Surf Rage

[admin]

I think Nick Carroll's piece in Pittwater Life on the annual confected outrage in the media about 'surf rage' was right on the money. (You can read the article by going here: http://www.realsurf.com/news/newsitem.php?id=413

I haven't seen a fight in years, and even shouting matches are one in ten go-outs experience for me. Is it because I'm an official old fart? Or is it because, as I suspect, the amount of aggro in the water is no different than the amount of aggro in super market parking lots?

[Guest]

Yup, it's been a long while for me too.. at least 12 months.
Then again, i haven't seen a shark attack yet either.

[CQSurfer]

i went down to d'bar and snapper about a month ago. and months leading up to my departure everyone was telling me about how bad the surf rage was down there.

after a week surfing at d'bar i didn't see one single incident.. everyone was friendly. and i'm sure i made myself clear on not being a local. but everyone was very friendly and helpful down there. even with 300 people in the water.

[Troy_Cisco_Kid]

the only shouting i have seen is when the silly longboarders from Ryde come down to Longy for their Saturday morning and start mucking aroudn with the longy locals like the Psilakis brothers.(by the way i am a longboarder and i love nothing more than charging "suck up" at Longy

[Guest]

Surfed Noosa National Park on New Years Day and Jan 2. On Jan 2, I got one of the last car parks at National at 4.05 am. There was 112 surfers on various fibreglass devices between Johnsons and Boiling Pot by 6.15 am and it just got more crowded. Many of blokes out there should not have been -it was around 4-5ft, clean and as good as National gets at this size, Nor east swell and lining up good enough that depending on tide, you could make the section into Johnsons if someone did not burn you. But I must say that overall there was a pretty good vibe and I did notice a number of times when there were two blokes on a wave peacefully coexisitng. Saw some people who were upset about being burned, but usually those that complained the loudest were also guilty of similar burning themselves. Funny that. Lots of burning, I admit I burned and got burned, but there just was not any waves coming through without someone on it, so everyone was checking the sections and going for it if they thought they could get away with it. I had a great time, yarned with locals and other Mexicans like myself, surfed myself ragged, especially on New Years Day early when most people seemed to stay in bed till late. I did love the Friday arvo session at First Point which was super crowded and taking off out the back meant dodging all sorts of things, but, again, it was ok. So thanks to the locals who had to put up with this incredible circus -if there was a situation that could have exploded -that was it.

[Guest]

Just wondering what the age is for "official old fart"? Me thinks me might qualify, but me Dad, who is 76, says you are still a boy until you turn 60.

[Guest]

Hi

Last night around the dinner table a discussion arose regarding swimming and surfing .

the question was . If a Swimmer is swimming outside the flags . (say No Mans land - Dee Why/Long Reef ) . and is hit or something happens involving a swimmer and surfer . Who is at Fault ? . I say the swimmer as there are flagged areas for them to swim in


Swim-Between-The-Flags. DY

[Guest]

I agree. If a swimmer (Note: not a fair dinkum body surfer) gets hit and they are not between the flags then I have no sympathy for them whatsoever.

[Troy_Cisco_Kid]

a few weeks ago when that quick south swell came up in the arvo i watched queenscliff at 6:30 when hundreds of swimmers were still in the area where the flags were. surfers were just taking advantage of the flags being taken down for the day...that could of ended up with serious injuries...common sense needed to be taken

I agree. If a swimmer (Note: not a fair dinkum body surfer) gets hit and they are not between the flags then I have no sympathy for them whatsoever.

[Sancho]

Sorry but those swimmers take up the flags all day at QC and if the flags come down then too bad.
What peeves me off more is the agressive nature of the clubbies keeping us out of the flags and then they go and send 20 kids into them on those big clubby boards who then all proceed to fall off and have them wash to shore sideways. Those things are lethal when they wash to shore.
Why are a bunch of inexperienced kooks allowed on them in the flags just because they are "clubbies" when experienced surfers aren't deemed to have control.
Try NZ where you can surf between the flags and despite some crazy crowds no one gets hurt.

[Russ]

I was involved in a dispute over wave (that's right, one solitary wave) at my home beach of Maroubra. It was a small day and not too many banks were doing much. I was getting my last wave when some blow in (direct from the M5) decided to drop in.

My first reaction was to stand up for my rights and as a result of this, a minor altercation occurred.

After I got home and had time to think the incident, I just couldn't believe how petty the whole situation was, and I was appalled that I allowed myself to become so stupid.

No one likes a drop-in, and my view is that anyone (local or not) who has to resort to such measures to get waves just proves that they can't surf.

