“His leg rope broke and wrapped around her neck.”
It’s long been the bitterest of pills to swallow for the non-contest surfer.
You roll up to your local on the one or two days you have off each week from schlepping drywall or, if you live in Australia, pushing NDIS funded cripples around, and you beach is closed for a surf contest.
Dare to enter the cordoned off area and the megaphones will roar and jet skis will hunt you out of the water. It’s a conflict embedded in the culture and a source, often, of comedy and, or, violence.
(Note: Here we see Kala Alexander of the Wolf Pak administer a classic BJJ takedown-to-mount, before the obligatory ground and pound some years ago at Pipe. Wait, no we don’t. All videos of the scrap removed.)
The latter was wrenched into the open at a New Zealands surfing contest over the weekend when the Benchmark Canterbury Women’s Surf Champs was overrun by non-contest surfers.
The competition welcomed everyone from beginners to experienced riders and showcased a wonderfully diverse range of ages and surfing techniques, with the smooth-faced, head-high waves providing ideal conditions. Very surfing 2025.
“It was incredible,” said Emma Clarke, an organizer from Coastal Wāhine, the women’s surf collective behind the event. “You rarely get waves like that all day long.”
It was these conditions that attracted not only participants and onlookers but also numerous other non-competing surfers, some of whom encroached on the competition zone.
Co-organiser Laura Bennett reported an incident where a competitor was struck by a male surfer’s board.
“His leash snapped and got tangled around her arm. It was hazardous and damaged her board,” she said.
Despite multiple loudspeaker announcements urging non-competitors to clear the designated heat area, surfers remained defiantly in the zone.
And here we ask the obligatory philosophical questions: what are the ethics behind the shuttering of a wave for a contest? Should it ever be allowed and do the rules apply equally to a grand slam and a kid’s school event? Should contest areas be respected?
Beyond all that, is it just too much fun to taunt contest organisers by catching a few little wedges under their noses?
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Fuck self important boardriders contests taking over breaks, usually a weekend, usually the only good bank or only spot with conditions , too many recreational and visiting tourist surfers these days , ironically encouraged by webcasts of pro events in the region , “non exclusive” use is the law unless its a pro event ,no matter what the angry dad or mum with the bullhorn may be telling you
You wouldn’t rock up to a basketball court and start practicing free throws in the middle of a club game, so don’t surf in a comp zone
Basket ball courts and public beaches with waves are not really a great comparison
At recent boardriders, an old guy was surfing through many heats but since he’d been surfing there since he was like… 5YO, no one begrudged him, and he also was never in any conflict with the waves the competitors were chasing.
Horses for courses I reckon. If there’s 3 peaks in close proximity but the heat is basically only on one, then I think the others are fair game until a jersey-wearer paddles over to it. Even then, if you only go when they aren’t trying to catch one, then likewise, I reckon it’s OK.
But that’s my optimistic opinion of a rather crowded break at the best of times.
Surfing women’s day , surfing mums day, wild women of the sea day , girls go surfing day etc etc , farrk it’s about time we had a blokes go surfing day dont you think.
We’ve had that day, everyday for 50 years or so.
Untrue never been a specific “men only surf day ” don’t be confused with surf competitions.
Been fucked since Gidget the little Jewess turned up at the bu.
If you’re feeling left out and need a mens surfing day, surfing dads, wild men of the sea etc etc go ahead and start one up. I’m sure Women won’t be moaning in chatrooms about it either.
Go get a black dog up ya , fuck women’s surfing.
Pushing NDIS cripples around 🤣🤣. Ain’t that the truth. Everyone is a support worker
Is that the same Canterbury region contest (just down the road from the home of well-known BG bad(ge) boy ‘Negs’, and H.Q. of the Kaikoura ‘Cray Pak’ surf enforcers) that W.A. ex-mens longboard champ Sasha ‘Lowbrow Slasher’ Lowenstein received a celebrity invite to ?
Sounds like the organisers should’ve called the Cray Pak to clear the lineup of noncompetitors, and avoid incidents like this near strangulation.
Or is the place so overrun with women’s surf tournaments that the areas disenfranchised men are attempting some sort of equitable solution through this protest ?
Yeah it’s Sumner in Christchurch. The most learner friendly, mushiest, long wave on the east coast. Added bonus of a dry hair paddle out through the rip in the Southern end. Longboarding heaven.
Different event than the Single fin mingle that Sasha competed in, but same location.
Judged the event many times over the years, it’s a well supported, loved and run event and the only Girls only event on the circuit. My Gal broke her toe so we didn’t go this year.
I don’t think events are overrunning the beach, maybe a couple this year and a grom comp? maybe a some local club comps too? I guess that’s a bit. Big beach/playing field though, so I’m guessing just kooks.
grew up in Sumner, and yes… waves that are steeper off the back than the front, was the call.
