Where did you surf today ?

[Thud]

Oh well, Steve you can report on other things in surfing. Plenty other things to write about.

BTW are you getting rid of your Pyzel Ghost, you know the guy who rides them is on that nasty tour.

[Cranked]

I wonder what the Margaret River area would have been like if there had never been a WSL comp there. I'm guessing, very crudely, a reduction in surfers by maybe 30 to 80 percent?

[marauding mullet]

Oh no Cranked, have you learnt nothing? When you use specific numbers it fills people here with white hot rage.

[Yuke Hunt]

At Snapper, half the favourites are in the local boardriders club, and half the club is employed in some way, so they're fine with it. Etc.

Seriously ? ... admit it, you just made that shit up.

[Cranked]

Oh no Cranked, have you learnt nothing? When you use specific numbers it fills people here with white hot rage.

[marauding mullet]

Percentages of Ozzies on the Bukit etc.

[steve shearer]

did we ever get that number in writing?

[Nick Carroll]

I wonder what the Margaret River area would have been like if there had never been a WSL comp there. I'm guessing, very crudely, a reduction in surfers by maybe 30 to 80 percent?

ha ha based on what? Your imagination? Come on. Why do YOU surf?

Margaret River has been a surfing legend since the early 1970s. It's pretty much WA's version of Byron Bay. Most of the people who surf the River reef are crusty older guys who've been there for many years, since they moved there from elsewhere in Oz, drawn by the siren call of remote larger surf.

Professional surfing didn't start happening there till 1985, by that time it was well known. Maybe a handful of people moved there because of a contest. The rest did because they heard about the surf, and they could see some sort of future for themselves in the area.

Surfing is what draws people to surfing. That's why it got so many numbers during the past year. People wanted the sense of freedom it promised in the Covid disaster. They couldn't gove two shits about competition. They might watch the WSL CTs because the surfing is so amazing, but it is NOT why they surf.

People start surfing for the same reasons white people in Western societies always have, since the late 1950s: because it's fcuking epic. It's a mountain, maybe they can climb it, maybe they can't.

[Nick Carroll]

At Snapper, half the favourites are in the local boardriders club, and half the club is employed in some way, so they're fine with it. Etc.

Seriously ? ... admit it, you just made that shit up.

Yeah OK. Think about it. When the Quik Pro shifted to Snapper in 2002/3, the first three surfers to win it were Fanning, Parko, and Dingo. Taj, Steph, the Wrights (O owned a place just above Rainbow), the Harringtons, Bruce Lee, a pile of the event crew, all were Snapper/Kirra locals and members of Snapper Rocks Boardriders. The event directors, including the most recent, Jay Phillips, have all been local club members. The whole event has been built on its extraordinary relationships with the surfing royalty in that town. Even Kelly owned an apartment just down the road.

This is how a CT gets a hold on a spot.

[Nick Carroll]

Percentages of Ozzies on the Bukit etc.

Yeah that really owes a lot to pro surfing. Right. No more graphic demonstration of the real causes of surf crowding exists than Bali.

[marauding mullet]

did we ever get that number in writing?

Lol the numbers are up the shit now post COVID

[steve shearer]

there was an epic post school/work sesh at the Point this arvo.

lots of slightly sheepish interactions as people figured out face to face where they stood on the issue, which simply couldn't be ignored.

there was this kind of mad rage/joy energy, so much high intensity ripping across all age groups. Punchy blue water 4-5ft trade/cyclone swell.

all this pent up steam getting let off.

it was really something.

[Yuke Hunt]

At Snapper, half the favourites are in the local boardriders club, and half the club is employed in some way, so they're fine with it. Etc.

Seriously ? ... admit it, you just made that shit up.

Yeah OK. Think about it. When the Quik Pro shifted to Snapper in 2002/3, the first three surfers to win it were Fanning, Parko, and Dingo. Taj, Steph, the Wrights (O owned a place just above Rainbow), the Harringtons, Bruce Lee, a pile of the event crew, all were Snapper/Kirra locals and members of Snapper Rocks Boardriders. The event directors, including the most recent, Jay Phillips, have all been local club members. The whole event has been built on its extraordinary relationships with the surfing royalty in that town. Even Kelly owned an apartment just down the road.

This is how a CT gets a hold on a spot.

Thats all well and good, but Fanning is a member of Kirra Surf Riders ... (insert smiling face)

Little know historical fact: Its been alleged that the Snapper crew refer to Kirra as the pig farmers, because they nurture the talent and snapper steals em.

[godsavetheking]

I do think the days of CTs being big popularisers of locations are kind of cooked though. Like surf numbers, they're influenced by so much other stuff now.

But isn’t this the exact thing that the underwriting of the Australian leg is predicated on? Councils throwing big money to have the contests to boost tourist numbers? If that suddenly doesn’t work, whither the Australian CT?

[steve shearer]

no, it still works.

but Nick is right too.

there's more to it, but you only have to see the crowd attracted by the Snapper Ct to realise there is a draw.

I think the Aussie surfer is less "allured" but the euro/brazilian intermediate swarms there like flies on shitt.

it's a different crowd.

[Drailed]

Lets not forget the big fccckn highway that was built linking perth to margs and significantly reducing travel time.

[steve shearer]

its state govts god save too, not councils.

[Thud]

Steve you seem highly energised by the defeat of the WSL bid. Do you think it will bring the local line up closer together?