Urbnsurf say he surfed in an advanced session “when
he knew or ought to have known this was beyond his skill and
capability”.
Always gonna happen, I suppose, someone hitting the
concrete bottom of a tank and busting their neck.
I’ve been to Urbnsurf, Australia’s first commercial tank, down
in Melbourne four times and on two separate occasions a decent
sorta surfer has bounced off the bottom, headfirst.
The first was Swellnet’s Stu Nettle on media day there three
years ago, a gorgeous summer day where the temperature hit 110
degrees, and where the pool was loosed to the clowns for a dozen
non-stop hours.
Real early in the piece, Stu was sucked up the face of a
lefthand tube and into the concrete bottom when a layback went
awry.
As he wrote at the
time,
“Before setting foot in the pool everyone signed a waiver about
surfing being an inherently dangerous activity. It’s a formality of
course. I expected as much. But it takes on significance when you
realise the danger.
“Yeah, the danger.
“Allow me to provide some perspective.
“The first time you hit bottom is a shock. It’s hard concrete
and maybe thigh deep where the lip hits. Fall on take off and
you’re trying to find a place to hide in knee deep water as the lip
of the next wave pitches and the rider and board
pass overhead.
“My session ended after two hours when the toe side rail caught
during a layback and I went over leading with my head and shoulder,
each making contact and hard. The lifeguards, who’d just stitched
up another punter, were quickly onto me, sitting me down and
assessing damage. They decided on glue and steristrips, and an
enforced end to the session. Tail between my legs, I went poolside
to dry off.”
On another all-dayer a pal head-butted the bottom after being
sucked up the face of the righthander and ended the day in the
hozzy.
But you take your lickings. You sign the waiver; you know the
bottom ain’t sand; and if it barrels, it’s gotta be
shallow.
Capiche?
Maybe.
Peter Nolan, a thirty-five-year-old surfer and carpenter from
the beach town of Ocean Grove an hour-and-a-half out of Melbourne,
has filed a writ saying he suffered fractures in his spine and at
the base of his neck after being belted by the pool last December
30.
Nolan says he was “picked up by a wave and thrown into the
concrete surface of the pool” and has been off work ever
since.
Nolan claims Urbnsurf should’ve warned him about the dangers
despite anyone who gets in the tank signing a waiver which details
“the risk of harm associated with surfing … as an obvious
risk.”
He told the Herald-Sun, “I feel incredibly lucky that I’m not a
paraplegic or quadriplegic after hitting the concrete so hard,
especially since my surgeon told me that many people who experience
something like I did end up in a wheelchair… The psychological
impact has been tough, and I pretty much avoid surfing now out of
fear of getting hurt.”
Urbnsurf, in their defence, say Nolan surfed in an advanced
session “when he knew or ought to have known this was beyond his
skill and capability”.
Bummer for Nolan, but not sure what else Urbnsurf could’ve done
to y’know, make it a safe space and so on.
The case goes to court in October, 2023.
If the suit succeeds the implications could be myriad, helmets,
an end to Beast sessions etc.
