Endless Summer is Over

Byron council last week made the wearing of leg ropes in the surf compulsory. The fine is $1100 if not wearing one. This occurred because a regular surfer at the pass, Mathew Cassidy, nearly lost a leg when hit by someone else’s runaway board.

Whether this will make any difference at all is doubtful to many locals. Most people wear leg ropes for their own convenience. Who wants to go swimming all the way to shore to retrieve it? Yes, there is a small posse of Mal riders who like to be unshackled when ‘walking the plank’. It is very rare to see no leg ropes in a big swell where a runaway board can do real damage. The issue of how they are going to police it is the main head scratch.

This is skirting around the edges of the real issue: good breaks when they are working, are now getting too crowded. Accidents will happen because there are too many people vying for the same waves. How to police that is the main dilemma. I see a day when surfers will be able to surf only after buying a ticket and having a maximum number allowed in the water. That will be interesting to police.