I respect and am all for what the lifeguards do however of late I unfortunately have recently had a couple of run ins with over zealous lifeguards. Yesterday I was surfing some good quality 2-3 ft peaks at 4th avenue Burleigh with about half a dozen guys out. The swimmers area was about 50m up the beach with mainly tourists splashing around in the shorebreak. Then the lifeguards in their infinite wisdom decided the move the swimmers flagged area to right on to the peak we were surfing.
Within a minute they were on their blowers telling all surfers to vacate the area. Honestly we all thought it was a joke until they sent out the SWAT team on jetskis telling us to move straight away or the police will be called....WTF!
I seriously reckon these guys were on a power trip and did it to piss the surfers off. There was 2km of vacant beach to move the swimmers to but they chose the best surfing peak??? Sorry just has to vent my spleen!

Firstly , yes sure they do a great job!

Im also waiting for the day when they put the episode of Bondi Rescue on where the Surfers fight back and flog the crap out of em

Give em heaps I say . What are the police realy going to do.... arrest you? For what - not moving , loitering in a group more than 5 in the surf ffs???

Let the coppers roll up thier pants , take off thier shoes and come out there and get you .

Is there even legislation that states you can be arrested or fined for this???

and how come the swimmers arent moved on when in the surf areas?

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fuall said...

and how come the swimmers arent moved on when in the surf areas?

Exactly,I encounter this often,sometimes I take the law in my own hands and politely ask them to move.

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fuall said...

and how come the swimmers arent moved on when in the surf areas?

I had another interesting encounter where I was surfing about 10m from the flags as it was the best bank. The one and only swimmer in the flags swam out of them and into the surfers area. Lo and behold the lifeguard got on the blower and told the surfers to move???? They should be kicking the swimmers arses as they are the ones who continually disregard the 'swim between the flags' warnings.

Lifeguards, great people, but I guess they don't teach common sense in lifeguarding school...

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newguy said...

Lifeguards, great people, but I guess they don't teach common sense in lifeguarding school...

couldn't have said it any better!

We have a problem down this way where the majority of the demographic are English migrants wanting to assimilate with the Aussie culture and become clubbies themselves. Makes it pretty hard for the locals to take them seriously when they've just got off the boat.

^^^^ it is funny when we rescue them though.

Clubies are not a big hit in WA. They have a poor following and all in all they suck.
I have no problems with saving people but all the politics that go with the Royal Life saving is just too much. The idea of telling people where to surf during summer months is out of controll, and they can't even get in the ocean during winter when the sea is at its most dangerous. I believe most surfers are the real " WATER MEN " and the clubies are the pretentious wanna be ocean goers.
They are like shopping center security guards of the beach.
Good on em for saving lives but like others have said, how many peolple have surfers saved and this goes un reported?

While surfing I have been hit by one of their inflatable boats speeding through the waves, going well over the speed limit near the beach and other water users, I've also had a board dented by one of those big wooden competion boats. Both times I was well away from any swimming areas and there was no competions going on.

^^^
Lucky you weren't run over by one of the Patrol vehicles!!!

Seriously, I think that they do a great job - but do get the sh!ts in summer when they set the swimmers' area right on the best bank/peak along the Trigg stretch. Would it matter if they moved it 100m down the beach?!. What a frustrating waste of waves...

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Captain Bob said...

While surfing I have been hit by one of their inflatable boats speeding through the waves, going well over the speed limit near the beach and other water users, I've also had a board dented by one of those big wooden competion boats. Both times I was well away from any swimming areas and there was no competions going on.

We saw one of their IRBs inflatable rescue boats while out at Brighton and both passenger and driver had fallen out and the thing was just going around in circles.

One brave soul managed to get in the boat and take it back to shore.

Dont they have a wrist band engine cut off??

The latest hatchings at my beach are hopeless god help anyone that gets in trouble.

Clubbies=too many blokes in dick togs. I don't think the world needs to see these dudes prancing around in their revealing smugglers. And they should use their long paddle boards instead of the polluting rubber duckies, that would save them money on fuel. Then they can buy some boardies to cover it up.