this weeks poll, passing the test..

[brendo]

so whos voting no? i cant beleive after all the whiniging about kooks on here, and after what happened to longbums bro, 68% are voting no to having to pass a skills test, even though it would never happen.

seriously, anyone who has surfed on a heaving coral reefbreak, will know the consequences if a kook surfs there. ie: pulling some guy that looks like hes been through a meat grinder from the water or worse, havin to do cpr or a body recovery.

whats the go? im thinking the poll has only been answered by guys that know they wont pass the test, or pre pubescent lid ridders that think a 4ft closeout shorey is heavy. btw no offence to the small percentage of lids that do charge.

i wanna hear from kk,2ndreef, nick c, wanto, etc , guys that ive seen pics of and know are good surfers, and know what theyre talkin about,not mouth pieces like andycuminmymouth....

[yanks r us]

i think its mostly no becuz you dont see kooks go big pipeline or other notorius reefs anyway becuz its commonsense..

thats the good thing about surfing..choice

[chris_010]

There are some things you can test and some things you can't.

Ocean/Surf knowledge - to an extent.
Fitness - yes
Take-off ability - no, unless it's at said break.
Confidence - no. (people talk a lot of shit before they actually paddle out and are looking down the drop).

^ from that i dont think it's even possible to test for it.

Say it was possible? We don't need to bother, nature takes care of it her own way. You only need to get pitched and beatdown once to realise your out of your league. Best form of education.

[stinky_wes]

Best form of education.....

and the most entertaining

[One Mile Point]

so whos voting no? i cant beleive after all the whiniging about kooks on here, and after what happened to longbums bro, 68% are voting no to having to pass a skills test, even though it would never happen.

seriously, anyone who has surfed on a heaving coral reefbreak, will know the consequences if a kook surfs there. ie: pulling some guy that looks like hes been through a meat grinder from the water or worse, havin to do cpr or a body recovery.

whats the go? im thinking the poll has only been answered by guys that know they wont pass the test, or pre pubescent lid ridders that think a 4ft closeout shorey is heavy. btw no offence to the small percentage of lids that do charge.

i wanna hear from kk,2ndreef, nick c, wanto, etc , guys that ive seen pics of and know are good surfers, and know what theyre talkin about,not mouth pieces like andycuminmymouth....

Im pretty sure many people who have needed cpr or needed to be pulled from the water are not just kooks. Heavy reefs and large waves still fuck over competant surfers and pros. Although its annoying, its no ones right to tell someone else where to surf.

[Mr_momo_32]

what a stupid idea,
for starters, the person should know his skill levels are shouldnt try to push them on a reef anyhow, if he gets hurt its his folt, just like all surfing is.... ( generalisation )
how will this pass be inforced?.... "
"good morning sir, do you have your pass today?"-officer

" sure do officer just wait until the next set comes through......... here, let me just pull my walet out of my ass,"- surfer.

" hmmmmm it seems that the person on the profile isnt like you, can you show some id or identify your self." - officer.

" sure let me make the 15 minute treak back to my car"-surfer.

how about when someone goes on a surf holiday, and either the pass isn't enforced where you surf, or you dont have one....

" hay Tom lets go for a little paddle and watch some big sets from the channel, and as the tide gets higher we can start taking some on."-bob

" nah man those pass patrolers are hectic."

you have to get reeef ridin expirience somewhere, it only takes a couple good nocks to shy off an inexpirenced ridder.

[insomniac]

hey why is everyone replying to this topic?
brendo only wants replies from the best. no kooks ok.

kook bashing is so old. if a kook is willing to put his balls on the line at a dangerous break, then good on him.


to answer your question, it's just the same old people on these forums that get pissed off by kooks.
kooks are a part of surfing.
and ive noticed it's the same people who pull the kook card aswell as those who try to put shit on lids.
it's just people trying to make themselves feel better about their skill level.
talk about transparent

[Shari]

Hey Insomniac,

Shari here. I posted the poll.

I was curious to see if it would spark debate but there's another side to this that I was hoping to see raised. What about a slotted surfer at Chopes or Jaws being crunched by some balls to the wall newbie? I'm sure it happens at Pipeline regularly, probably not by the same guy more than once cause he'd get beat up on shore, but still surfers have to be getting hurt when this happens.

I'm not for or against, which is why I posed the question, to gain the wisdom of my fellow RealSurfers.

So?

[riK]

the idea behind this is not whats wrong its the nature of the test and the way it could be enforced that is ridiculous. there is simply no semi plausible way for either of these to happen. I am a bit of a kook but have been out in 8ft waves over kinda hollow reefs and have managed to get waves and had fun. I dont want anyone saying you cant do an air reverse so you cant go out. People have to learn to surf hollow waves someday and so long as they respect other surfers they should be allowed to decide their own limits, the ocean belongs to everyone.

[dammit__01]

no. bad idea. will never happen. ever.

how can you test it anyways?

alot of things come down to balls, alot of the time people are hurt on reefs is they dont fully commit, you cannot test people for that.

[brendo]

what shari is saying, is what im getting at. (had a few beers under the belt when i posted last nite). its not just guys being out in conditions that are out of their league, its them getting in the way and hurting other guys.
ive seen it happen time and again on big days where, lets call them 'not competent enough for the conditions' surfers scratch around, and have eyes like saucers when the sets roll in. so they paddle inside to get smaller ones, get caught inside, then f.ck the guys set wave up cause they scratch to the shoulder. he straightens then gets pounded.

ive also seen em paddle with blind abanden, go to take off, then either get called off or realize they are dropping in, panic and go over the falls, taking the guy on the inside out in the process.

they could never have a test, and never will. but a bit more surf education wouldnt go astray.

hey insomniac, are you tellin me you wouldnt be concerned if one of the above incidents happened to you? or when you pop up with claret running down your face will you say ' no worries mate, good to see u put your balls on the line, and your board in my head.....'

