the circus is back in town... got to love it,..little warm water, some sunshine and the line-ups turn to clown soup. 1. Made my first save of the season, young kid with no flippers caught in a rip. whole day I was seeing so many allowed to go well beyond the point of no return, but no warning from the guards? The guards have got to be more pro-active, a piece of foam and no flippers is a sure way for a tour-on to get in some deep crap. No flippers means no going out past chest high, right? 2. Our most loved surf beach attendant, the large guy who wants to be a cop, (not the sharpest tool in the shed),..needs his whistle taken away for sure, or at least shoved in his ear. 3. If you are a life guard who is dumb enough to swim out into a pack of thirty plus surfers, start yelling at them and telling some they have to get out of the water, do not be surprised if you are the one who ends up needing to be saved. 4. yes the water and ocean is free to all but just because you own a piece of glass or foam does not mean you belong at top spots. Nothing wrong with NSIRI or AI for those of the slow go nature. a log on a short board day is for clowns, unless you got the skills,.. very few have those skills... 5. local shops should be making money off repair work, or some will be doing their own work at home. I saw four full contact run ins between the 18th and 19th, and i am not talking about dings. Full blown large holes in nice boards due to ignorance,... playing chicken on pieces of sharp glass and waves is not smart or wise. 6. The 19th was ok, other then the crowds early it was not so bad, a few plus peaks for sure. saw some of the local rippers doing their thing,..nice to see Colin Herlihy and Phil Hudson make it down for a session. Vince B., Waldon, Matt, and others were running the surf beach, they really should allow some others a few waves once in a while,..NOT. Thirty plus head at the surf beach and the same four or five get ever set wave, really funny to watch. Plenty of drop in, a few words exchanged here and there, but over all fairly calm when you consider the crowds. 7. I know it took some effort to get even the surf beaches that they have now, but I really wish that the local ESA could push for just a little more room to work with at the surf beaches. At least on some of the better days when the crowds are that much larger, I wish that the OCBP could be given the ability to expand at least one of the two surf beaches to two full streets. 8. Fractured the tip of my pointing finger somehow while surfing, really strange injury, don't know how it happened really. It did turn out to be a all day event if you had it in you. For me six hours was enough. Nice to see some of the local faces enjoying the weather and waves.
I went out during incoming yesterday at the surf beach on 40 something street. Same thing 20 plus heads and only a few actually catching waves. I think it is dangerous to cram all those beginners in such a small area. Not to mention a pain in the ass to catch a wave and try to dodge all the floating logs.
I've been on surf beach 7 years now and this year they have me supervising the 3 areas. If you have constructive feedback or ideas, let me know. I already know most of you from surfing myself and/or seeing me on surf beach over the years. We've been trying to improve the surf beach and it would really help if we could all get along. If there are issues with specific surfing beach facilitators, I'd like to know. But again, keep in mind we're just trying to do our job. We do not have the ability to let you surf past the flag because it was a stellar right or the waves are glassy and shoulder high. When you hit an unsuspecting swimmer and lacerate their skull with your skeg, it's our job on the line. I feel your pain about the limited boundaries. The ironic thing is that surfing beach facilitators are deemed the enemy by the surfing community by and large and yet we routinely campaign for you to get bigger surfing beaches. We count surfers on a stat sheet every single day and explain how hazardous it is to have that we have so many surfers in one block. These stat sheets are turned in every week to the officers of the beach patrol who have contact with the mayor and city council. Until Labor Day, we have to deal with surfing beaches. Lame but that's what comes with summer. Crowds suck but either avoid the surf beach all together on days like Friday or go to Assateague. I read a lot of threads here and on delsurf and believe me, I voice your frustrations to the people who have the ability to try and change them. Cut large-guy-who-wants-to-be-cop some slack though. Try being yelled out at surfers and swimmers for 5 years straight and see how well you handle it when someone doesn't listen to you.
