“If I carry a surfboard, can I go in the water even if I don’t know how to surf?”
And we have just concluded Memorial Day weekend, in these United States of America, the unofficial kickoff to summer. But did you have a good one? Enjoyable? Able to go outside and enjoy the weather, maybe even go for a surf, or were you locked indoors, shackled by fear or the authorities prohibiting activity in order to stop the spread of disease?
I had a very good one, sailing out to Catalina Island, SCUBA diving, peering into the unmasked faces of giant grouper refusing to practice social distancing.
Catalina is normally packed during this time but Coronavirus rendered it a virtual ghost island, only a small handful of boats moored in the harbor. Still, everything was allowed from 1980s style jet-skiing to SCUBA diving to fishing to jumping off high rocks into the cool brine.
A happy-though-small water-based community.
Things are not such in New York City where the authorities are attempting to drive a wedge between surfers and swimmers, possibly with the intention of starting a civil war, but shall we learn more?
City beaches will be a surfers’ paradise, but swimmers will be sidelined under a wishy-washy set of rules dropped by the city and the NYPD on the eve of Memorial Day Weekend.
“The beaches are open, but the water is not for swimming,” said Brian Conroy, assistant chief of the NYPD’s Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, in a press briefing at the Abe Stark Sports Center in Coney Island.
“You can go in ankle deep, wade in the water,” Conroy continued. “Surfers will be allowed into the water.”
The half-measure move was swiftly blasted as all wet.
“This is just more mixed messaging,” said City Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn). “We need to have very clear guidelines here, because if you don’t you’re just setting yourself up for tragedy and-or confrontation.
“If I carry a surfboard, can I go in the water even if I don’t know how to surf?”
City Councilman Donovan Richards, a Queens Democrat representing sandy Far Rockaway, said that he was left “scratching my head” over the gnarly policy.
The policy does seem arbitrary, or “gnarly”, and will likely inflame long dormant rage between surfers and swimmers. Pitched battles in the parking lots etc. Slap fights in the lineup between swimmers dragging surfboards behind them, clogging up the works.
Do you like ocean swimming? I tried to get into it, once, but couldn’t figure out how to breathe properly with so much chop splashing my face.
Also, do you like when the mainstream media writes about surfing and uses terms like gnarly?
I do.
new york is fucking shithole
Best surfer I ever knew couldn’t swim
mate heaps of surfers can’t swim. But you never find out because they have leg ropes and get washed in safely.
Are we including the Darwinian Perspective?
I once saw my cousin helping a kid who had lost his board cause he wasn’t wearing a leash. It looked like he was hurt cause my cousin pushed him in on his board. When I asked what happened he said the kid was having an asthma attack. So I said “oh so that’s why he was on your board” and he replied “no, he couldn’t swim.”
An asthmatic who can’t swim that surfs with no leash. A true underdog story!
Goat still no joke
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
gnar gnar bexy, be careful amigo
I haventt been out here since 2003
Still pulling out the urchins
When u gonna untie LGR?
Piggy don’t swim… https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
(this morning out the back yard)
Can’t believe you forgot about Walter!
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Ice skating definitely…. sorry bro. Do you look forward to Bob Costa’s soft lens athlete bio’s or the actual competition where said American profiled fails to make the cut?
There’s a message in your movements, it really gets my GOAT…. look for silver linings, but you’re rotten to the core
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Hey Balderdash… you remember the Cuckoo’s Nest? Maybe you’re too young, you missed Echo.
Oh the ‘nest! Drive by the old location daily.
was down there working, spent time with Lance and then drove by…. called something else now, no gilded cage, but that place was ground zero in the day. So much fun.
I was really hoping someone with IT skills would post up “whip it”…but that will do
How those red hats never took off in the fashion world, I will never know
Gut feeling is the only song of theirs I can stomach. Intro is sick.
Did you see TSOL’s concert this weekend on youtube? Fucking Jack is back, snarling and funny as ever.
I missed it, but will watch, thanks for the tip
Could we get them with The Johnny’s, and occy, to do a filthy habits reunion tour?
It’s not Mc Coy era TSOL, but the original punk band featuring Jack.
In the Wind”” was the best of the billafuck movies (sorry Mc Coy), but even Derek Reilly can’t find that flick… Warshaw too….
Slaves, Mary’s Danish, Lincoln…. great sound tracks, Concrete Blonde who is great in concert, btw.
Yeah filthy habits doesn’t hold up at all surf wise, but I like the soundtrack
And some words of wisdom from someone not so wise: don’t mistake a TSOL search on YouTube with a 5SOS. Some sights you can’t unsee, some sounds you can’t unhear
Thank you for that…. here is a link to the show….
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Seen TSOL in Sydney last year. Fuck it was rad. Was also the first gig in ages where I was the youngest cat in the room! Didn’t realize they did a lockdown show will suss.
Live from a bowling alley in Vegas, aired Saturday afternoon Murica time.
Ended with code blue…. of course
I forgot this song
So unique with the speed up
Cool tune.
Based on that first question, I was pretty sure this was going to be another story about you and that turquoise mid-length
He’s never gonna ride it now! Everyone has made fun of his attitude towards it along with it’s size, progenitor and colouring. He should give it to the commentor who has made the most repetitive comment over the past 12mths… because that size board is all about repeating what you did on the last wave and what people did on waves 40-50 years ago.
Do you think he even surfs? He likes to call himself a surfer more than any real surfer and he covered the tour from miles away…. ??? It was very funny and irreverent, but not real genuine.
Did he “cover” any war from within any distance of the conflict or just the most local airport? Maybe from a posh lounge in Dubai?
And how many trips does he go on without surfing? Like, all of them except that commercial he did for Nica resort… lots of boating without surf, trip to Covid Euro with his tiny well dressed kid and …..
Even when he sacrificed himself setting up his own violations/citations against beach closure, he didn’t have a board with him. Is BG the closest he gets to surfing? Or a podcast?
Things that make you go hmmm……
The only thing we can be sure of… he looked good while doing it.
I like this policy. Therefore it is fair
Considering this is the time of the year that I call “Drowning Season” I think making the city dwellers have seven feet of foam strapped to their ankles is a good thing.
We already had one drowning last week in Rockaway Beach so without lifeguards around it’ll only get worse,.
This happens where I live when the surf gets big: lifeguards will not allow swimming or bodyboarding without fins, but anybody with a surfboard is free to drown.
Well, this is a surfing (and shark) oriented website, afterall. Just as long as NY is allowing surfing, all is right in the world. Swimmers, tough luck.
Here in Long Beach the beach has stayed open and surfing hasn’t been an issue. Technically swimming isn’t permitted any time of the year if Lifeguards aren’t on duty. That is done so that the town can limit its liability from the inevitable drownings that take place every year.
hey chas, check out @hellosport podcast in instagram, great little thumb nail for their latest poddy. b
Good to see you Phatty!
“If I carry a surfboard, can I go in the water even if I don’t know how to surf?”
Yes, go ahead, it’s called an “ELo.” You’ll have fun!