As if yesterday’s bald-faced expression of
entitled greed wasn’t enough. As if two old white people barking
guttural swears at a workaday surfer before having him arrested
wasn’t the peak. And why were they barking? Why were they cop
calling? Because the workaday surfer dared to dream that a North
Carolina beach might be accessible. A crime, apparently, against
decency and as if that wasn’t the height today we have 350 old
white people, this time in Florida, banding together in order turn
previously public beaches private again.
Can you believe it?
Can you?
I wouldn’t be able to if it wasn’t for the NFW Daily
News and let’s turn there together now. Let’s get all
lathered up.
About 350 beach property owners say they plan to intervene
legally to prevent Walton County beaches from becoming public
again.
A coalition called Florida Coastal Property Rights,
established by owners that include “individuals, associations and
condominiums,” issued a news release Monday to announce the number
of residents who had requested to be named as defendants in a
lawsuit the county filed Dec. 11.
“It is not surprising to see hundreds of parcels, owned by
thousands of owners, intervening,” FlaCPR President Tammy Alford
said in the release. “Many owners wish to preserve their property
rights, which will be diminished should Walton County prevail in
this lawsuit.”
The county’s lawsuit asks Circuit Court Judge David Green to
affirm customary use along its coastline. The county contends it is
the public’s right to recreate on all 26 miles of Walton County
beach, including those dry sand areas deeded as private property.
It claims the county’s coastline has been shared by everyone
through time immemorial, and is public by virtue of that customary
use.
“If Walton County is successful in affirming customary use
on all private beachfront property in the county, the action will
remove private property owners’ legal rights to decide who can use
their property,” the FlaCPR news release said.
By filing the lawsuit, the county is following a path laid
out by House Bill 631, passed last year, that it must travel if it
wants to re-establish a customary use ordinance. When the state law
went into effect July 1, it impacted Walton County alone by
eliminating an ordinance approved by county commissioners in
2016.
Chaos ensued as private property owners sought to prevent
trespassing on their stretch of sand and beachgoers protested their
sudden lack of access. County officials and law pfficers were
caught up in the fray. HB 631 became a political football in an
election year, and debate could heat up again as tourist season
opens and visitors start flocking to the beach.
A hearing was held Monday in which Green ruled to allow the
great majority of those who had thus far requested to join the
lawsuit as defendants to do so. It was the first hearing held since
the lawsuit was filed.
The audacity.
The audacity.
(Thanks to Marc Keene for the lead.)
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"I got arrested and taken away in a cop car thanks to
Donna Krieger (pictured) and Allan Dald."
Eat the rich: Brave surfer fights for right
to access beach, gets arrested!
“I don't care what you think, it was deeded to
me!”
Nothing unites the entirely disparate surf
world like rich bastards buying beachfront mansions and blocking
access to The People™ or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe only my blood boils
when I hear tales of the ultra-wealthy buying homes in Malibu or
Montauk or Montecito, throwing up gates and having security guards
wag ugly fingers into crestfallen faces.
Oh how it riles. How it infuriates. I’ve got the nasty sort of
temper when it comes to these things that doesn’t lead to
resolution but feels good and that’s why I’m always so impressed by
salt-of-the-earth folk who make access for all their mission. Who
go to town hall meetings, petition citizens, start signature drives
and try to do things the right way i.e. not waiting until darkness
falls and throwing rocks through windows.
Salt-of-the-earth folk like surf shop owner Bob Hovey from the
town of Duck, which is on North Carolina’s outer banks.
Now, Duck doesn’t sound like a fancy pants town name but
apparently rich blow-ins have scooped up the best property and
disallowed access to locals and let’s learn about the situation
first. Let’s get all caught up in the Virginian-Pilot:
Surfer and businessman Bob Hovey pointed to a small sign at
the end of Plover Drive next to a boardwalk leading to the
beach.
“No trespassing,” it said.
Hovey hates that sign.
“This spot right here is so prime to be a public beach
access,” said the 48-year-old owner of Duck Village Outfitters.
“I’m going to keep fighting for public beach access in Duck. It’s
doable.”
Hovey has created a Facebook page to promote his passion.
Several people post comments supporting his cause. He has appeared
at numerous town hall meetings to plead his case. He filed suit
last year against the town, but a judge ruled against him in May.
He started an online fundraising effort that garnered
$1,000.
After all of that, he has made little headway.
He owns a home in Duck’s Osprey Ridge, but it sits on the
soundside of N.C. 12. Businesses and homeowners who are in one of
the ocean-to-sound neighborhoods do not have access, he said.
Construction workers and shop owners and employees who do not live
there cannot easily get to the surf, he said.
