1969 was a big year for Torquay with two boardshort companies led by four local surfers setting up backyard businesses. These businesses, Quicksilver and Rip Curl, went on to become two of the industry’s largest and both maintain their headquarters in Torquay to this day.
Surf City Plaza is the place to slip into your surfer style, offering everything from beach towels and singlets to surfboards and wetsuits. Rip Curl and Boardriders bookend the Surf City Plaza, with many other iconic brands joining in the middle (and across the road). Head around the corner to Baines Crescent and find a series of factory outlets providing a stack of bargains to keep shoppers happy.
Surf City Plaza is the place to slip into your surfer style, with big brands setting up concept shops, retail outlets and even the odd coffee shop or bar.
Fittingly Rip Curl and Boardriders bookend the Surf City Plaza, with many other iconic brands joining in the middle (and across the road). Brands include Billabong, Oakley, Patagonia, Rojo, Globe and Ghanda. Other surf, skate and snowboard retailers have joined the mix with Strapper and Blunt maintaining trendy retail outlets.
If it has anything to do with the beach, you will find it at Surf City in many shapes, colours and sizes no-doubt. Surfboards and wetsuits are plenty, along with fashion, thongs (flip-flops), beach towels, skateboards, watches, sunglass etc. You will also find a few snowboards and winter apparel splattered about.
Outside of shopping until you drop, Surf City Plaza has several cafes, the Australian National Surf Museum, a skate park, an information centre and public library… So plenty to keep everyone entertained.
1969 was a big year for Torquay with two surf companies led by four local surfers setting up backyard businesses.
The first company was Rip Curl Surfboards led by local shredders Doug “Claw” Warbrick and Brian “Sing Ding” Singer. The pair focused on revolutionary surfboard designs in response to an experimental market and challenging waves.
The second company was Quiksilver, started by Torquay locals Alan Green and John Law. The two set out to create a new kind of boardshort, using aspects of wetsuit technology, such as snaps and Velcro flies. Their first boardshorts hit the Aussie shops in 1970, before arriving on the hallowed Hawaiian shores four years later.
Today Rip Curl maintains their HQ’s in Torquay, keeping their surfing roots firmly planted by employing many of the local residents. With a massive retail store in Surf City Plaza and outlet shop around the corner.
Around the corner from Surf City Plaza is the Baines Crescent seconds shops, hosting a series of factory outlets providing a stack of bargains to keep shoppers happy.
Shops include Rip Curl and Quiksilver, Roxy and DC seconds and samples outlet, Rojo, Ghanda Clothing plus more. These shops sell just about everything but are particularly good for grabbing a deal on a new wetsuit before heading out for a surf.
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Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the Great Ocean Road region the Wadawurrung, Eastern Maar & Gunditjmara. We pay our respects to their Elders, past, present and emerging. We recognise and respect their unique cultural heritage and the connection to their traditional lands. We commit to building genuine and lasting partnerships that recognise, embrace and support the spirit of reconciliation, working towards self-determination, equity of outcomes and an equal voice for Australia’s first people.
