"He repeatedly tried to fight me by asking if I ‘wanted a go bro’ and rammed his board into mine second time creating a large dent on the bottom of my board the size of a breakfast bowl."

The VAL surfing world has been rocked after an almost-violent episode at The Pass in Byron Bay with insult added to injury when “older white men” made fun of the surfer’s plight on the Instagram account @lordsofbyronbay.

First, the post as it appeared on Facebook via the Byron Bay Community Board

The ocean is for surfing and enjoyment, not for abuse.

I was physically and verbally assaulted in the surf at the pass today around 9am by a guy with a dark green mini mal with dark short cut hair and a moustache in black boardies.

I followed surf etiquette (been surfing since I was 12) and did not hear any ‘yep!’ or other call on the wave definitely couldn’t see anyone else already on it on the inside or outside. The person who was paddling for the wave on the wave ontnhe inside gave up so I went for it. at the last minute this guys came across the front of my board from the outside to block me from a wave crushing my hand. I said ‘wtf dude’ in shock at what had just happened.

He then repeatedly tried to fight me by asking if I ‘wanted a go bro’ and rammed his board into mine second time creating a large dent on the bottom of my board the size of a breakfast bowl. I was extremely confused and in shock. I had no idea where this guy came from or why he hadn’t called the wave as is normal if you can see another in front of you. I apologised even though I really did not think I was the one that had been in the wrong but he was too busy yelling over me to fight him..

I’ve never experienced this level of aggression or violence in or out of the surf ever.. and I grew up on the beach! Usually there are grumpy remarks and some apologies but it’s water off a ducks back and people would rather enjoy surfing.
Threatening another with violence is a crime and just sad way to be human. That anyone would consider that a way to interact with a stranger in any circumstances is fucked.

If anyone has had similar experiences at the pass I’d like to here from you. I’ll be making a police report because my property was damaged (board) and I was assaulted. I would suggest anyone who is assaulted make a police report so that the police are in a better position to act on this recurring crime.

UPDATE: in 20 mins you can clearly see from the comments and thier likes that some older white men are justifying or normalising the behavior. Women and parents have been sharing their experiences and mostly condemning the behavior.

And, as presented on @lordsofbyronbay along with the hashtag #gobacktothevalley,

The event is best summarised, I think, in this exchange.

redwinelibby
What is wrong with some people on here? Majority are trolling someone sharing an experience that isn’t acceptable. Support this person- don’t take your daily frustrations out on them via judgements and poor humour.

lordsofbyronbay
@redwinelibby I think it’s because the original poster firstly dropped in… then was aggressive with his swearing at the person he dropped in on… and then played the victim in a public forum when he was the one in the wrong by his account of what happened.

"It was a big set and it broke so wide it wiped out, like, six of the boats, twelve kids in total."

A flotilla of twelve-year-old wanna be sailors is lucky to be alive after almost being washed into rocks at Santa Cruz harbour late yesterday. The group, part of a sail training school, entered the harbour mouth just as a clean-up set swept through the lineup, overturning the boats and throwing the kids into the water.

Fifteen-year-old photographer Connor Garde, a freshman there at Soquel High, was shooting his buddies from the beach when he saw the drama unfurl.

“They came in at the very worst time,” Connor told BeachGrit during a break from school. “It was a big set and it broke so wide it wiped out, like, six of the boats, twelve kids in total.”

On the beach, Connor says chuckles quickly turned to panic with the alarm raised, 911 called etc.

Before help via jetskis arrived, surfers in the lineup had scooped up the kids and got ’em to safety.

“We’ve had days like this where we end up with nine, ten people on our boat that are being rescued simultaneously, so it’s not just one person getting rescued because they got in over their heads. It’s half the people in the water sometimes,” Assistant Santa Cruz Harbor Master, Sean Rothwell, told KSBW.

Scroll through the vids below.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJ6Y9FMhyYt/

"It will always float to the top of the bowl."

In this episode of Dirty Water, number forty, we find Steve “Longtom” Shearer in terrific form.

Shearer, who wears out his brain thinking, takes the listener back onto the WSL tour, remembers an “epic” Pipe contest and the absurdity of a world title contender, suddenly fat, who didn’t want to be there.

As Shearer wrote at the time,

“It was hard to watch Filipe Toledo in the first heat of the round of 32, for example, without feeling a real sense of pity.

“Seven waves ridden in 40 minutes, nothing close to clean make. Pip got boofed in the head by the lip, Pip out ran the toob- once, twice, three times, Pip went straight to the beach. There was talk in the booth all day about spiritual connections and the mental health benefits of the ocean and here was a guy, clearly unprepared on every level, melting down in front of our eyes. It was actually a relief when it was done.

“Where too for Pip? Isn’t there some sort of God who can help him?”

Today, Shearer describes Pip’s surfing as “performative non-makes… he isn’t even making progress. He’s going backwards.”

Chas Smith, who shares with Shearer his guts and flexibility of thought, calls in briefly from Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and casts a wicked eye over Mikey Wright’s front-page heroics during a recent Hawaiian rescue.

The episode concludes with a vivid account of goat castration and Shearer’s subsequent epiphany regarding testosterone.

Listen, or not.