The Town of Duck incorporated in 2002 after private
neighborhoods had already enveloped the oceanfront, said Town
Manager Chris Layton. Its seven miles of beach are open to the
public, but without public access points, people have to cross
private property to reach them.
In Duck, the federal government owns about 150 acres around
the Army Corps of Engineers Field Research Facility, the long pier
set up for ocean studies. Decades ago, people could drive to the
pier parking lot and use a path to the ocean for surfing, said Jon
Britt, a Duck town councilman.
“Then, unfortunately, times changed,” he said.
The officials, planners, etc. used every excuse in the book,
nothing changed and today Bob Hovey was allegedly arrested while
standing near the path and let’s dip into his Instagram.
https://www.instagram.com/p/ByDSRWMgFlJ/
I got arrested and taken away in a cop car thanks to Donna
Krieger and Allan Dald pictured in this video. I was using the Sea
Breeze Dr. beach access in Duck, NC. that was deeded to the public
in 1981. Sorry to anyone I offended but I felt adamant about
sticking up for beach access rights. The beach is for everyone and
something needed to be done to protect beach access rights in Dare
County. The town of Duck has received millions of Dare County
taxpayer money for beach nourishment and other beach services.
Anyone that can help with my cause please contact me at 2526796575.
I have been told by Police Chief Cuito that I would not be arrested
for using the state road beach accesses in Duck so it was a bit of
a surprise to me. My court date is July 5th. I am hoping this will
get thrown out of court based on the fact it was deeded to the
public and we will have our beach access rights reinstated. I
bailed myself out and am heading to work now so I am ok.
Oh the bastards. Oh the rich bastards or maybe I’m wrong. Maybe
this is just the way things are and we should all thank the rich
for succeeding where we failed.
Should we be satisfied eating our cake?
If you don’t like cake, call Bob! 252-679-6575
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Watch: Captain Cook’s hometown locals are
crazy about the “Pastime of Kings!”
Captain Cook, as you well know from the
historically significant book Welcome to Paradise, Now Go to Hell
(buy here), was likely the first European to witness surfing and
let us honor the work by reading a passage together.
The history of surfing itself is as shrouded in fog as any
ancient art and it certainly was an art as practiced in Hawaii. It
involved praying, carving boards from giant koa trees, and showing
off for topless babes on the beach. Tongans, Samoans, and Tahitians
all take credit for being the first “wave sliders.” It was the
Tahitians who were first observed, by a European, riding waves in
1767. Captain Cook and his men witnessed surfing in 1769, also in
Tahiti, on their first journey and in Hawaii on this their
third.
Well, it turns out that Captain Cook was a beach living man
himself, hailing from the small town of Marton which has since been
swallowed by the larger Middlesbrough there on jolly England’s
north east side. Our J.P. Currie might know of a worse place to
surf but I can’t seem to find one. The waves, freezing and
toe-high, are unable to push an anorexic VAL on a 12-foot
softboard. The sky, perpetually grey but these facts don’t even
begin to dent the locals’ passion for the “Pastime of Kings.”
They love it!
And I love the sorts of little BBC interstitial programming that
gets shown on long haul flights to London Heathrow.
Let’s watch together and pretend that’s what we’re doing. Flying
to London Heathrow together on some fun adventure like… I don’t
know to Piccadilly Circus.
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Jordy Smith rides six-three, dominates wave,
heat. WSL
Margaret River Pro, Day one: “You can’t let
the hair in the salad spoil the salad!” says Jordy Smith
Gorgeous backlit peaks, Gabriel, Toledo, Smith,
Italo and John John dominant…
Three events and one day down on the fourth, I think
sufficient time has elapsed to make some judgements about
the format changes for the CT this year.
Over-lapping heats: brilliant, transformed what would have been
a debacle at Bells beach into an historic day.
Seeding Round and Elimination Round: Bollocks, as our English
Pals would say.
They front load the contest with inconsequence. Drag it out
interminably. Even the great Assenter, Joey Turpel, after another
long, long fatally unspecific day, was wont to drift off script.
Towards the end of the day, in gorgeous backlit peaks whose silken
dresses were shunted skywards by professional surfers Turpel riffed
that he couldn’t think of a more open-minded sport than
surfing.
Emboldened, he proffered the first original thought I have heard
him utter in, what, ten years?
“What about a shot clock for priority, Pottz?”
For a bloke who has never once stared pro surfing in the eye and
wondered “why is there something and not nothing” it was
revolutionary.
You know if Joey is visibly drifting the action is slow. Pottz
shoved him back in the box, quick smart.
“What about the bloke who waits all heat for priority?”
Bad idea. Or words to that effect.
Not much more controversy today than Joe’s blue-sky thinking. I
spent the duration of the time from the end of Keramas to Margies
going over each of the scoring waves from the heat analyser.
