Where did you surf today ?

[steve shearer]

Crowding the joint? I'll be hosting one person at a time and actively going away from crowds.

[shaunmorrison]

Starts with one, then two followed by a hiace commuter with w trailer on the back, stop kidding yourself , your heading down sellout avenue.

[crabmeat thompson]

yes, I was down there early for a fish. I noticed one of the dawn patrollers had left a nice message there for Ben/Swellnet.

old matson didn't think this through. he can scratch lennox off his surfing list. i'm surprised he's not scratching a whole bunch of locations off his surfing list with a similar sentiment around his cams.

... then again when i worked there, no one had ever heard of them. so he probs flies under the radar everywhere he goes.

[shaunmorrison]

Ben does have his ugly mug on his thingy on swellnet, if he ever surfs down Port Albert way , he'll be told what's what!

[foamy]

The stats must clearly indicate the cams are drivers of web traffic, so the people have spoken (commercially), I guess.
I like the query demanding to know when Swellnet Stu is going to organise a cam for his local, Sandon Point.

[crabmeat thompson]

I wonder if local pressure is delaying the Cabarita cam.
Each morning Ben does a circuit of the car parks at cabba and hastings on the way to the office

in these parts, word gets out pretty quick who you are. gotta be 100% accountable, 100% of the time.

not seeking public opinion before putting a cam into lennox, is really asking for it. same goes for caba.

[foamy]

Define : the 'public' in public opinion.

Lennox Head resident surfers - Ben would have known the opinion of the Lennox surfers would have very deadset against it.
Lennox Head community - hard to say, many local businesses probably would be for it. As with shark nets, local surfer and local community opinion doesn't always align.
The Swellnet community - webstats indicate support.
The broader community - probably overwhelmingly for it. More stuff on the internet.

[crabmeat thompson]

Define : the 'public' in public opinion.

Lennox Head resident surfers - Ben would have known the opinion of the Lennox surfers would have very deadset against it.
Lennox Head community - hard to say, many local businesses probably would be for it. As with shark nets, local surfer and local community opinion doesn't always align.
The Swellnet community - webstats indicate support.
The broader community - probably overwhelmingly for it. More stuff on the internet.

so much guessing there it's not funny, foamingham.

Public = if it's a surfing website with surfers as their customers ... you look after your core base first and foremost. the surfers.

In this instance, SN has dusted their core base to the side. i'm not part of the SN community and I don't live in lennox, but i would be 100% against a cam there. let the people who search and know the conditions the place fires in find it. don't put it on a giant real time billboard and advertise it's there. that's totally crook and that's what people would be irate about.

I surf it a few times a year, i often tag along with a photographer mate and a couple of pros ... we're always welcomed bcos we respect the hell out of the place. lennox works on a hierarchy of respect.

Either way, it matters little what I think, or what a forum board thinks ... on the ground, SN is stretching the whole fabric of the place with its cam. every time there is more crowd, either perceived or real, he will be the face of that. that's his reality he just painted for himself.

[steve shearer]

Looks like one of the dawn patrollers wanted to leave a message for the camera.

[crabmeat thompson]

i love the irony of hashtags.

[Trev]

Guys, you will know I'm no more a lover of the cams that any of you. There is no doubt, what has happened over the last 2 or 3 years at my local is due in a significant part to the addition of a web cam.
But can you please be a little less specific about where Ben may be "found".
IMHO it's crossing a line (and yes, it can be argued Ben crossed that line along time ago, however....)
I've removed/ modified a couple of posts.
And I've advised Don what's going on so he can oversee the topic. Although I'm not sure if he's back in Oz atm.

[Hatchnam]

Devils Advocate: as much it's perfectly understandable that many of the Lennox Heads community would be up-in-arms over the cam
a) what makes LH any more precious than Snapper or Burleigh (or anywhere for that matter)
b) if (disgruntled) members of the LH community were to travel anywhere else, would they be inclined to check web cams, or would their staunch impartial code-of-ethics prevent them from doing so.

it all smacks of "it's all ok, as long as it's not in my backyard"

[steve shearer]

I think it's up to individual communities to stand up for how much corporate intrusion they tolerate into their surfing communities.

If Snapper locals stood up and said, no: we don't want this then that should be respected.

Snapper and Burleigh are very different surfing locations to LH. They are both fully urbanised part of massive megalopises, locations for full fledge pro surfing contests etc etc.
LH is way more like Angourie than it is like Snapper.
Nothing like a secret spot, in fact a treasured spot on surfing's international songline but to have the full blown corporate rape and pillage scene visited upon them with zero community consultation is still an unwanted intrusion.
Most people surfing LH would say it is very different to QLD, and we want to keep it that way.

You surfed it with a couple blokes Xmas Eve Iggs, you think that session would have gone down with a camera pointed straight at it?

[RickyG]

Guys, you will know I'm no more a lover of the cams that any of you. There is no doubt, what has happened over the last 2 or 3 years at my local is due in a significant part to the addition of a web cam.
But can you please be a little less specific about where Ben may be "found".
IMHO it's crossing a line (and yes, it can be argued Ben crossed that line along time ago, however....)
I've removed/ modified a couple of posts.
And I've advised Don what's going on so he can oversee the topic. Although I'm not sure if he's back in Oz atm.

Does Don even check in here at all any more? I recall you saying he'd ignored multiple requests for contact a little while back.

[Hatchnam]

I'm taking myself out of equation steve. I don't particularly agree with the idea of web cams, nor do I find them overly useful. Knowing the right mix of prevailing conditions for a given location based on experience is far more of a better guide than some web cam

I agree that prior consultation with the LH community should've happened. No prizes for guessing why it wasn't though

[Trev]

Guys, you will know I'm no more a lover of the cams that any of you. There is no doubt, what has happened over the last 2 or 3 years at my local is due in a significant part to the addition of a web cam.
But can you please be a little less specific about where Ben may be "found".
IMHO it's crossing a line (and yes, it can be argued Ben crossed that line along time ago, however....)
I've removed/ modified a couple of posts.
And I've advised Don what's going on so he can oversee the topic. Although I'm not sure if he's back in Oz atm.

Does Don even check in here at all any more? I recall you saying he'd ignored multiple requests for contact a little while back.

That was a times since then.
And he's still in the US. But we're discussing on Skype atm.
He's in the middle of a project but has all the info, along with my personal views. Which is why I brought him in. I can't be impersonal in this.

[alakaboo]

I've never in my surfing life used a cam to decide when or where to surf.
It makes zero sense to me. They have minimal appeal and are next to useless, I don't even open the page.

And I'm squarely in the SN demographic (18-45yo well educated and middle class males, mainly) and target market, given I live away from the coast and am time poor.

Tides, wind observations and the forecast (notes only).

The best thing to happen to SN in recent years for my region is when they sacked Steve, because the SEQ forecast notes have a lot more gaps in them for the observant.

[Trev]

I reckon most of us on here would be the same 'boo.
But then we represent a very small percentage of the surfing population.
The people who add to the crowding are the same ones who rock up at a spot and immediately text a half dozen of their mates about "xxyyyxxx" is ON!"