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Why Cyclonic Swell Could Destroy Queensland's Perfect Sand Bars

Why Cyclonic Swell Could Destroy Queensland's Perfect Sand Bars
GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 23: Surfers ride waves at Coolangatta ahead of next month's Gold Coast Quiksilver Pro, on February 23, 2016 on the Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)
Matt Roberts via Getty Images
GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 23: Surfers ride waves at Coolangatta ahead of next month's Gold Coast Quiksilver Pro, on February 23, 2016 on the Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Matt Roberts/Getty Images)

Surfers know a perfect sand bank doesn't come along every summer and when the moon and the tide align to create the ideal wave, you'd better thank the swell gods.

But said gods give and take away, and although Snapper Rocks on the Gold Coast has been pumping with glassy peelers, this weekend's cyclonic swell may well destroy the ideal sand banks -- just one month before the world tour is set to arrive.

It's not the first time a massive storm has destroyed perfect Snapper Rocks conditions right before a world tour event.

In 2009, a storm created an 8-metre hole right in the take-off spot before the event.

You can see a hole in the Snapper Rocks take-off point. Picture: Tweed Sand Bypass

All looked lost until the state government's Tweed Sand Bypass -- a massive system designed to keep the Tweed River mouth open -- agreed to pump tonnes of sand to fill the hole.

Meanwhile in Manly, Sydney, the Australian Open of Surfing starts this weekend and Coastal Coms senior coastal scientist Andrew Short told The Huffington Post Australia big conditions were set to change the beach -- possibly for the better.

"It should improve conditions because bigger waves take sand bars further offshore, and further a sand bank is offshore, the better the conditions for surfers," Short told HuffPost Australia.

"As for Snapper Rocks, it's a much more complicated system and it's harder to predict."

Kelly Slater surfs at Snapper Rocks on Thursday.

Meanwhile, big swell conditions right up the eastern seaboard has surfers predicting exciting conditions while Surf Life Saving Clubs are on alert for dangerous conditions.

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