Kanoa’s 9.1 in the final
still makes no sense.
Therefore the first question of day one at Margs: Would judges
recover their composure and bring the scale back to sanity and
comprehension.
By and large, they did.
Second question. Would John John Florence show up with 2017 form
and potentially create an almost unassailable gap between himself
and his pursuers?
One of the favoured cliches uttered in the pressers is that it’s
a marathon, not a sprint. Not really true. John had the Title
wrapped after Margs in 2017. Kelly had many won before the halfway
mark. Poor starts have cost Gabe Medina at least one world title,
possibly more.
JJF overpowered Kelly and Jaddy Andre in heat one. His 2017 form
looks within reach. It was good to have Barton back in the booth.
He said Kelly looked great. He did not look great. He looked
terrible. Board choice is a nightmare for him. The Akila Aipa seems
locked in a goldilocks zone, too easily overpowered by Kelly today
in textured-up mainbreak.
Is there a bigger irony than the fact that the only guy on Tour
who owns his own surfboard company can’t get his personal whips
dialed? Kelly’s next heat is likely to be in ten-foot surf.
Will he have a board to deal with it?
Third question. Would Italo Ferriera bring an injured repertoire
into Margs from Keramas. The ugly moon boot was there, but
infringement on the repertoire there was not. In twelve heats Italo
launched the only successful rotation and was highly rewarded for
it.
But there is something rock and roll: it’s you and me against
the world babe, no?
Gabe Medina is in tenth spot on the rankings. That is an
aberration. Gabe Medina has been the best surfer on Tour this year.
Cruelled by the decision to sit out perfect three-to-four-foot
D-bah and hold the Finals day in slop on the Gold Coast, loser of a
line ball call against JJF at Bells and one landed huck or tube
ride away from beating Fioravanti in Bali.
The second I wrote Gabe: Whats wrong? In my notes he exploded
into the best wave of the day. No one comes harder and more
definitively off the bottom on the opening manouevre. It was the
first and best excellent score of the day.
Kelly Slater rode a 5’8” and looked short changed. Jordy rode a
six three-and-a-half and was alpha. Big turns, full turns. He
admitted to Rosie Hodge that the Keramas loss had really hurt but
had come to the conclusion that you “can’t let the hair in the
salad spoil the salad.”
Which would be the opening line of the opening lesson in kids’
sex education classes if I ever designed the curriculum.
I know this will sound silly but hear me out.
After J-Flo’s tight loss to Igarashi in Keramas and watching him
surf today the top turn match up I would most like to see in big
Margs, or even tube-riding at the Box is JJF and Jezza Flores.
Jezza lost the heat. Sorry, there are no losers in the Seeding
Round. Barton waxed lyrical about the Seeding Round, about how it
could incentivise you and make the seeding bracket dynamic. Eyes
glazed over here, Barton.
You can’t explain it. No one can. John Florence doesn’t
understand it. I bet Jake Patterson is the only man in pro surfing
who does.
Jesse Mendes threw the biggest golden showers. Jack Robbo missed
his heat, on the way back from Chile, which seemed a very Robbo
thing to do. God I would love to see him give Kanoa a good old
fashioned flogging at the Box or North Point.
Not to hate on Iggs, we are all learning to love him. Each in
our own imperfect way. Such is life.
Twelve heats in very nice surf, three excellent rides, no
losers: was the return on investment.
Margaret River Pro Men’s Seeding Round (Round 1)
Results:
Heat 1: John John Florence (HAW) 12.84 DEF. Jadson Andre (BRA)
11.64, Kelly Slater (USA) 10.34
Heat 2: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) 12.73 DEF. Soli Bailey (AUS) 11.80,
Yago Dora (BRA) 9.33
Heat 3: Peterson Crisanto (BRA) 10.56 DEF. Julian Wilson (AUS)
10.27, Caio Ibelli (BRA) 10.17
Heat 4: Italo Ferreira (BRA) 14.03 DEF. Joan Duru (FRA) 12.84,
Frederico Morais (PRT) 11.90
Heat 5: Gabriel Medina (BRA) 14.70 DEF. Deivid Silva (BRA) 11.94,
Jacob Willcox (AUS) 11.60
Heat 6: Filipe Toledo (BRA) 14.73 DEF. Sebastian Zietz (HAW) 12.00,
Jack Robinson (AUS)
Heat 7: Jordy Smith (ZAF) 14.77 DEF. Ricardo Christie (NZL) 9.14,
Adrian Buchan (AUS) 8.93
Heat 8: Kolohe Andino (USA) 11.70 DEF. Seth Moniz (HAW) 11.23, Jack
Freestone (AUS) 10.73
Heat 9: Ryan Callinan (AUS) 11.57 DEF. Conner Coffin (USA) 9.77,
Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) 9.57
Heat 10: Ezekiel Lau (HAW) 13.53 DEF. Michael Rodrigues (BRA)
12.67, Wade Carmichael (AUS) 11.50
Heat 11: Jesse Mendes (BRA) 14.60 DEF. Jeremy Flores (FRA) 13.34,
Willian Cardoso (BRA) 9.70
Heat 12: Owen Wright (AUS) 12.10 DEF. Griffin Colapinto (USA)
12.00, Michel Bourez (FRA) 5.33
Margaret River Pro Men’s Elimination Round (Round 2)
Matchups:
Heat 1: Wade Carmichael (AUS) vs. Jack Freestone (AUS) vs. Jack
Robinson (AUS)
Heat 2: Michel Bourez (FRA) vs. Leonardo Fioravanti (ITA) vs. Jacob
Willcox (AUS)
Heat 3: Willian Cardoso (BRA) vs. Yago Dora (BRA) vs. Frederico
Morais (PRT)
Heat 4: Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Caio Ibelli
(BRA)
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Two years ago, BeachGrit's tour reporter
Longtom wrote, "John John Florence's surfing alone justifies
Margaret River as a CT tour stop. It almost justifies the whole
tour." WSL
Open thread: Comment live, Day One,
Margaret River Pro!
