Surfing, not pills, is in 73-year-old Noela Coulter’s blood.
Noela, who lives in Mooloolaba, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, is still surfing almost every day.
“I think it just it is medicine for the soul, that’s what it is,” she said. “I’m 73 and I’m not on any medications whatsoever.”
It was the 1959 movie Gidget, which is about California’s surf culture, that sparked Noela’s life-long passion.
“I saw the film and I went home to my dad, and I said, ‘I want to do that’,” she told ABC Sunshine Coast. “They weren’t water people at all, my parents couldn’t even swim.”
She sold her horses and taught herself to surf, visiting Maroochydore’s Alexandra Headlands most days to catch a wave.
“We bought a 10-foot-six Gordon Woods surfboard and that’s how I started,” she said.
Noela Coulter and her husband Barry checking the surf at Alexandra Headland in 1965. Photo: Noela Coulter
“I just went out and paddled around and it was just a small group of girls. There was probably about only four girls on the coast that surfed.
“I think it was just the love of the water. It was just the freedom of going out there and just enjoying yourself.”
Noela Coulter catching her first wave after her second knee replacement surgery. Photo: Noela Coulter
Noela says surfing is her best medicine. Even two knee replacement surgeries have not slowed her down.
“If I have a headache, I’ll go for a surf; If you feel a little bit stressy with what might be going on in the world you go for a surf.
Put your head under the water in the ocean, you always feel 100 per cent better. It’s just beautiful.”
