Australia's perfect wave reveals dark heart of surfing

COOLANGATTA, Australia, Apr 25 (Reuters) Australia's tubing Superbank is arguably the best beach break wave in the world, a man-made wave that can run for kilometres (miles), but this surfer's paradise has revealed a dark heart of surfing.

When the ocean produces lines of barrelling waves, some 500 surfers from around the world can litter the long line-up, hungry for the perfect wave.

''At its best it is heaven on earth,'' says Wayne ''Rabbit'' Bartholomew, former world champion and president of the Association of Surfing Professionals, the sport's governing body.

But Superbank, on Queensland's Gold Coast, can be so crowded that blood has been spilt, by accident and in anger.

Australian big wave rider Dylan Longbottom, who rides 30 foot plus (10 metre) plus waves, had his jaw broken and checkbone fractured in an accident with another surfer at the break.

While in January a local surfer was fined and ordered to pay damages after being found guilty of serious assault on a surfer and beachgoer at Superbank over surfing's cardinal sin -- ''dropping in'' or stealing another surfer's wave.

''It doesn't take 'em long to realise the milk of human kindness ran sour here long ago,'' wrote Sean Doherty, editor of Australia's surfing bible Tracks magazine.

''The propensity for this place to corrupt is frightening,'' said Doherty in a recent editorial on Superbank titled ''Human Soup'', which described how greed for the perfect wave was corrupting surfing's mellow nature.

''Have we crossed the tipping point where the bank's good vibes are outweighed by the blackness that lives in the heart of men?'' asked Doherty.

ECONOMIC WIPE OUT But it is not just surfers who are asking whether the pleasures on offer at Superbank are worth the cost.

The Gold Coast City Council in southeast Queensland state has commissioned a study into the sand dredging which created Superbank, fearing it has degraded beaches and may place at risk millions of dollars in surf/beach tourism.

The dredging of the nearby Tweed River to ensure its mouth stayed open for fishing boats has seen more than 3.7 million cubic metres of sand shifted since 1995.

The bulk of the sand settled on a handful of beaches to the north, linking Snapper Rocks, Rainbow Bay, Greenmount and Kirra into one long and wide stretch of sand, and accidentally producing Superbank.

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