Surfer bares all at Snapper

The unidentified nude surfer at Snapper Rocks.

Mark Humphry

NUDE surfing has never achieved great popularity for two reasons.

Firstly, those pesky public decency laws ruin everyone's fun but, thankfully, keep us from going blind in the face of birthday-suited dinosaurs of the ocean.

And secondly, surfboard wax has a tendency to accumulate in uncomfortable areas.

Yet it is not always a choice as shown by this unidentified rider of Snapper Rocks' pushing 10ft Christmas Day cyclone swells.

Tweed photographer and beginner surfer Mark Humphry said he could relate to the subject he assumed was a Red Bull Big Wave Tow-in team member.

"There are times when my board shorts almost fall off," Mr Humphry said.

"But he was getting towed in, and it didn't seem like anyone else had noticed.

"I just absolutely started crapping myself laughing.

"I was standing on a tree because the tide was up over the road, and I don't think anyone else would have noticed because of the swell's size."

The swells which peaked at 8.5ft yesterday, according to coastalwatch.com.au, were indeed an immodest Christmas present for big wave revellers.

For those of you who can keep your pants on in the meantime wave size will drop by more than one foot per day until reaching a friendlier 3 to 4ft on Wednesday.

Mr Humphry said he had only started to get the "one with nature" feeling surfing offered.

And he was not sure if that was what our buttock-baring-board-man and other big wave lovers were feeling or if it was something closer to pure fear.

"I think he was just stoked to be out there in these massive 10ft waves, and was not going to go in just because he'd lost his pants.

"I was photographing because the big swell was coming through and I wasn't going to miss some good people out there riding.

"I was thinking of getting back out there today," he said.

My Daily News surf reporter Andrew McKinnon said he had not seen such Christmas-Boxing Day swell since the 1960s and 1970s.

"In the early '60s we'd get these giant Boxing Day swells when I first learned to surf.

"1973 and '74 were the big cyclone years, but normally Christmas Day and Boxing Day get small swells.

"It's because this cyclone, instead of hitting land early went out to sea, and created long-lasting swells.

"Now it's heading down the coast and, as it heads away, the swell will gradually die off.

"The biggest and best will be seen today, because the weather is so good," Mr McKinnon said.