John John Florence's surfing justifies Margaret
River as a tour event says BeachGrit's tour reporter. And, guess
who's opening the seeding round? Post your comments here…
Yesterday, I was in Margaret River examining the
machinations surrounding the tour event there, as well as
spending a day with Italo Ferreira who has returned to Western
Australia despite reservations regarding the wisdom of holding an
event within the habitat of the Great White shark.
I can report that the waves have been very good,
four-to-six-foot and brushed by that rarest of phenomenon in the
west, the offshore, and that the Box just across the bay there, was
open for biz.
It’s a little smaller today, I believe, and the women will mow
through their seeding round, which comprises six heats, before John
John opens the men’s in roughly three hours.
Joining John will be the steamrolling Kelly Slater and perennial
underdog Jadson Andre.
Margaret River Pro Women’s Seeding Round (Round 1)
Matchups:
Heat 1: Caroline Marks (USA) vs. Johanne Defay (FRA) vs. Paige
Hareb (NZL)
Heat 2: Carissa Moore (HAW) vs. Nikki Van Dijk (AUS) vs. Keely
Andrew (AUS)
Heat 3: Stephanie Gilmore (AUS) vs. Coco Ho (HAW) vs. Mia McCarthy
(AUS)
Heat 4: Courtney Conlogue (USA) vs. Brisa Hennessy (CRI) vs. Macy
Callaghan (AUS)
Heat 5: Sally Fitzgibbons (AUS) vs. Tatiana Weston-Webb (BRA) vs.
Silvana Lima (BRA)
Heat 6: Malia Manuel (HAW) vs. Lakey Peterson (USA) vs. Bronte
Macaulay (AUS)
Margaret River Pro Men’s Seeding Round (Round 1)
Matchups:
Heat 1: John John Florence (HAW) vs. Kelly Slater (USA) vs. Jadson
Andre (BRA)
Heat 2: Kanoa Igarashi (JPN) vs. Yago Dora (BRA) vs. Soli Bailey
(AUS)
Heat 3: Julian Wilson (AUS) vs. Peterson Crisanto (BRA) vs. Caio
Ibelli (BRA)
Heat 4: Italo Ferreira (BRA) vs. Joan Duru (FRA) vs. Frederico
Morais (PRT)
Heat 5: Gabriel Medina (BRA) vs. Deivid Silva (BRA), Jacob Willcox
(AUS)
Heat 6: Filipe Toledo (BRA) vs. Sebastian Zietz (HAW), Jack
Robinson (AUS)
Heat 7: Jordy Smith (ZAF) vs. Adrian Buchan (AUS) vs. Ricardo
Christie (NZL)
Heat 8: Kolohe Andino (USA) vs. Seth Moniz (HAW) vs. Jack Freestone
(AUS)
Heat 9: Conner Coffin (USA) vs. Ryan Callinan (AUS) vs. Leonardo
Fioravanti (ITA)
Heat 10: Wade Carmichael (AUS) vs. Michael Rodrigues (BRA) vs.
Ezekiel Lau (HAW)
Heat 11: Jeremy Flores (FRA) vs. Willian Cardoso (BRA) vs. Jesse
Mendes (BRA)
Heat 12: Owen Wright (AUS) vs. Michel Bourez (FRA) vs. Griffin
Colapinto (USA)
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Jon Pyzel and Matt Biolos by
@theneedforshutterspeed/Step Bros