I feel ur pain. hey;doesnt vince live out here in newport beach? surfers in oc md are always going to be ****ed in the summer. every penny in that town is generated by the hotels and restaurants, so since 99.9 percent of ppl visiting oc do not surf. surf only beaches r bad for business. surfboards in thw water around hhotel guests wading is bad for business. its a sad but true fact. the hotels don't own the sand, but they own the decision makers in the local government who regulates that. its the hotel tax money that keeps oc alive. it sucks. they don't own the beaches. couple years back I almost beat the **** out of some hick renting umbrellas on the beach cause he told me he owned that stretch of sand and told me I had to move two blocks down to the other guys area. after hysterically laughing at the guy, I called the cops and they explained to this moron that just cause he paid 2000bucks to the oc government to rent on that beach, he has no authority to regulate anything on it
This thread was more of a general blog of the days events. 1. this first entry was not a slight against the OCBP at all. The full story is that the Life guard sitting off the rocks at mid-town was the one to effect the save. He was not the closest guard. And his first save was actually for someone on the inside. When I saw the action, at the same time another young boy started to ask for help on the outside, where I was, I got to him first. I do not know why the guard at surf beach did no see or make the save first, he was way closer. I really feel as if the north guard at the surf beach should not have allowed a good handful of people and kids as far out as they did that day, at the very least without flippers. to hell with getting cut by a surf board,..someone drowning is a bit worst. 2. I have talked to that big guy more then once, over the years,. got his name as well,..nice enough guy. But if he is going to police like he blows his whistle, that could be a problem. And he has been here long enough to be able to control the situation without making so much noise. (And he really should have a better understanding of how it all works and who is who by now.) In fact that much noise on such a constant basis in and around the surf zone is a hazard and potential liability. I could even argue that perhaps the reason the guard farther away had to make the save was due to the noise in... some way. Also, the focus should be on insuring that the swimmers and those not riding are the ones staying away from the surfers, not the other way around. of course, depending on swell direction, winds, rips...surfers do finish their rides past the flag at times, but never to the extent that would warrant such a focus on them to such a degree. I see no reason why money is not spent on a least a few bull horns, for the surf beach attendants and those at the inlet and exposed jetties still in town. Control would be so much more effective both for the swimmers and surfers. Verbal warnings could be Politely issued to both swimmers and surfers, and for the surfers much more easy to enforce asking one of them to leave if need be. 3. I know Ben pretty well I think,.. it is one thing to swim out and talk to people, but to tell some to get out? That just was not smart, and not needed. There are other, smarter ways to handle a real problem. I already mentioned one. 4. 5. all that works itself out one way or another. 6. 7. 8.
Surf beach staff...thank you for all you do...lost girl your the best!! You really know what is going on out there! Maybe hire more good looking girls like yourself...
power hungry guards suck. Like I said before, 90 percent of guards are douche bags. The other 10 percent are cool and understand that they only guard the beach for 3 months and the surfers/spongers OWN it the other 9 months. Those guys respect the surfers and usually get the respect back.
no hating on OCBP so don't take it personally esp since I dont surf there anymore. just observations of guards at various beaches over the years. you sound like you are in the 10% category. On Delsurf under another screenname.
haha thanks. what i've tried to suggest is that they hire more people who surf/bodyboard. it's so much easier to get the surf beach to run properly when they have experience in the water themselves. one of the new sbf's this year has spent considerable time in hawaii bodyboarding and worked in contests like the triple crown. so that's a good thing.
oh. theres a john that has ur screen name over there and thought it was the same. used to surf with him years ago but anyways.. yeah i know some people can use their authority the wrong way. it does seem like the last couple years we've had a good group though. the whole whistling out at 10am thing was a big issue this year. beach patrol officers pretty much reemed people who were giving it until 1015 or so. so know that a lot of the time it's not that we aren't trying to be chill about it. it's just that the hammer has been layed down and we've been written up about it.
It was like shoulder high at best on Friday. Let's not loose it yet. It's super silly for another 2 months, especially on the weekends, but if ya can't find some waves around the clowns and babysitters during the course of an all day swell then your just going to have to bash your head against the wall (or jetty) at your "top spot" until vacation season is over.
Ya'll crazy man I read this a few days ago and I left it alone then but I had to say a little something now. I'm friends with a lot of guards and I like the education sessions for the tourons because they really need it. The only thing that bothers me is the stupids in the water that are in your way wading around. Obviously, I bodyboard so I can go out anywhere anytime. But on a nice weather/nice wave day, where is my salvation? Assateague? There should just be some "ride only" areas i.e. southern st. jetty areas, where tourons/waders shoudn't be swimming around anyway. like a 1/2 block area either way by jetties. Those are the places I like to ride due to some shifty/rippy conditions, it can be very challenging. Several of the guard recognize me in that area so they don't give me any hard time and obviously I wear fins so that instantly makes me a better swimmer. But when I go bowling into a group of 10 teenagers that have waded into my "ride zone" it kills it for me. I believe the BP are doing a good job and I'm glad they let me do my own thing because I spend a lot more time in the water than they do around those areas anyway. But keep the tourons away from me please.
year round surfer, summer time ocbp here. we're not all kooks. surfers get shafted in the summer, and it sucks to be the one having to do the shafting, but not all of us are douches. we do what we gotta do, or we get reprimanded, simple as that. it's too bad our reputation is more as a police force then as watermen. i for one prefer to be associated with the latter.
i get the point of these surf only beaches...up here in jersey we can surf wherever whenever which excludes a few towns here and there scattered along the coast but for the most part as long as we stick it near the peak and out of the small designated swimming area the guards want say sqwuat to us. and this allows for the surfers to spread out over the beaches. i mean it still gets crammed at the best breaks but sometimes you can find a lonely break where you a few friends will be the only ones out
in town Why even bother with in town mid day in the summer. I like to surf, not fight in the water and withthe price of boards these days... We drove out the OSV and had empty waves all day long...
