"There is no holiday this year…"

From midnight, Coolly time, the Superbank is going to be shuttered, courtesy of the Gold Coast City Council.

Come tomoz morn, the joint, theoretically, at least, will be empty for the first time in living memory. It ain’t gonna be that great, so first day of the jackboot, no one’s missing a thing.

It ain’t the only beach getting shut down, either.

The Gold Coast Council will close all beaches from the The Spit to Surfers Paradise as well as that pretty long stretch of sand in Coolangatta that stretches to Kirra in the north.

All the other beaches from Coolangatta to Surfers will be open for locals, but closed to non-Gold Coast residents.

From the ABC,

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said while locals were doing the right thing, there had been some visitors at beaches not following social-distancing rules.

“Unfortunately, over the weekend, out-of-towners are descending on the Gold Coast in mass numbers and I fear that this number will increase over the Easter weekend,” he said.

“Therefore, as of midnight on Tuesday, The Spit, Surfers Paradise and Coolangatta beaches will be closed [to everyone].”

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll said beaches would be “heavily patrolled” by police.

“Not only those beaches [that have been closed] — all of the beaches as we go into Easter weekend,” she said.

It’s unclear, at this stage, whether Kelly Slater, who owns a holiday apartment in Palm Beach and who has been in self-quarantine there for the last week, will be bulldozed out of his bed after midnight as a non-resident.

More from the ABC,

Commissioner Carroll said people who owned holiday homes should remain at their “principal residence”.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk reiterated people were not to treat the Easter break as a holiday.

“There is no holiday this year,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

Ratcheting down on the public from all sides without proof will sacrifice precious goodwill…

April 5, 2020: 

Dear Dr. Kim Prather (and Surfline, the Surfrider lobby, etc),

As someone who is very close to the SARS-CoV-2 mitigation efforts (as a scientist and CEO of a biotech company developing a novel TLR7 agonist to treat SARS-CoV-2) I am very disappointed that you went to the LA Times with very strong claims about a virus you don’t have any data on and have not ever studied.

Have you published any peer reviewed articles on corona viruses and infectivity humans in the ocean?

Do you have any training in virology, public health, immunology, medicine, pandemic mitigation, etc?

No.

Did you help scare the hell out of the public and law enforcement with a lot of claims but no data?

Yes and yes.

The total beach closures that you have promoted have directly led to significant crowding of the coastal roads and walking paths. People are so closely confined in these already constrained areas as they walk that they are spreading the virus to a far greater degree than if they were in the open water or walking along a wide beach.

Come on up to Encinitas and walk Neptune Ave or the Cardiff trail, well done.

If the public continues to get hammered with conjecture as fact from SARS-CoV-2 “experts“, such as yourself and the irrelevant Surfrider lobby, they will eventually lose faith in the necessary process of shared sacrifice and cooperation.

I now cannot walk near my house during the day.

This going to be a very long fight and the public needs to be presented with data, facts, and proof from subject matter experts before major policy changes that have grave knock-on effects are enacted.

If the public continues to get hammered with conjecture as fact from SARS-CoV-2 “experts“ such as yourself and the irrelevant Surfrider lobby, they will eventually lose faith in the necessary process of shared sacrifice and cooperation.

If just three percent of an already highly stressed public says “screw it” then the authorities will immediately lose ALL control.

Since one percent of the population has schizophrenia getting three percent to totally losing it a few months is pretty easy.

Ratcheting down on the public from all sides without proof will sacrifice precious goodwill that we’ll need down the road as the facts on the ground change.

You are not alone.

I have seen a number of others touting breakthroughs and cures with bogus promises of being to treat the public in just a few months, when such options are much further out and that assumes their ideas pan out.

Most of my friends and my childrens’ friends who surf everyday, many at crowded spots, have not gotten sick.

That’s over 100 people surfing crowded spots everyday for months and months.

And, if you account for the huge number of untested and asymptotic virus shedders in SD County, there is a huge probability they have been shedding virus while surfing with all these kids and adults.

