Where?

Angourie, an increasingly exclusive town in northern New South Wales and perhaps the best chunk of surfing real-estate in the whole of Australia. Nat Young (the original one) has owned property there for years, and Mark Richards has a place there too. Out the front is the hallowed right-hand point break Angourie proper; on the other side of the headland breaks a left in a slightly defective mirror image, leading into a long stretch of relatively uncrowded, high quality beach break; to the north, meanwhile, lies a hollower, heavier and generally scarier right called Spookies, which will indeed spook you the fuck out. Further north still is the town of Yamba, itself home to an abundance of good waves.

Whose?

Gordon Merchant, the founder of Billabong. Other properties of his include a sizeable dwelling on the Gold Coast, accessible only by a $1m private bridge; a $3.5m home in Agnes Water on the central Queensland coast; plus houses in Hawaii and South Africa — not a bad quiver, all in all. Life’s better in boardshorts, no?

What?

Three cone-like structures, sheathed in copper to protect them from the salty ocean breezes, sit atop a three-floor house with a five car garage. It cost Merchant an estimated 12 million Australian dollars to have built around 10 years ago. A video camera was installed at the top of a two-metre tower to check the surf, although some of his neighbours complained that it infringed upon their privacy, worried he might be scoping them out in their bedrooms. I guess it depends who your neighbours are…