People surfing at Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, Australia
© Vicki Smith/Getty Image
Surf's up, Down Under
It's International Surfing Day! Here in the UK we may be welcoming summer tomorrow, but these Aussie surfers are saying g'day to some winter waves. Although peak surf season is autumn (that is, our spring) here in the Gold Coast area of Queensland, these tropical beaches offer world-class breaks all year long.
Surfing history runs deep in the South Pacific. Fijians, Tahitians, Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders have been riding the waves here for hundreds of years. It wasn't until the early 1900s that Hawaiian Olympic swimmer Duke Kahanamoku demonstrated the sport for both US and Australian officials, creating a wave of popularity that has yet to break.
Related Images
A Brandt's cormorant in a school of Pacific mackerel beneath an oil rig off the coast of California, USA
Walruses near Kvitøya in the Svalbard archipelago, Norway
Sperm whale mother and albino baby swimming off the coast of Portugal
Green sea turtle with sardines near Playa Grandi beach, Curaçao
Cefalù on the Tyrrhenian coast of Sicily, Italy
Bubbles in the ice of Abraham Lake in Alberta, Canada
A fin whale in the waters off the Azores
Aerial view of surfers in Cornwall for International Surfing Day
Bing Today Images
La Rocchetta Lighthouse, Piombino, Tuscany, Italy
Jun 19, 2026
Cinque Torri, Dolomites, Italy
Jun 19, 2025
Roe deer fawn running on grass in Normandy, France
Jun 19, 2023
Aeonium leaf detail
Jun 19, 2017
