{"product_id":"sea-change-sunshine-coast","title":"Sea Change: Local Secrets, Honest Stories \u0026 the Real Sunshine Coast","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe only thing on this coast that is still free is the hour before the sun.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt five in the morning at Coolum there is nobody on the sand but the dog walkers up at Stumers, one surfer out at First Bay and a seventy four year old man on a bench above the flags who has been sitting there since before I was born. The water is grey, then it is that green. Then the car park fills, the coffee queue starts, and the place turns back into the one on the postcards.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI am not from here. I came up from Brunswick in March 2021 with a laptop and a job I could do from anywhere, which makes me one of the people who did what everyone on this coast complains about. Coolum's median house is over a million and a half now. Rents are past eight hundred a week. I rent three streets back and I have been outbid twice. Ray, who has been in the surf club since nippers in the sixties, never once brought it up. He just kept talking, and after two years I had a notebook full of what he said, and this is that notebook cleaned up.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;margin:26px 0;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0942\/8218\/7134\/files\/sea-change-sunshine-coast-spread.jpg\" alt=\"Chapter Two: Before the Sun, a real spread from Sea Change\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px;\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWhat's in it\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe five o'clock beach.\u003c\/strong\u003e Where the light comes first, which bay to walk to at which tide, why the dry sand squeaks and the wet sand doesn't, what the surf club bulb means, and the etiquette of the bench.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe bays, properly.\u003c\/strong\u003e Main beach, First Bay, Second, Third, Point Perry, Point Arkwright, the boardwalk, Stumers Creek and its sixteen car spaces, and which one Ray means when he says the beach.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe rips.\u003c\/strong\u003e Coolum is rated relatively hazardous, and for a reason: persistent rips and a deep trough along the shore. Where the flags go, what the volunteers see that you don't, when the season runs, and the four words the lifeguards wish everyone would learn.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eWhales, and where to stand.\u003c\/strong\u003e June to the end of October. Point Perry, Point Cartwright, Moffat, Alex, Dolphin Point. Where to stand in September and October when the mothers and calves come back past.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe money, honestly.\u003c\/strong\u003e What the sea changers of 2020 and 2021 did to Coolum, Alex, Mooloolaba and Maroochydore, suburb by suburb, who is driving in from Nambour now, and what the airport precinct fight at Marcoola is really about. Just the numbers and who they belong to.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAlex, Mooloolaba and the new city.\u003c\/strong\u003e The 2032 marathon at Alex, the stadium at Bokarina, the Maroochydore CBD that council took in house, and what the old surf club people think about all of it.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eUp the hill.\u003c\/strong\u003e Mount Coolum, 208 metres and named for its blunt head, the montane heath that grows in only two places here, Eumundi on a Wednesday or a Saturday, the Glass House Mountains on a clear morning, and why Ray reckons the hinterland is where the real locals went.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eGetting about without the motorway.\u003c\/strong\u003e David Low Way, the Yandina-Coolum Road roundabout and the ramps that are supposed to fix it, the airport terminal works, and what the school holidays do to every car park from Marcoola to Peregian.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA year on the bench.\u003c\/strong\u003e Month by month: the Noosa Tri weekend, the Ironman, the marathon in August, the daylight saving argument in October, the stingers, the wet, the quiet weeks in winter when Ray says the coast is yours again.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eHow it works\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eYou pay, the link arrives, it opens on your phone before the sun is up. About sixty pages. The Coast changes fast, cafes shut, roads move, the airport hall finally opens, and when it does I update the book and every past buyer gets the new version free. Pay once and it stays current.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;margin:28px 0 18px;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/rootsand-routes.com\/cart\/58091674403198:1\" style=\"display:inline-block;background:#4f7a4a;color:#fff9ec;padding:16px 34px;border-radius:6px;font-size:18px;font-weight:700;text-decoration:none;letter-spacing:0.3px;\"\u003eGet Sea Change now\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;margin:26px 0;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0942\/8218\/7134\/files\/sea-change-sunshine-coast-updates.jpg\" alt=\"Buy it once, keep it forever, free updates for life\" style=\"max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:6px;\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eWho this is for\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeople thinking about the sea change who want the honest version before they sign anything. People who grew up here and moved to Brisbane or further and still check the Coolum cam. Anyone booking a week at Coolum, Alex or Mooloolaba who wants to know what the place is at five in the morning, not what it is at eleven. And anyone who has ever sat next to an old bloke on a bench and wished they'd written it down.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eRay says you can't buy the five o'clock. He is right, so far.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;margin:28px 0 8px;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/rootsand-routes.com\/cart\/58091674403198:1\" style=\"display:inline-block;background:#4e9a8e;color:#fff9ec;padding:16px 34px;border-radius:6px;font-size:18px;font-weight:700;text-decoration:none;letter-spacing:0.3px;\"\u003eDownload it now, free updates for life\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align:center;font-size:14px;color:#555;\"\u003eInstant download. Any device. Written under the pen name Joel Wander.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Roots \u0026 Routes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":58091674403198,"sku":"SSC-SC-01","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0942\/8218\/7134\/files\/sea-change-sunshine-coast-cover.jpg?v=1790287560","url":"https:\/\/rootsand-routes.com\/products\/sea-change-sunshine-coast","provider":"Roots \u0026 Routes","version":"1.0","type":"link"}