RealSurf Surfers' Forum

I mean, good luck to him I suppose but I can’t help but feel that there was ample opportunity to discover all this in America, which would have saved them the journey and avoided them having to be surrounded by Australians 24/7 (no offence)

yeah he should have just gone down the coast when he was still in NY and paid a visit to offshore1, he'd have learned about risk in a hurry

Nick Carroll wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:48 pm

yeah he should have just gone down the coast when he was still in NY and paid a visit to offshore1, he'd have learned about risk in a hurry

do they have nippers or some equivalent in the US Nick

Indeed they do cranked https://www.usla.org/page/Juniorlifeguards.

We have it here too

It seems surf lifesaving in general started in Oz in 1910, 1953 in the UK and 1956 in the US

Nick Carroll wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 16, 2021 6:48 pm

yeah he should have just gone down the coast when he was still in NY and paid a visit to offshore1, he'd have learned about risk in a hurry

You got that right Nick. Bears, snakes, sharks, wolves, pumas, poisonous spiders, and guns. So many guns.

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I’m a bit with GST on the finding yourself through wild swimming at one of the most affluent beachside suburbs in Australia.
Nippers gives me the shits actually. His wank pretty much sums up why. Yes, yes, I know the positive benefits of cheering your little kids on as they compete with each other on Sunday. I always preferred to go surfing with my son and actually share the experience with him rather than being a helicopter parent with a towel.

They would probably want to look at your surfboard too.

Interesting perspective though, that nippers is risk taking. For Australian coastal parents I would have thought its the safe conservative beach option compared to board-riding.

Parents pushing their little kids onto waves in crowded surf gives me the shits too. If the kid is good enough to ride the wave let them catch it as well. If they aren’t then get them out of the main break and let them learn to stand up. Surfing version of helicopter parenting.

I don’t accept his premise, though to be fair you would have to read his book. Australians are quite risk adverse.
Australians are used to the beach. A sense of risk fades with the circumstances you are used to.

The context was also the young age of his children, 6 and 8. Also, he made the strong point he was talking about white privileged middle class U.S culture.

He had the experience of being with one of his kids at summer camp in the U.S. The kids were escorted into the waters of a shallow lake. One adult was with each child but there was a palpable sense of mass parental panic and overwhelming caution that contrasted starkly with the nippers experience.

In the broader sense, he said within his U.S. cultural segment they was a strong impulse to excel which led to thinking there is little point in doing things you wouldn’t excel at. In Australia, there is general encouragement to just ‘have a go’, having a go was the point rather than being the best. In Australia, people would say to him ‘come down to the park and play Aussie Rules with us. You won’t have a clue what’s going on but it doesn’t really matter’. The whole ‘just have a go, ya mug’ rather than looking strictly for opportunities to excel he found was very different and quite liberating.

Beanpole wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 17, 2021 10:19 am

Parents pushing their little kids onto waves in crowded surf gives me the shits too. If the kid is good enough to ride the wave let them catch it as well. If they aren’t then get them out of the main break and let them learn to stand up. Surfing version of helicopter parenting.

I agree, in crowded lineups or proper waves.
They can progress to join the crew on the peak when they can catch the wave on their own.
No problem if they’re on their own bank or grovelly mush or in a lineup with all friends.

Not sure it’s necessarily helicopter parenting though.

Particularly when the parent is a pretty competent surfer who takes them inside everyone to get priority and loudly calls them onto waves. Not to mention pushing them onto waves you have priority for as well. Great training.
Seen this at Snapper and The Pass not to mention Bondi of course.

I was happy to take this approach with my youngest yesterday until 4 longboarders paddled out and took every lump that looked like breaking. So after watching him catch nothing for 15 minutes while they had heaps, I started giving him a hand and pushing him into a few and dropped in on the longboarders a few times.

One of them paddled over and wanted to have words, but i let him know it wasn't cool to catch every fucken wave possible. Greedy longboarders deserve a spot in the worst people thread.

I was the “greedy” long
boarder yesterday.
Bunch of kids sitting on an inside bank and no one on the outside.
I paddled out the back (50m+ further out)first wave all the way to the beach.
Then all the kids followed me out on their pencils instead of catching all the waves they were before that didn’t break out the back, then they got in a current to the top of the beach where no waves were and paddled in so I had it all to myself.

channels wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 17, 2021 11:29 am

I was happy to take this approach with my youngest yesterday until 4 longboarders paddled out and took every lump that looked like breaking. So after watching him catch nothing for 15 minutes while they had heaps, I started giving him a hand and pushing him into a few and dropped in on the longboarders a few times.

One of them paddled over and wanted to have words, but i let him know it wasn't cool to catch every fucken wave possible. Greedy longboarders deserve a spot in the worst people thread.

What age group?
I’ve found young hipsters on mals are the worst. Particularly since they are trying to be really chilled and happy…….as they paddle inside everyone and snake all the waves.

Still think it’s part of learning to surf.

Mid 20’s.

It was a good vibe with not too many people out. Plenty of waves to go around before they paddled out.