[Guest]

a few weeks ago when that quick south swell came up in the arvo i watched queenscliff at 6:30 when hundreds of swimmers were still in the area where the flags were. surfers were just taking advantage of the flags being taken down for the day...that could of ended up with serious injuries...common sense needed to be taken

I agree. If a swimmer (Note: not a fair dinkum body surfer) gets hit and they are not between the flags then I have no sympathy for them whatsoever.

mmmm this is a difficult one as Tamarama is a bit of classic for this. On any given day in summer, 30-40 surfers wait for the beach inspectors to drop the flags and when they do they descend into the water like rats from a sinking ship. A lot of the punters are fairly incompetent (euro backpackers) and launch themselves into fairly dredgy peaks without any hope of getting to their feet. Those swimmers still in the water become sitting ducks and mood of the swimmers can become pretty agro to all (They have nowhere to go except get out of the water as Tama is a tiny beach). This begs the question should Tama be cleared of swimmers when the flags are dropped as the competency of the surfers ability to avoid them cannot be assured. One for council to contemplate as the numbers of backpackers in the water is getting ridiculous around bondi/Tama. Commercialism of surfing has definitely changed the landscape in the water in Sydney and elsewhere. Hasnt done much for enhancing my enjoyment in the water. Hope somebody is getting something out of it.

[coreym]

took my four year old for a swim whilst at the beach the other day,thought i'd do the right thing and trudged off to the flags.

packed in like sardines bodies being hurled everywhere,komandant clubbies constantly blasting whistles.I stood there and thought I really don't want to swim here this is not my idea of fun.Surely lots of others feel the same way,certainly not relaxing.

Is it naieve of me to think that instead of 20 clubbies sitting under a tent between the flags they should get a couple of those high chair tower things and dot them around the beach just to keep a look out(as well as the flagged area).cause you are not going to stop people wanting to have a quiet swim.

Nothing against clubbies i mean they do a top job,im sure there are good reasons against this just thought i'd play devils advocate.

[dicko]

We need to be careful with this subject. The reason I say this is that the powers that be ie Councils may start to promote surf rage as a real problem (Which we know based on most of these postings it is not)

If this happens the potential is for the councils to legislate on the number of people in the water at any given break and how would they do this?

By charging people to surf of course,this could be done via a ticket that needed to be displayed on the board.

Call me paranoid however this type of crap may happen.....lets make sure it does not.

Cheers

[blindboy]

Ha ha I ran over a body surfer at North Curl Curl a few months ago, he was dropping in on me and I didn't even see him, then he came up and started giving me lip about how dangerous surfboards are...this being the bloke who has decided to go body surfing in the middle of fifty of them! It made my day, definitely the best laugh of the week.
Fights? One of my mates punched some kook yesterday for dropping in......not surf rage, just a little disciplinary action on a loudmouth!
My theory is that no-one bothers much with the aggro anymore because it is non-adaptive. If you had a few kooks it was worth the effort to abuse them so they would go away, these days there is an infinite supply so why bother, you can scare a dozen off and another dozen just paddle straight out...courtesy of realsurf?

[zzz]

In my experience, you're most likely to get surf rage in 2 foot slop rather than in a good swell. Mainly because everyone is irritable that there is no surf, and I guess on a smaller day there is a larger proportion of inexperienced people out there.

I haven't seen an actual fight (plenty of abuse and shouting though) in 10 years of surfing. I have seen the occasional deliberate collision.

[kevin arnold]

Seen plenty of surf rage here over the years, been on the receiving end of it and had to deal out a bit of it too. It sure ain't getting better on the Mid Coast here, longboarders are a big problem. I should clarify that... I know several of the best longboarders in SA pretty well - they are excellent surfers no matter what they ride. These guys are no problem whatsoever... it's the "born again" mals that cause the trouble here. Guys with just enough skill to catch a shitload of waves, but nowhere near enough to actually turn. I dunno how many kids I've seen run over by these idiots in the last few years, but I'm amazed there aren't more serious injuries. The "rage" occurs when they start taking off en masse and hogging every set wave. I usually ride a 5'10" and I can spin 'round late and take off pretty deep... but I can't compete with a wave hungry goon on a 9' who's been standing up for a full three seconds before the wave even breaks. My only option is to snake him... or I get nuthin'. For years I was tolerant and friendly toward these guys, but they have pushed their luck too far for too long. If you're nice, they'll leave you absolutely nothing. Now we are forced to snake, block, drop in... anything just to get waves. I don't like it, I'd much prefer to surf without all that bullshit, but these pricks have become waaaay too greedy. The idea of "sharing the waves" is not "me 9' take all the set waves, you shortboarder fight for the leftovers". Be warned idiots... shortboarders are millitant and pissed off at this situation, and they're fighting back. Surf rage will prevail until longboard kooks learn their place.