Humans have been shedding trillions of infectious viruses and bacteria into the ocean via sewage, run off and simply by being in the ocean. Some of the pathogens that are being released all the time are: e-coli, hepatitis A, influenza, herpes, norovirus, HPV, etc.

And yet the North County surfing public is just fine.

So please, collect coastal zone data to determine if there is in fact infectious SARS-CoV-2 particles in sufficient concentrations (as compared to the crowded Cardiff rail trail) to cause an infection. Then coordinate with the relevant subject matter experts (not the LA Times) to challenge your data and conclusions – in private.

Then you can contribute to peer-reviewed journals and contribute to policy decisions and risk benefit analysis.

Unlike your familiar zone of climate change and politics, the day-to-day decisions we are making regarding SARS-CoV-2 can directly lead to many more deaths.

If the ocean is in fact how the virus can super-spread then I will run ads in the local papers warning of such dangers and happily give you all the credit you would deserve.

Regards,

Charlie McDermott

PS: Dear paid Surfrider activists, please shut up, shelter in place, and do not drive to my neighborhood to spy on my family.

"Desperation is objective and real. Surfing is now prohibited. Is that inglorious or fucking what?"

The drive from my home to quiet surfing is equally quiet. Rarely traffic. The beach breaks don’t seem to capture the imagination of those socially inclined to easy cove surf. Something about tighter transitions and a little more girth keep the VAL’s at bay.

Or so it seems so far.

With a historically poor winter on the points, I’ve dug in deeper to the sands of random beach breaks.

I laughed at the concept of social distancing because I’ve been practising for this my entire adult life and these misfits of sand and short-period windwell fit the profile I’ve become. Plus, you can work on quick twitch, tight transitions… at least that’s my favorite rationalization on the eve of any trip.

The drive today was very familiar, it feels like my car can execute the distance without my attention.

I pulled up to an empty lineup scattered with dog shit peaks trying to lure this angry, grumpy local out of my warm car.

“Roll down your window, please,” the dark shadow on my passenger side requested.

I never saw him pull up behind me.

“What is going on, officer?”

“I’m going to ask you to drive home. If you require an explanation, I will ask for your license, registration and insurance docs. The fine is exorbitant.”

He had his ticket book in hand and opened to a page he has reserved for me.

Two weeks ago, I opened three emails that wiped out my business. I’m very sensitive to new debts and I didn’t want to find out what he means by “exorbitant”.

Rumors are floating that the new fines for surfing are one thousand dollars. That’s more than the flight to Auckland I canceled just three weeks ago.

I drove away from a virtually empty, mile-long stretch of beach and was now acutely aware of my surroundings.

Past the point break I’ve spent four decades surfing, I see the police barricade.

How did I miss it on my way just minutes before?

Two more sheriffs standing sentry over the beach park that the RV’s occupy. Another motorcycle cop sitting by the mushy reef I never surf.

Why are there so many law enforcement occupying such an innocuous roadway, empty of fellow travelers?

The freeway is vacant.

I stop to shoot the flashing warning signs without pulling over… there is no need to. There is one car in sight and it’s well ahead of me.

The turnoff to Rincon is not usually lonely.

And there he sits, another sheriff and there it sits, another flashing sign in the lower parking lot.

The waves don’t warrant a citation, but the message is clear, Ventura County surfing is being shut down.

Another “Brick in the Wall” or is it another attack on our common sense/logic?

We don’t have LA/OC/SD crowds beyond the dormant points, how can law enforcement close long stretches of lonely beach and why?

I drive by a horrible stretch of sand within the Santa Barbara County and notice young kids at play together looking like a surf school. The beach is relatively busy, just four miles from the closure zone.

How long until SB beaches are shuttered?

I drive home and grab the puppy for a short walk to look at my sand point, the venue of last resorts.

It reminds me that I’m looking for diamonds in a pile of coal.

Puppy doesn’t seem to mind and I aspire to have her attitude, though it’s too late to change my tiger stripes.

Tiger stripes, has that fucking show infected my consciousness?

I never watched TV beyond sports before this paradigm began.

I am now a Tiger in a cage.

Will the legal goal posts ever be removed or has the game changed?

How often have goal posts moved and then moved back again?

I can’t remember.