Flotsam Festival

18/06/2026

Surfing Australia Seas the Day women's surf festival returns this weekend. Jump online to book free tickets for sessions including surf film and photo happenings like Clementine Bourke and Lauren L Hill's Too Old Not To, Cait Miers' Laugh Lines Project, plus more >> https://www.stickytickets.com.au/surfingaustralia/events

13/06/2026

Watch Surfing World Magazine Shark Country short film - put together to accompany their latest issue

Elliston, South Australia, has a small and very dedicated surf comm...

12/06/2026

More an Instagram user than a Facebook fan? Connect with Flotsam on the 'gram

https://www.instagram.com/flotsam.festival/

10/06/2026

08/06/2026

Homegrown ~ adjective home·​grown ˈhōm-ˈgrōn
1: grown or produced at home or in a particular local area
2: native to or characteristic of a particular place

Flotsam Homegrown surf film and photography awards lived up to it's name, unearthing imagery from across the country. Here's some more of the Gold Coast division photography finalists, images by:
Josh Bystrom of
Nick Green Photo

Travis Johnson


Congrats to all finalists. We'll be sharing more images from across the hundreds submitted, plus a full gallery wrap of Homegrown

Flotsam Festival '26 was supported by Experience Gold Coast City of Gold Coast

05/06/2026

Dream Day by
Featuring: Lee-Ann Curren a pod of dolphins, and Kirra

A top finalist in this year's Flotsam Homegrown surf clip awards, this short film by Andrew Kidman features Lee-Ann Curren getting a dream tour of Kirra with Steph Gilmore and a cast of fine finned locals. Lee-Ann's vocals also feature on the soundtrack by Kidman's band Sunset and The Windy Hills

enjoy!

Dig the soundtrack? Sunset and the Windy Hills new LP - Dirty Power - is available to pre-order now:
https://sunsetandthewindyhills.bandcamp.com/

03/06/2026

Dale's Snapper vs Kirra fist raise ✊
Did you experience this at Flotsam's Focal Point exhibition in AR?

One of the new additions to this year's Flotsam Festival was the use of augmented reality to bring surf images to life.

By scanning the Focal Point outdoor photo installations, visitors unlocked stories, interviews and archival footage connected to the images on display - preserving not just iconic moments, faces and places, but the memories and voices behind them.

This installation paired an iconic image of Dale Richards from a momentous 2012 Kirra swell. Footage from Simon Shagga Saffigna of Dale at Snapper was superimposed over the photograph by to show Dale in motion - fists firmly raised in both captures

Once one of the region's finest up and comers, Dale rocked the surfing world when he won the Quiksilver Pro Trials in 2007 and in doing so, become the first aboriginal surfer to compete in a WCT event - paving the way for the current crop of standout indigenous talent putting their stamp on the lineup

Focal Point exhibition is Flotsam's interactive archive of Gold Coast surf culture, connecting generations through the stories that shape our coastline. Flotsam's Focal Point installations are packed away for another year, but the images live on.

Surfer: .0

Film: Simon Shagga Saffigna

Photo:

02/06/2026

Stoked to see Gold Coast 'Surfing Saint' Denis Callinan remembered over on Swellnet

Read here>
https://www.swellnet.com/news/swellnet-dispatch/2026/05/26/lets-hear-it-fordenis-callinan

01/06/2026

The art ace talks, in We Shouldn't Be Friends ep 38

31/05/2026

Flotsam Retrospect rolled out classic surf cinema at iconic Kirra Hill with filmmaker and founder of The Surf Film Archive Jolyon Hoff hosting a panel of pioneering surf filmmakers and photographers, including Dick Hoole, David "Mex" Sumpter and Richard Harvey

The surf nostalgia deep dive included rare big screen screenings of Searching for Micheal Peterson and You Should Have Been Here Yesterday at Kirra's historic cultural centre overlooking the world famous break. Flotsam Retrospect brought together aficionados of the art of surf film making for a candid evening with true legends of the lens.

Flotsam hosts events like Retrospect during the festival to archive the coast while it’s still evolving. Historic surf photography exhibitions and film retrospectives connect the Gold Coast’s past to its emerging identity, and treat surf history as something worth coming together to share and preserve. Thanks to all who shared the night with us!