[Butts]

what shari is saying, is what im getting at. (had a few beers under the belt when i posted last nite). its not just guys being out in conditions that are out of their league, its them getting in the way and hurting other guys.
ive seen it happen time and again on big days where, lets call them 'not competent enough for the conditions' surfers scratch around, and have eyes like saucers when the sets roll in. so they paddle inside to get smaller ones, get caught inside, then f.ck the guys set wave up cause they scratch to the shoulder. he straightens then gets pounded.

ive also seen em paddle with blind abanden, go to take off, then either get called off or realize they are dropping in, panic and go over the falls, taking the guy on the inside out in the process.

they could never have a test, and never will. but a bit more surf education wouldnt go astray.

hey insomniac, are you tellin me you wouldnt be concerned if one of the above incidents happened to you? or when you pop up with claret running down your face will you say ' no worries mate, good to see u put your balls on the line, and your board in my head.....'

Brendo, my 2 cents worth although doesn't carry near the weight the others can produce.
I voted yes, why, I tend to agree with the reasoning behind it.
Agree with everything you've said Brendo, but as others have mentioned, how?

Its not just heavy breaks or large days, it happens virtually everyday.
Does this come down to grass-roots, ie the learn to surf schools? not teaching
the basics (etiquette is one part of it) or sending newbies out into the break
basically to get shacked, bugger the consequences

Don't get me wrong, I'm no hero surfer and more than willing to state that,
but time and time again, via my photography and in the surf, I see the consequences happening.

What to do Thats a BIG question.
I'm eager to here from the others on this

[yanks r us]

i think a better idea if thats what yoru getting at....

is to create some surfing rules that have to be followed, so if someone did get in the way of the person, by catching the same wave or wateva, they should be given one warning and the second one could be a suspension or ban from that break

[riK]

who makes the rules? They seem pretty situational to me. what if a local ripper drops in on someone, or a pro? i can't see someone banning them. basically i think the whole idea is absurd

[brendo]

butts, i got know idea how it would be done or how it would be policed. the fact is it never will or would work.

its a fact of life that small surf attracts all sorts of craft and level of experience, which is fair enough. hell, slater would have been a kook once,(prob for a few months when he was 5). the issue here is when guys with no idea, or thinking their skill level is way higher than it is, paddle into big heavy surf, making it dangerous to themselves and those around them. i know of older surfers, who have great ocean knowledge, can catch waves no probs, but are only average surfers at best. the thing with those guys is they know where they are and have as much control of what is happening to be able to be out there. on big days there is alot more respect and everyone kinda watches out for each other, where im from, but there is always a few guys that will come out, and leave guys shakin their heads. and as shari has pointed out, how long is it gunna be before someone is seriously smashed at a place like chopes, cause some hero goes out to impress his mates and say he surfed the joint...

[insomniac]

hey insomniac, are you tellin me you wouldnt be concerned if one of the above incidents happened to you? or when you pop up with claret running down your face will you say ' no worries mate, good to see u put your balls on the line, and your board in my head.....'

of course i would be concerned. but its just the thing of "you need a class A license to surf this break" is just ridiculous and takes away everything that surfing stands for.
it all comes down to common sense. and if people out in the water don't have it, then it's other surfers responsibility to teach people the ways.
accidents happen out there all the time, kooks or no kooks.

[Nick Carroll]

I think a skills test is unnecessary and not in the spirit of surfing.

It would:

a) Create a bureaucracy. Who do you reckon is gonna do the checking? Officials, that's who. They will charge you for the skills test and the money will go into perpetuating this bureaucracy.
b) Give a third party official power over your surfing experience. It's one thing for the experienced surfers in a lineup to set the pecking order etc. It's quite another to have an official tell you whether or not you can surf, based on an assessment arrived at by the above bureaucracy.
c) Simulate one of surfing's lamest periods: the Warringah Shire Council's surfboard licence of the early 1960s.

With the greatest respect to all concerned, I sometimes suspect that such suggestions arise from a misguided and inexperienced desire to Regulate -- something most good long term surfers view with a certain amount of horror.
To me the ocean itself tends to set its tests at every level of the sport, and you know damn well when you've passed and when you haven't. Often there is discussion in such threads of the "would-be hero"; seldom have I seen such a person at a truly heavy surf spot, and never have I seen one of 'em experience any success at all in said heavy lineup. I think what happened to Dyl Longbum was nasty but couldn't possibly have been avoided by some skills test -- unless such test eliminated everyone but the ultra-skilled from the lineup. (Hell, in any case, nobody even knows who the offender was.)

Let Nature take its course, surfing's one of the last areas of our lives where we can still say that's the case, don't taint the enjoyment (or otherwise) of the participants.

I should add that I don't apply this thinking to surf schools -- they're profit-making entities who claim to be preparing people to take on a very difficult sport in a potentially life threatening arena, and I think there's room to argue that they should be pushed to higher standards of coaching and instruction, by law if necessary.

[Octagonal]

Wouldn't a better poll be, how many people have been injured by a learner?. I have had a few near misses and a couple of good waves wrecked by learners but the beauty of the ocean is another wave will come, and we all started off as learners. I dont think our emergency wards are full of rippers been injured by kooks.