This is a plea from a parent of a young child. (flame suit on )

PLEASE wear a bloody leg rope / leash / tether or what ever you want to call it if you are surfing a board in break where young children are present. PLEASE..PLEASE.. PLEASE.

Today at Happy Valley on the Sunshine Coast I witnessed a 3-5yr old playing in the shallow water under the eye of their parents when a an un-tethered longboard came in a hit the poor kid in the head.. The section of beach was shallow and safe for young kids and the child was being very well looked after. The board was "surfing" itself in the white water and was only seen at the last second. Seeing only the last few seconds from the board walk above the beach myself and several others were powerless to stop it.
Thankfully the child was ok, but very shook up.
What concerned me was the rider of the board came in got the board apologised, went back out and lost the board again 2 waves later.
The was no headstands / nose rides / switch foot going on to warrant no leggy.
Surf was small which probably saved the kid.

Thank fully the rider packed up and went home, without further incident, but not before he got an earfull from several people.

Simply put, we have a resposibility to use the beach in a responsible way and take into consideration others at the beach as well.
The beach is there for all to enjoy, with no ownership to any group. Yes, some places are recognised for some form of activity, but not to the exclusion of another activity.

Being only new to surfing, but not to surf riding, this disturbed me. It could have been a LOT worse.

Ok rant over

Climber

Oh boy am I happy you posted this AND just give me a second to zip up my flamesuit.

IMO anyone who does not wear a legrope in the surf - no matter who they are or how good they are - or what sort of board they are riding IS A ##CKWIT.

Over the years I have been hit by maybe half a dozen boards that were being surfed by tools with no leash and on half those occasions they actually abused me for damaging their boards WTF !

Last friday at a very crowded pass one particular knob (local) was out surfing pretty hard through the very small and packed waves - noseriding, trimming, big cutties etc WITH NO LEGGY. He may have been a good surfer who RARELY loses his board BUT the one time he does and cuts half your kids face off what are you gunna do I know what I am gunna do

My best mate whom I surf with most days rarely wears a leggie and boy do we have an issue with that - every time we go surfing. What makes it worse with him is that he has actually lost his board on one occasion and damaged my board Oh so not impressed - and he keeps telling me that he never (rarely) loses his board. He and other non-leggy wearing surfers tell me that it restricts them and they cant noseride properly or twirl around like a big ##cking fairy on a board - I dont give a ratsass cos in a crowd I dont want people dikkin about on a big board causing confusion and forcing other surfers to constantly have to take evasive action to avoid collisions.

I don't really believe in any real legislation in the surf except for the wearing of legropes if you are, say, within 100mtrs of any other person. Not wearing one is in my opinion dangerous and careless and should be stongly opposed by every surfer. I would go so far as to say that at certain places like the alley or rainbow or places where there are a lot of beginner surfers, swimmers and other water users that a lifeguard should have the power to order someone put a leash on their board or get outta the water - yeah yeah I know impossible to police but thats how strongly I feel about it.

If you wanna surf on your own or with a coupla mates in a place where there are NO other surfers and don't wanna wear a leggy then go for it - and hopefully it somewhere rocky cos I love seeing fibreglass splinters all over rocks and most certainly more so that seeing people and their expensive toys getting damaged by brainless morons.

I’d very much prefer it if everyone used them.

There are a number of local hotshots that would never dream of using one regardless of the conditions or crowds.

They fall into 2 categories

One lot are the old guys who rarely ever lose their sleds but always practice the exact same monotonous maneuvers on every wave and always pull out well before time.

The second lot are the young guns who are all over the plank like a mad woman’s poop. They take the chances with the floaters and tubes and lose their boards more often.


Waves aren’t made in a machine; they don’t all come out exactly the same, you just don’t always know what they’ll do, no matter how good you think you are.

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billboard said...

Oh boy am I happy you posted this AND just give me a second to zip up my flamesuit.

Oh glad you got it mate oh its still my flame suit mate

well well the winds of change...how many out there can remember the same argument, but in reverse...I can...there was no such thing...drilling a hole through your fin and tying a peice of string to it and your ankle hadn't even been invented...then along came the leggy...and you were a dead set kook if you wore one...I was in japan a few months ago and my friend was told to leave the surf because he wasn't wearing a leash...and it was one foot and dribble....how things have changed....sure it's over crowded...and it's a safety issue now...and in some situations it should be imperative to wear a leash, but there is nothing purer than longboarding without one....it's pretty hard to dance when your shackled.

A few years back on a holiday in Noosa,I was surfing with my daughter ten at the time and on the second day a stray board smashed into her ear as she was paddling out after catching a wave,to my horror I see her crying and blood streaming down her face,we were up near the river mouth without a car or phone (wive droped us off)the nob said nothing and if I had my way I would have put the prick in a hospital for a night or two I asked a couple if they would look after our boards,better still they offered to take them to our accommodation which they did,very nice of them
We reach the lifesavers and they bandage the wound and lend me a phone to call the wive and we made our way back to find a medical centre,eight stitches later the girl has never surfed again.

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62mac said...
eight stitches later the girl has never surfed again.

That sucks.

There's a couple guys in Manly that don't use them but you'd never see me out with out one.

red thumbs eh...now I have the flame suit on....Mac there is nothing that gets your hackles up more than seeing your own offspring hurt by some idiots stupid mistake....I have just had to go through 4 months of torture watching my 14 year old son heal from third degree burns all over his arms and legs...all from some d!#*heads.stupidity....as I said, in some cases it is imperative to wear a leash...or it should be....it's just getting too crowded not to wear one...maybe we will end up like the dogs and have leash free zones....but there will allways be people who prefer not to wear them and that is thier choice...first thing I taught both my boys was to look out for loose boards and never asume that everyones board is tied to them...bit like look left look right...even on a pedestrian crossing...sorry to here about your daughter.

Yeh,not sure why the red thumbs came out
Mate that would be hell dealing with the injuries to your son,I just cant think of anything worse.I hope he is on the mend and the long term outlook is good for ya boy.
The other day a random set came in and caught everyone by surprise,I was just behind a clubbie with his board and all I was thinking,please dont let go of that yellow thing,I was only a couple on meters behind him,thank god he didn't but it had me worried.

Big call

Dont let the sweepers see these mate - by my reckoning that'll give them a 40% increase in killing range.

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billboard said...

Dont let the sweepers see these mate - by my reckoning that'll give them a 40% increase in killing range.

lol nice work bb,have a great time down south

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arkgee said...

I have just had to go through 4 months of torture watching my 14 year old son heal from third degree burns all over his arms and legs...all from some d!#*heads.stupidity....

bummer Ron hope he recovers ok.

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62mac said...


The other day a random set came in and caught everyone by surprise,

far can typical.

Nope,not at all over here.the reports said hmm 2 foot plus so know where to hang out and out of nowhere a set rolls in and we were all caught.Surfed the place for years and not often do you encounter this I guess its not a sk8e parkalways good to be kept on your toes

Ol twinkle toes,

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thommo 000 said...

Ol twinkle toes,

Mate some of the SUP boards are actually smaller than the long boards
that we ride.

XXL hazza

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billboard said...

Dont let the sweepers see these mate - by my reckoning that'll give them a 40% increase in killing range.