Ha, I like when it said “Kala mounted the guy.”
In Americano jails and prisons, if you do that MMA stuff, everybody turns on you. They don’t go for that crotch sniffing stuff there. Go figure…
Hawaiians love it!
Wow, I can’t even imagine New Zeleands acting up. To me, they’re, like, the most docile little hobbits on the globe. All down there with da sheep and white sharks, framing and shit. I encountered a New Zeleand on Beach Girth’s FaceBooking Page and they were just native Americans and here comes the white man and the small pox. Just was so in a bubble of New Zeleand security…
haha ever seen the Haka?
ever heard of Maori’s?
Lil’ Bucks will smoke any maori. You for real, bro?
In California the contest permit is for the land, not the water……..
How were the sandwiches?
When I was maybe 15 years old there was some sort of charity surf event posing as a contest at my local. Peter Townend somehow was the beach announcer.
The main peak was really firing that Saturday, and pumping consistent. So many good ones unridden. Eventually my rebellious 15 year-old self couldn’t stand it anymore and slipped into the lineup, started taking the ones no contestants went for.
After my third pirated wave Townend’s distinctive accent boomed out in friendly tones over the PA: “young man, we see you ripping out there, but can you please not surf in the contest area? Thank you.”
PT himself, amplified over a PA system no less, told everybody in my local scene that I was ripping? I’ve never been happier to paddle away from a peak after being called off! Honey worked a lot better than vinegar that day for sure, no punching necessary
So, usually you need to be punched to exit the contest arena?
Just like my local break, even when there isn’t a contest.
Bro, you got a hardcore spot? Surfers are tough!
Free Hop Out Blick!
PacificNorthPest, we see your upvoted comments, but could you let some other people make some comments please?
Lucky it wasn’t Ian Cairns, He would’ve swum out and strangled you.
not sure kanga can swim?
Laughing my ass off thanks
Better than the cunt that encroached on my surf tonight, returned a third time to suss the take off area and under the moonlit night it was fucking bone white with a big swooshy tail. I actually left because it was fucking gross like some kind of albino thresher.
Xox
Scary. I saw my second white shark a couple months ago. In San Diego when I was visiting my mom. A set wave kind of troughed out, and there it lazed, barely swimming but pointed right at me. Not nearly the size of the horrifically massive white I saw in Washington 5 or so years ago, but probably 8 ft or bigger, definitely could have got the job done.
I am not a fan man, I hate the idea of apex predators getting ahold of me. The world we live in seems so advanced, jetting around the globe, chatting about a film that adapts Shakespeare, having preferences for how a specific sort of coffee ought to taste. Etc etc. That one can still get brutally snuffed by a predator like it’s 5000BC … it’s just such an offensive thought.
Where in SD?
I’m guessing Shores, or Blacks
Good guess
Blacks. It was an uncrowded and really fun head-high wind swell day. But an occasional groundswell canyon set would come through. Saw it on a groundswell set, moved more water and sucked out, unveiling the teenage landlord.
Sketch..
#metoo
Hey. There’s no white sharks in Washington. They stop at Oregon.
I have almost died a few ways recently.
I’d rather get shot; electrocuted; OD on rhino tranquilizer; hit by a train; raped and killed by someone famous; deported to El Salvador and stuck and raped than get hit by the shark.
That’s the one way I don’t want to go.
And they know it. They fucking know it, brah.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… Close, but untrue. In the warmest months of early fall the very biggest white sharks can control their body temperature just enough to make it up to WA for the fall coho run. The coho bring thousands of sea lions and seals to the river mouths and harbor entrances, and the super-sized whiteys munch down.
Check out the photo – absolute monster caught off Westport WA. The one I saw in Washington was at least that big, more in the wider Jaws looking category. And with global warming they are coming more and staying longer. Fun!
If you got to choose, which famous person would you like to rape and kill you?
Offhand… Hillary Duff.
so what did you do ? sit still or start moving away ?
I had a couple hours of fun surf at that point so headed in. Told the only other guy surfing near me that I clearly saw a white shark and he just kind of shrugged. It was consistent so easy enough to glide into one with any excess splashing etc
We are some of the only realists left! Embrace it!
Xox
8 Feet? That’s a baby. The little ones eat fish.
I come from a sharkless place. However once in indo stayed out surfing beyond the sunset, full-ish moon, with a couple aussies out, who found nothing better to do than trading shark stories between sets.
It scared the living shit out of me.
Here you go, strange video but it’s still Kala’s fight https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG283_igr40
Did anybody else get totally turned-on by that?
No.
Jeez, that’s embarrassing.
Not here, here, or here.
He Said, She Said