Shopping – Great Ocean Road

Much of the shopping focus along the coast revolves around the beach and board culture and there’s no better place to experience this than at Torquay. At Surf City Plaza, on the Surfcoast Highway in Torquay, the top surf brands dominate. Check out the latest from the likes of Rip Curl, Quiksilver, Strapper, Gash and Rojo. And around the corner you can bag yourself a bargain from the Baines Court surf seconds outlets.

Board culture
Rip Curl and Quiksilver in fact had their genesis in Torquay, growing from backyard cottage industries to worldwide corporations.

Doug Warbrick and Brian Singer began making surfboards in 1969. They came up with the name Rip Curl (rip the curl) and proceeded to expand their business from surfboards to wetsuits. Today Rip Curl has become Australia's largest surf goods maker with licensees in the USA, France, South Africa, Japan, Indonesia, Brazil, Argentina, Peru and Chile.

Quiksilver began in the late ‘60s with Alan Green and John Law chasing their dream "to live and work in Torquay and go surfing". They started a small operation making good quality boardshorts designed for surfing. Quiksilver now creates quality surf, snow and street wear throughout Europe, Brazil, UK, Canada, New Zealand, Japan, South Africa, Turkey, Indonesia and Australia.

Village shopping
Many of the coastal villages, such as Queenscliff, Lorne, Apollo Bay and Port Fairy, offer an array of speciality gift shops, boutiques, and galleries. Take time out to browse some of the unique gifts on offer, discover the work of local crafts people or leaf through books in a local bookshop.

Markets
Markets are another shopping highlight. Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula host a number of quality weekend markets and Apollo Bay has a foreshore market every Saturday of the year.