darren handley
The great shaper Daz Handley jackrabbits his ski during last year's run of swell.

Cops: Jetski pilots fined for Kirra whip-ins!

How much y'gonna pay to avoid the rip and the takeoff at Kirra?

Ain’t nothing Australians like more than blowing whistles, riding car horns and, if a uniform is involved, handing out fines.

And therefore, when surfers used jet skis to avoid the rip and the takeoff during Queensland’s recent cyclone swell called Oma, the cops thought Christmas had arrived early, photographing the ID numbers of jet skis and sending fines in the mail.

According to local surf mag  18Seconds, “The fines have started arriving in the mail for people using skis during the Oma swell. According to sources, they’re being fine for going over 6 knots within 60 meters of (scarce) paddlers. They have even issued fines to several lifeguards going over 6 knots near the Alley breakwall. There have been lots of cases where skis are the ones helping surfers who are in trouble during dangerous cyclone swells. In fact, we were only speaking to a guy (fit in his fifties) yesterday who wiped out over the weekend. He said it was such a heavy belting, when he surfaced he couldn’t see anything – was just seeing black. With eight-foot sets washing him around, he thought he was gone. Luckily, a ski grabbed the man and took him to the safety of the beach.”

Other fineable rules include, not having an observer on the back when you tow or whip and if you’re in partially smooth waters, ie Kirra, not carrying drinking water, a map, a compass and a GPS.

Fines range range from $250 to a mandatory court appearance.

Perhaps this event, from last year, prompted the arrival of the police.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BfW9uGSDds0/?utm_source=ig_embed

Now, some questions.

Do you appreciate it when police officers execute their duties to the letter?

Or does it make your native contempt for authority and for anyone who picks up a badge flourish?


You'll get to surf in front of tens of excited fans!

Win: A wildcard to the WCT Women’s Trials Event on the Gold Coast!

Do you identify as a woman? Do you shred? Do you Instagram?

In a month or thereabouts, the tour is back on the Gold Coast. And if you identify as a woman, or have a suitable pronoun, and you have an engaged gang of Instagram followers, you can be a part of it thanks to event sponsor Boost’s Search For a Wildcard Contest.

Real simple to enter. 

Upload a one-minute clip, surfing, to Instagram. The top ten most-voted clips go into the final. Boost-sponsored surfer Sally Fizgibbons chooses the winner.

Three or so days in and they’ve been four entries, with Isabella Caldow, a fifteen-year-old from Queensland’s Sunshine Coast leading the votes, 100 to 66, two and one.

The concept of giving away a tour event slot ain’t new.

In 1991, Coke offered a wildcard into the main event of the Coca-Cola Surf Classic at Narrabeen in 1991 as the prize for their Classic Wave Competition. The winner, Allan Willis, a bricklayer from surfless Bundaberg in North Queensland, had surfed twice in the previous six months and was recovering from distended vascular structures in his anal canal, which made sitting painful.

Willis lost his heat against Ross Clarke-Jones, although not after causing Ross immense worry, and was awarded a cheque for $1750 and free run of the VIP area.

Glory days.


Revealed: “The talent pool among Canadian surfers is huge!”

Are you secretly Canadian? Is Jesse Mendes?

I was such a “surfing in the Olympics” sceptic, overly rude as always, but must admit as 2020 inches closer that I’ve been thrilled by various storylines. Take Venice Beach’s aggressive leash pull, for example. It is very likely that nothing would have happened that day if the 1-foot straighthander, which breaks off the pier, wasn’t the training facility of the women’s Senegalese Olympic surf team. Very likely that tensions would have been muted without the chase for gold hovering like a pregnant cloud.

Also, we would not be aware that “the talent pool among Canadian surfers is huge.” And let’s learn more about that right now. Let’s do it together.

One of the world’s most renowned surfing destinations has become a training ground for a new crop of Olympic hopefuls.

Canadian athletes are in Tofino preparing for a national event in May in order to qualify for the World Championships. It will be that performance that could earn them a spot in the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo, where surfing will make its Olympic debut alongside skateboarding, sport climbing, karate, baseball, and softball.

“Japan decided that they wanted it,” said Surf Canada President Dom Domic. “In just over 500 days, the eyes of the world are going to be on surfing.”

Surfers who have arrived to brave the chilly waters say they can’t believe a shot at Olympic glory would ever be in reach for them.

“I didn’t think the Olympics would ever be a thing,” said surfer Noah Cohen. “There was never even like a dream. To even have like a sliver of hope is a pretty amazing thing.”

