Tay Kitts

5 days ago | tracksmag.com.au | Tay Kitts

What’s the best weapon a CT-level surfer can have in their arsenal? A break. A full tap out from the tour for at least a year — or maybe four. At least that’s what it took to win at Burleigh Heads this year on the men’s side. Maybe since the Gold Coast event had been taking a strategic power nap over the last few years, it decided to reward the surfers who had done the same. 2025 Bonsoy Gold Coast Pro winner Filipe Toledo showed that he is back in full swing after bowing out of last season.

1 week ago | tracksmag.com.au | Tay Kitts

“Australians will send out an entire ship to spit sand in the right spot, just for a surf break… I love how much they love surfing here,” Caity Simmers tells me post-heat, standing atop Burleigh Point on opening day. It’s Saturday afternoon, and the Gold Coast stretches out behind her so vibrantly it feels like a photobombing grom — giddy, grinning, and shaka-flinging.

1 month ago | stabmag.com | Tay Kitts

An American’s back-to-the-ocean POV on the Australian Boardriders Battle. “Ghetto” is a strong word for a place where the hardest hustle I’ve seen is a man vomiting at sunset and then doing Tai Chi at sunrise in the same spot. Australians throw that world around sometimes to describe certain pockets of the Gold Coast — it came up a few times again this weekend while watching the ABB from atop Burleigh Hill.

2 months ago | tracksmag.com.au | Tay Kitts

“We lost Kirra a long time ago.” I hear that in the car park nearly every time I’m getting ready to paddle out on an average day. If I see a man aged 60+ walking towards me to strike up a chat, I can predict what he’s going to say: He’s going to talk about Kirra like she was the finest woman the town had ever known, and then he’ll look out across the lineup with the same twinge of sentimentality that you get when looking through an old high school yearbook.

2 months ago | tracksmag.com.au | Tay Kitts

It’s Monday morning and you’re paddling your old sack of bones into the first wave of your session. You get stuffed by a 12-year-old with six different stickers on his board. Eighteen of his friends howl with laughter as they synchronise a succession of air reverses above your head. You check your watch. It’s 10:00 AM. Whatever happened to school? Either one of two voices will arise in your head: 1.