Tourists surfing Tamarin Bay get gang-banged!
We all know about the White Shorts in Mauritius, and there is so much terrible examples of their uncivilised behavior all over the internet.
There’s a whole lot of really bad stuff here.
It escalated at Tamarin Bay recently.
Kyle Kahn, a Cape Town surfer who is married to the grand daughter of John Whitmore – the doyen of South African surfing – saw his 13-year-old son get a smack from the crew and went in to intervene.
The results of this altercation can be seen here.
The 13-year-old was emulating one of his heroes in Jamie O’Brian, by surfing on a pink foamie with a GoPro on his mouth. Not acceptable. Hit the child, hit one of his friends, then gang up and wail on the dad.
Is the wave good?
Fuck yes, and it’s a rare kind of beast is Tamarin, but there are so many other waves around the world that have sorted their shit out and understand how to deal with crowds through hierarchy and respect.
Supers in J-Bay has a pecking order and it’s hard enough to get a wave, but you will not see children getting punched out here.
Keramas is busy with blockings, and with locals getting barrelled, but there are few legitimate fisticuff incidents, much like Uluwatu.
In Hawaii, the rules are fierce, and one step out of line and you’ll have the boys on your back, but in USA and in Australia for that matter, the threat of litigation is massive and throw a punch at a kid or to anyone, and get on the wrong side of a zealous legal team and you’re going to find yourself in a world of shit.
What is a crazy is that the White Shorts, from all accounts, are not even pure locals. They are blow-ins who arrived years ago and took over the Tamarin domain. The true locals barely surf at Tamarin, and anyone who knows the island and who knows all the variables knows that there are many other waves around. There are waves in the north-west, there are a bunch of waves in the south, and there are a few others on the Le Morne peninsula.
“It gives Mauritius a bad name and it doesn’t help me because I am from Mauritius. When people find out where I come from, there is anger pointed at me and it just makes my career path that much more difficult. These guys do need to know the far-reaching consequences of what they choose to do. Many people are affected.” Brian Furcey, a WQS surfer from Mauritius.
Most waves on the peninsula, however, have some sort of White Short dominance. You’ll get chased out the water at One Eyes on the odd day, and you’ll even get chased out the water At L’Ambulant if you happen to be out there when a local posse arrive.
WQS hopeful Brian Furcy is a Mauritian surfer who has been travelling through South Africa over the last month or so competing in the WSL Africa series. This situation is not ideal for the travelling professional.
“Of course this does much damage to me and makes my job so much harder,” Furcy told me. “It gives Mauritius a bad name and it doesn’t help me because I am from Mauritius. When people find out where I come from, there is anger pointed at me and it just makes my career path that much more difficult. These guys do need to know the far-reaching consequences of what they choose to do. Many people are affected.”
It’s a bummer.
There are enough waves for everyone, but the vibe is horrendous. On my third to last trip I got heavily vibed at One Eyes by the other guy in the water. That’s right, there were two of us in a perfect line-up, and he had to tell me that this “‘isn’t fucking South Africa.”
We surfed excellent waves together, with him glaring at me and paddling past me after every wave. He didn’t make many of his waves because he wasn’t that good a surfer, but wouldn’t if have been cool if we had chatted about surfing, about our families, about the absolute non-real idea of surfing a perfect reef-pass on an island with one friend and no one else? If we had hooted each other into set waves, warned each other about approaching sets and claimed each others’ bombs all the way to the channel.
Instead, we didn’t become friends and we surfed in silence, kind of both enjoying the waves but hating the experience.
The thing is, if you start hitting kids, it’s not about localism anymore.
It’s criminal behaviour. That shit’s got to be sorted out.
Sounds like Sunny Garcia at Burleigh years ago – what goes around comes around in that case, even if it was self-inflicted in the end. Ain’t Karma a bitch!
A few things: yes, some Mauritian people are white. They are mostly descendants of French colonialists who settled there 300 years ago. I know, I am one of them. Also, there is no indigenous population in Mauritius, the island was virgin before it was colonised. Craig Jarvis, we shared a session together a few years ago when you were staying in Westin Turtle Bay, I think you can’t complain because you were very kindly welcomed. Finally, from all accounts I got of the surfers who were in the water the day, that guy was a complete kook. He and the kids kept getting in people’s way, not waiting for their turn, clearly didn’t have the level to be there and ignored many advices. One of my good friends, who is not white by the way, told him with a smile that it would be better for all if they went down the point. He responded by yelling at him and cursing him. I was also told that no kids were slapped that day. Don’t get me wrong, there are some people in Mauritius who do overreact and can get aggresive and physical with strangers. But for the most part, Mauritian surfers are welcoming, as long as you show respect and follow the rules. This particular story smells quite fishy, in my opinion. The dude published this video 3 weeks after the incident, and I haven’t heard about any police case. I just wanted to react because some comments here and on other platforms have been disguting and racist. Please do not generalize, a lot of tourists do surf Tamarin without any problems. On my last session there, we were 5 guys on the peak, including 2 german tourists. No problem at all. Simply avoid surfing here after working hours and during the week end, when the pack of hungry locals is out. And if you are infortunate enough to meet one of the most aggressive guys, do not try to argue. Keep in mind that there is always gonna be another wave… Thanks.
I knew that dude’s YouTube story didn’t make much sense. See my comment above; seems my detective instincts were pretty accurate.
Yeah man, Scotland Yard might be a good future career path! But seriously, which real surfer lets his kid surf a sensitive and well known heavily localized spot with a pink foamie and a gopro in the first place? Might as well have put a target on his kid’s back. That’s a shame he got beaten, but come on… All this could have been avoided with a minimal dose of common sense.
