Whilst i was kiting at brighton (perth) today, my mate was surfing.
He was drifting down wind, and a windsurfer ran him over. Put a lovely crack in his brand new board.
Fortunately he was ok. I was told the guy was getting closer and closer, and spraying him. I guess he got too close and cleaned him up.
Pretty poor form i think
I don't care about any "ohhhh it was windy, and he was surfing through the windsurfing bit" bullcrap. He drifted down wind, and was obviously seen (as the guy was spraying him a few times), and was just having a surf.

Just lucky noone was hurt

(This is no windsurfer vs kiter thing, if it was a kiter id be typing the same thing over there, it's just an angry thing)

Def. poor form [}:)]
Too much showing of always ends in tears
I hope the sailor has the decency to foot the bill. After all sail craft has to give way to paddle craft.

That sucks arrse, very poor form

Hope your mate is ok DP

The dude dribbled out a sorry, then buggered off.

I guess it coulda been a lot worse than a damaged board.

Shouldn't have been a damaged board

Not me. I have an alibi. I was 4,000km away.

Maybe he mistook the guy for a kiter? [}:)]

Hi,

read your story of your friend and have to say I am sorry that his board is damaged - apparently through a windsurfer.
I sail at Scabs very often including yesterday. In all my sessions there I realised that the windsurfers use an area of only 200m - 400m at Brighton beach. On a good day (over 20kn) it gets crowded and the conditions are very challenging for everybody. I realised that when the swell is up and a surfer pops out between the waves it is very dangerous for both sides. Honestly I can’t understand why surfers take the risk and paddle between the windsurfers on a strong wind and rough days like yesterday. A few weeks ago a gave a mast of $700 away when suddenly two surfers appeared, sitting in the line up between the waves apparently having a chat or whatever on a 25kn day in very crap and choppy conditions. Seeing them in the last meters between the waves on my way in, I had to change my direction back into the breaking zone within a second so I wouldnt hit them. After the wave smashed me, my mast was in 4 pieces… After that I asked myself why do surfers AND kiters risk their and others health and safety in the small windsurf section when the beach has a 5km coast from dog beach to Trigg (maybe even more). Honestly I don’t understand it, maybe you can explain it to me and I think its not all about the strong current!?!

Yeh i understand its the windsurfing area, but the wind waves are sometimes awesome fun to surf on.
The downwind current is faster than walking pace, there is no point fighting it. I sometimes surf from brighton to trigg and walk back. But i get through the sailing section fast, way to scary to hang around there.
But the guy that hit him knew he was there, and went close trying to spray him several times. Windsurfing area or not the guy was an idiot for gettting to close, and he stuffed up big time.

If your mate was drifting at walking pace, how did the windsurfer manage to spray him "several times"?
Several runs out and back on the windsurfer would take maybe 10 mins?
10 mins worth of drifting at walking pace and you'd be up at Trigg.
Therefore, your mate must have been paddling to stay in the same spot.

Not that I condone running people over. I surf a lot more than I windsurf, but I would never surf where there are a bunch of people windsurfing.

There are signs at the top of the footpaths that lead down to popular windsurf spots in Perth including scarborough.
The signs read "WINDSURFERS FREQUENT AREA" or something like that? Its Blue with white writting and a windsurfer at the top of the sign.
You surf, swim or whatever you do at the beach, in a 20-30 knot seabreeze at your own risk.

isnt Trig and Scarb notorious for pushy and "local" surfers? Is there perhaps more to the story?

Select to expand quote

shark said...

isnt Trig and Scarb notorious for pushy and "local" surfers? Is there perhaps more to the story?

There is always more to the story.