Posted on December 8, 2025
Dylan Graves surfs the viral manmade sand island on Australia’s Gold Coast, following Tropical Cyclone Alfred and the sand replenishment project.
Key Points
- A manmade sand island emerged on Australia’s Gold Coast after Cyclone Alfred.
- Surfer Dylan Graves surfed unique, temporary sandbar waves created by dredging boats.
- Experts predict the sand island will vanish by Christmas, marking it a fleeting phenomenon.
In recent weeks, something strange appeared, and went viral, on Australia’s Gold Coast. An island, manmade from sand dredging boats, working to replenish the coastline after Tropical Cyclone Alfred. And where there’s sand, there’s often waves.
But these aren’t your typical waves. These are like a Frankenstein monster – partially formed from the natural world, partially from manmade intervention. The result? The ultimate novelty wave. However, as videos of the “sand island,” as it was dubbed, made its way across news channels, showing what looked like an A-Frame peak breaking off the tip of it, there was no footage of anyone actually surfing the novelty wave.
Until now. Dylan Graves – the king of weird waves – made a strike mission down to Australia, and sampled the sand island peaks, before they vanish into the sands of time.
“In this video, we hit Australia’s Gold Coast to chase one of the strangest, and most fleeting, surf setups on the planet: sandbar waves born from giant dredge boats,” Graves explained about the mission. “After Tropical Cyclone Alfred reshaped the coastline earlier this year, the Gold Coast City Council launched the 2025 Northern Beaches Nourishment Campaign, pumping massive volumes of sand back onto the beaches. What they didn’t expect? The dredge pipes accidentally created a run of novelty sandbars straight out of a surfer’s dream. We link up with local surfers and coastal engineers to explore how this huge replenishment project formed perfectly sculpted peaks and notebook drawing set ups.”
The thing is, this island won’t be around forever. In fact, experts have projected that the sandy landmass will disappear by Christmas. So, good on Graves for getting down there, and surfing it before it’s gone forever…or at least until more sand is pumped.
“From a surf perspective,” Graves concluded. “I’ve had an absolute blast chasing these sandbars. Can’t say I’ve ever watched a sandbar form in real-time. I wanna thank the Gold Coast City Council for this unique experience.”
