Off the bus, into the water.

Byron is where half of Australia learned to surf, and the gentle end of it is right in the middle of town.

Start at Clarkes Beach or Main Beach, where the waves roll in long and soft and the lifesavers keep watch over summer. Once you have found your feet, paddle around to The Pass, the long right-hand point that peels toward the rivermouth. Take off from the Clarkes end while you are still learning and you get one of the best beginner waves on the coast. The reward down the track is Lennox Point, twenty minutes south, a National Surfing Reserve and the longest in the country at over seven kilometres. That one is a goal, not a first lesson.

None of it needs a board of your own. Hire a soft-top from someone who actually surfs these beaches, the forgiving kind that does not punish you while you sort your feet out. No car? Add an e-bike to the same booking and ride to the break. Flat for a few days, which happens in autumn, and the same trip gets you a snorkel set for the bay.

Get the board right and the rest follows. A seven to eight foot soft-top has the volume to catch waves early and the give to bounce off your shins instead of splitting them, which is exactly what you want for the first dozen sessions. Through the cooler months a springsuit takes the sting out of a long surf, and on the flat days a mask and fins turn Julian Rocks, just off the main beach, into an aquarium of rays and turtles.

None of it is worth buying for a trip. A board, a wetsuit and a snorkel set run to several hundred dollars, before the small fortune airlines charge to fly a board anywhere. Hire the lot from someone two streets back from the sand, surf every morning you are here, and hand it back when the bus rolls out.