This week’s rains have opened up Tooway Lake at Moffat Beach again, giving surfers the chance for a rare ride and bringing back happy memories for locals.
The unusual phenomenon draws curious crowds and has occurred since at least the 1970s.
A group of local surfers has been known to create the stationary wave in the mouth of the creek – and how it came about is fascinating.
Above: Surfers ride the wave at Tooway Lake this week. Video: Devon Roberts
When the surf is flat, Caloundra resident Kyle O’Donnell is among the “local boys” who break open the lake to form their own wave and get their surfing fix.
“All the local boys love doing it when it rains and when there is no swell,” he said.
“It’s only something that happens every now and again and it’s a novelty, but everyone gets pretty excited when it does happen. It’s great fun.”
The body of water is one of the intermittently closed and open lakes and lagoons (ICOLLs) of the region.
In recent years, the wave has mostly formed after Sunshine Coast Council has manually opened the lake using machinery.
The Windansea Boardriders Club member said one of his friends was the instigator of digging out both Tooway and Currimundi lakes to surf them.
But there is more to it than just shovelling sand to successfully create the stationary wave.
“You can only do it when there is a lot of rain and the lake has to be full,” he said.
“I’d say it only happens about four to five times a year.
Above: Cameron McDouggall riding the wave at Tooway Lake in past years. Video: Kyle O’Donnell
“My dad was definitely part of the first crew to do it, because when I was younger, he used to say to me: ‘Why don’t you go and open up the lake?’.
“I’ve been doing it for years – ever since I was younger. Surfing it is quite difficult, though. We used to boogie board on it.”
He said as soon they began to surf the lake wave, a crowd would always gather to see what all the fuss was about.
“People love to watch it,” he said.
“When it’s open, you can’t actually cross the lake and it can get pretty dangerous.
“Sometimes when the current is strong, it can swipe your feet out.
“Another important thing is, you have to keep your mouth closed while you are surfing it because you can get sick from the water. You also need to watch for the occasional branch or tree that flows down.”
While the lake is mostly opened by locals, he said people really needed to know what they were doing as there was a trick to successfully creating a wave.
“We normally try to dig it out as straight as possible in the middle – and away from all those houses,” he said.
“You have to wait because it might not even work. If you don’t open it the right way or have the right current, nothing will happen.
“Before council started adding in sand and messing with the lake, it was much easier to break open. It used to be much fuller and go nearly all way up to the boat ramp,” he said.
He said “breaking out” the lake created better surf at Moffat Beach in the days after, because the sand would flow out and create breakers.
Windansea historian, former Australian champion surfer and Kyle’s father Gary O’Donnell said he and his mates would surf the lake during wild weather in the 1970s.
“We surfed it in cyclones because it was the only place you could go surfing, as most places were flooded out,” he said.
“Oh, we had a ball.
“I’m not sure who started it before the ’70s, or if anyone was doing it before then.”
Sunshine Coast Division 2 Councillor Terry Landsberg, who has also been the Windansea club president for 15 years, said Tooway Lake was among five ICOLLs in the region.
“Council opens these ICOLLs to help manage the ecology and the condition of the waterway,” he said.
“Council is very mindful, because when the ICOLLs are open and there’s a large body of water behind them, they’ll create a stationary wave.
“It is very exciting for a very short period.
“The amount of time that it’s suitable to surf it is not very long at all. It could be anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes to half-an-hour, because it changes and it runs out, so it is a bit of a novelty.
“If you happen to be right there during the moment when opportunity arises, you can jump on there and enjoy it.”
Above: Surfers ride the wave at Tooway Lake this week. Video: Devon Roberts
While the long-time surfer hasn’t tried lake surfing himself, he said some of the younger club members had participated.
He said the ICOLLs were opened for specific reasons, including managing water quality and lake levels, flooding risks upstream or before large weather events.
“They should be left to function naturally but council does have to open them up manually from time to time and that’s when they jump in and dig it out,” he said.
“There have been some issues around machines being on site and working to open it up and keeping the public away. So council has taken a position of not notifying the public when they’re doing this now.
“People have to be mindful that when council officers or contractors are on site that they be given clearance to that area while they open it. We also have to abide by government permit conditions when we do it as well.”
He said the novelty around surfing stationary waves had increased due to wave pools popping up around the world.
“The people that are doing it are quite experienced and it’s a fun opportunity for surfers,” he said.
“I think it would get quite boring after a little while. It would be great to jump on, but you can only do so many cutbacks and turns on the stationary wave. Plus, your legs would probably burn out after a while.”
He said he believed that safety issues, while the “opportunistic experience” was occurring, were minimal.
“However, I think the lakes have been manually opened up before and council does not recommend doing this,” he said.
For more information about local ICOLLs, click here.
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