My best beach

Brave Australians do this every day. Just not this Australian

The reality is that the crashing, swooping, sucking, dumping habit of ocean waves is everything terrifying to me.

• Jenna Price

From catching your first kiss to your first fish: Peter Overton’s favourite beach

For 50 years, the news presenter has taken the summer road trip to Avoca Beach.

• Peter Overton

Snakes in the creek, in the toilet and on the farm

Idyllic days in the hippie-dippie bush around Nimbin – just don’t mention the snakes and the constipation.

• Julie Power

Coogee beach has a poo-ception problem … best steer clear

Poo on the beach, in the ocean and even in the ice-cream. You’d think a place so besmirched by bad press would keep the crowds away.

• Helen Pitt

Unpacking holiday memories: The 10-hour car trip to paradise

No one had heard of the beach where I spent my summer holidays when I was growing up, but it’s burned in my memory.

• Robyn Willis

The only beach boy who itched for the summer to end

Rocker Mike Dalton became a master of disguise as soon as the heat would hit Wanda beach.

• Mike Dalton

Celebrity drop-ins, lions roaring, the city’s hum: My favourite beach shall remain a mystery

It takes some effort to get to my favourite waterside spot, and therein lies the charm of this harbour gem.

• Michael Howard

Pearlie paradise where we step back in time with our humble Tardis

It’s the simple little run-down house, defiantly unrenovated, that pulls us to Pearl Beach, thumbing its nose at all the glossy, glassy mansions nearby.

• Deborah Snow

‘Are you OK?’ When the pulling power of a rip and the pounding surf take their toll

Brimming with start-of-the-holidays zest, my husband and child had plunged into the surf. The rip was far from their minds. That was a mistake.

• Julie Lewis

The inland beach where bunyips and water dogs dwell

Indigenous storytelling instils in children that this river must be treated with respect and is a dangerous place to visit alone.

• Amy Peden

Son’s guilt trip worked: Glamping is now our go-to holiday

Strolls to the beach, pizza, pinball and air-conditioned comfort: a seaside break doesn’t get much better than that.

• Neil Breen

What Georgie Gardner has in common with photographer Max Dupain

Maybe Max and I were on the same page when it came to appreciating the beauty, the solace and simplicity of this special place.

• Georgie Gardner

Ready, willing and be-snorkelled to find sunken treasure

Far from being a bit cliquey with the interlopers from Sydney, these locals are ready to help, despite the odd jibe about the flashy Speedos.

• Hamish Macdonald

A Haul so great you won’t need a filter to post it

I can’t stop bragging about her: her beauty, power and presence.

• Marlee Silva

On wheels or water, Ruby Trew was destined for gold

The 16-year-old Olympic skateboarder has set her sights on surfing, too, at the LA Games. Her surfing prowess began riding the “beginner” waves at Yamba’s Spooky Beach.

• Ruby Trew

Invisible in the mass of humanity at the beach

Here you encounter society: walkers, surfers, the Lululemon army, homicidal e-riders. You just have to surrender to the “beachopolis”.

• Malcolm Knox

I love the ocean, even as a sinking, ginger front-rower. Even if the ocean hates me

From Colombia to Portugal, Manly to Wanda - all the broken boards, disastrous first dates and near-drownings with an audience won’t keep me out of the water.

• Dan Walsh

Are you a freshie or a saltie? Wendy Harmer says it’s all in the gene pool

The comedian may live by the beach and be married to a “merman” but that doesn’t mean she’s a huge fan of the sand and surf.

• Wendy Harmer

Rick Stein on the best fish and chips in Australia … and it’s not from his restaurants

The celebrity chef says his favourite beach sums up everything he’s come to love about Australia.

• Rick Stein

We go full pirate, with skull and crossbones and lots of ‘arrr, me hearties’

Ten golden, treasure-filled summers, when the kids weren’t old enough to hold us in contempt.

• Richard Glover

While we swelter, Olympian will be racing head-first down an icy track at more than 130km/h

Nick Timmings has spent half his life bouncing between the winters of Australia and the northern hemisphere but the pull of the beach is always there.

• Nick Timmings

Peter Garrett’s passionate play for power of the sea

Seven Mile is a small slice of the natural world, its healing qualities freely accessible to anyone who chooses to visit.

• Peter Garrett

The first place Zan Rowe goes the morning after her New Year’s Eve hosting gig

The ABC host jumps into the Bronte ocean pool, bright and early, to start the year right. The way she hopes it will continue, with grace and gratitude.

• Zan Rowe

• Opinion

Even after suffering the worst, this beach is us at our best

The scene of unimaginable terror on December 14, Bondi is Australia’s most iconic beach. NSW Minister for Water Rose Jackson, born and bred in the eastern suburbs, reflects on why Bondi will endure as the dynamic beating heart of our city.

• Rose Jackson