Exactly. It’s like I said in my comment below: some surfing tourists are just stupid. There’s rules in the Ocean, and if you ignore them, you’ll get bit. “It’s elementary my dear Watson.”
Me and my friends are coming to Mauritius and will be surfing Tamarin Bay and will be looking for a fight if anyone in white shorts so much as looks at me wrong. Bullies need to be taught lessons and they only understand one language. This has been going on way too long and since the Mauritians won’t teach these guys a lesson I’m happy to oblige.
I’ve seen many people write such threats on the Internet before… none has walk the talk. But maybe you are the exception, big boy? When are you coming?
I’ve seen comments like these for years, never saw any of it happening. Please let me know when you come over, I’ll grab a bag of popcorn.
Here’s a different point of view: when you’re a tourist, visiting someone else’s surf spot, and they ask you to stop filming, you should probably stop filming. Most surfer tourists have a decent amount of respect but some just come in, and act like they own the place, making anykine, flying drones over local girls asses, go-pro-ing like retards. It’s not ok to hit kids but if that kid got lippy . . . well, he learned his lesson didn’t he? If you get lippy in America, some dip shit might shoot you, ie, best to be respectful unless you’re ready to scrap. And then the dad: he probably rolled up super hard on these idiots that already hit a kid – not the brightest move. Then he posts his story on the internet with a drone video of the surf spot, as revenge. Fuck that guy. He’s a kook. At first, I had sympathy for him and son but now I think he’s a damn idiot.
other than you are a fucking idiot
Bliggity bloggity blwat?
The names of your three brain cells?
Nanny nanny booboo, stick your face in doodooo! Haha, I win! Who’s the idiot now?
Still you.
I bet you just went and told your wife or whatever: “look honey! Look at this burn I just delivered! I’m so cool. Now it’s time to take my pink foamy and my go pro, and rip!” Shred on anonymous, shred on.
Me and my friends are coming to Mauritius to surf Tamarin Bay and will be looking for a fight if anyone in white shorts so much as looks at me wrong. Bullies need to be taught lessons and they only understand one language. This has been going on way too long and since the Mauritians won’t teach these guys a lesson I’m happy to oblige.
Funny how all the “locals” are white expats always the biggest dickheads at any 3rd world surfspot.. Surfers as a group really are deplorable.
pavones in costa rica,, grumpy as fuck american expats. pissed off that me and a mate were surfing 3 ft waves with 3 of them out. one of the pricks told me the local sheriff would run me outa town because this prick had bought the sheriff a TV .. then this prick pulls up next morning and starts doing yoga on the beach before paddling out on a minimal.
It is Jamie O’Brien’s fault.
I understand they have something to protect, but they come off as losers. I surfed good Tamarin until they kicked me out on a solid morning. I otherwised surfed it at night with the moon all alone or just when the sun set. Surfing one eye was a joke. Good waves, mediocre angry locals not enjoying anything, and funniest was the kitesurfer trying to do circles around and shout creole bullsh*t haha what a moron. I proceeded to surf rippable and barreling rights all alone for a month and get challenged during massive swell. One of the best times of my life
I like your style! I though that I was the only one doing the shit in the door handle thing.
lets all hold hands.
justice served.
I demand that Mauritius Cole have a word with these blokes and sort it out.
Hey fucker!
You ain’t coming here to threaten kids. Your comment is deleted this time. Next time you are deleted.
Anyone know why Reunion is so sharky, but the Tamarin debate doesn’t even mention sharks?
You do they’re different islands, right? Reunion is about 230 kms from Mauritius.
It’s like asking why Mick Fanning’s J-Bay shark run-in hasn’t been mentioned in an article about Durban.
I do, but theyre in the same vicinity. And Durban is netted because of sharks. The Transkei is right there…. do you know geopgraphy, teacher? One island is certain shark attack and a half hour flight means no sharks?!
sharks don;t fly.. now burn your last stick of incense and say ohm
I googled and came up with Killvan’s article on a Venice Adjacent Leisure-Sandal Aficionados website.
It briefly mentioned a shark, I think.
and i bet not one of them surf half way decent
My buddy and I spent 3weeks there in 06 on a round the world trip.stayed in Soulliac and surfed a heavy empty right for a week, then stayed in Tamarin for the remainder . Mostly surfed one eyes and never had a problem, only got 2 decent days at Tamarin. That wave is insane! We didn’t have any problems there.
We paddled out separately .
We sat in the grom zone.
We didn’t look at, greet, or talk to any locals.
Got some waves and had good sessions.
We expected worse. I know localism can suck but sometimes it’s a reality that must be accepted and dealt with. That’s life.
One of the key rules to being a grouchy local is to also being very competent on a surfboard. When I was there for 2 months in 94 many a solo session was interrupted by Franco Mauritian inbreeds that were totally incompetent on a surfboard yet persisted in trying to bully you out of the water, I guess nothing has changed.
Fuck sake my wife and I just booked a trip there!
LOLOLOLOLOL
Adam sounds like a very indigenous Mauritian name.
Hey brazzos. Please start surfing here. come in packs of 10 to 15 guys and drop in on all these white shorts. just use some of that BJJ if they threaten you.
I think you meant BBBJ
i hope someone else gets this
You’re just gutted your missus got with a snake 🙁
The not so forgotten island of Santosha ( since 74 ) ? Not to mention the extinction of the Dodo .
Why? Are you a Shiteshorts, er, whiteshit, uh, shiteshits.
Damn, I’ll get the name right eventually…
Small Dick Outlines (happens in white shorts, after all.)