf, Yamba – This is honestly one of the best coast hotels we stayed in throughout the whole of New South Wales. It’s got an understated luxury about it that comes through in the retro 60s furnishings but also flaunts its pizzazz with a rooftop pool and 360-degree across Yamba’s gorgeous main beach and the lighthouse. If the budget allows – stay here. You’re a few minutes’ walk from surf spots.
- Coast Yamba – More central but very comfy and cosy, the Coast offers spacious apartments with mini gardens (handy for drying the wettie). They are self-catering and there’s a hot tub on site, along with designated parking.
- Yamba Central – Yamba’s best hostel is a pretty slick hangout space that’s great for backpackers on a bit of a budget. It’s the on-site microbrewery that really makes it!
If you’re still unsure, then we reckon the best thing you can do is use Booking.com’s map feature, which will let you see exactly where your hotel is in relation to the beaches in the town.
Surf camps in Yamba
We expect a bunch more surf camps to set up shop in Yamba in the coming years. Right now, there are only a few, but they’ve definitely good a vibe…
- Salty Soul Wellness (4-day yoga-surf camp) – This small-group surf camp is based in a really cool glamping site with tipis for lodgings. The focus is on holistic health and wellbeing alongside your surfing, so you’ll do 3x lessons in the water, plus morning yoga, Yin yoga in the afternoon, and get a Thai shiatsu massage for good measure.
When to surf in Yamba?
The Aussie winter is the best time to surf in Yamba because it brings in the strongest SE swells from the Southern Ocean and that powers up all the points around the beaches here.
However, Yamba is pretty unique in that it has beaches that face in all directions, with offshore opportunities from the north, the west, and the southwest, so there’s usually something that will work in more E summer swells too.
On top of that, the relatively smaller and milder waves that come through in the summer (Nov-March) are generally better for beginners and learners.
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!