The road to get there won’t be easy. Despite what people may think, the talent pool among Canadian surfers, including those living aboard, is huge.

Amazing.

And let’s play a game. Which surfers on tour are secretly Canadian?

Sebastian “Seabass” Zietz has a whiff of maple about him don’t you think? Something in the smile.

Also Jesse Mendes.

Speaking of, which surfer from your home country would you trade to Canada for a plate of cheese curds?


"No naughty shark gonna get near my baby!"
"No naughty shark gonna get near my baby!"

In your face Gabriel Medina: Marg River to be on WSL Tour until at least 2021!

"I will never surf by myself here because it’s not safe.”

Australia has a population of 25 million hearty souls and three World Surf League Championship Tour contests, the greatest of which is Margaret River there on the continental island’s west side. Margs is scenic, has a variety of waves and is filled to overflowing with sharks. Who could forget last year when the event, brought to us all by Western Australia’s tourism department, was cancelled due to nearby shark attacks and resumed across the sea in Bali?

A wonderful moment for Western Australian tourism courtesy of our World Surf League.

Well, everyone must have been very pleased with the bright light shown on Uluwatu, very picturesque itself, because the contest has been re-upped for the next three years and let’s read the Guardian. Let’s really learn why.

The Margaret River Pro will remain on the World Surf League schedule after it secured a contract extension until 2021, despite last year’s shark scares. The 2018 event was called off midway through the competition after two non-fatal shark attacks nearby.

Alejandro Travaglini needed surgery to both legs after he was attacked at Cobblestones beach in Gracetown, while Jason Longgrass walked to an ambulance after he was bitten on the leg at nearby Lefthanders break. The presence of beached whales in the area attracted sharks and contributed to their aggressive behaviour.

The Margaret River Pro’s future beyond 2019 was already in doubt even before the shark attacks but the WA state government and Tourism WA have put up the funds to secure a two-year contract extension.

However, it remains to be seen whether the world’s best surfers feel safe returning to Margaret River. After last year’s nearby shark attacks, two-time world champion Gabriel Medina and Brazilian Italo Ferreira expressed fears about entering the water in Margaret River.

“I just don’t feel comfortable surfing there. I will never surf by myself here because it’s not safe,” Medina said after the attack while Ferreira tweeted at the time: “I do not feel comfortable training and competing in places like this.”

So…. hypothetical here. What if 2018 World Champion and very good friend of Neymar, Mr. Gabriel Medina, makes it to the quarters and his opponent bows out midway with injury. Let’s just call his opponent Kelly Slater and let’s say Kelly’s massively shattered foot acts up and Gabriel Medina has to be out there alone.

Will he follow Kelly to the beach?

Will he qualify for the injury wildcard next year?

Many questions.


Bullish: Surf Lakes Announces Site of First Commercial wave pool!

Opens mid-2020, god willing etc.

You can’t keep a good man down, as the saying goes. You’ ll remember the hoo-ha a few months ago when a sturdy contingent of WQS-level Australian pro surfers and the former world champ Joel Parkinson flew to Central Queensland to test the full-sized prototype of the Occy and Barton Lynch-endorsed wave pool.

The waves were very small, one to two feet using a generous ruler, but the reveal was stymied when the giant plunger buckled while operating at only fifty percent capacity. Surf Lakes said the failure was a manufacturing fault, that a new part was being built and that the Yeppoon prototype would be operational, again, by the end of January 2019.

As at ten pm, February 25, the part has yet to be installed and the pool remains idle.

This certainly hasn’t derailed Surf Lakes’ plans to get their first commercial pool.

From a presser that just got released,

Surf Lakes has been scouring the Gold Coast for suitable land, and at present has selected an appropriate site in a location that is centrally located and easily accessible for residents and tourists.

Newly appointed Surf Lakes Chief Executive Officer, Mal Borgeaud, is genuinely excited at the prospect of bringing Surf Lakes to such a coveted, surf-proud locale and envisions the facility will give great benefit to the community.

“As a company we are tremendously excited to be announcing our commitment to building a facility on the Gold Coast. We have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement we have received from both Council and the Queensland Government,” said Borgeaud.

“It makes sense, with the Gold Coast being our home town, that we construct a commercial facility here. We know the facility will bring tremendous benefits to the community, not just by providing waves and surf-oriented fun… it will be a boost for employment, tourism and the local economy,” he continued.

“Our aim is to make this site a genuine show piece not only for our technology but for the Gold Coast as well.”

Surf Lakes envisions that construction will begin in late 2019 or early 2020 with a view to opening in the second half of 2020.

Bullish!