Bondi surfers’ paradise in peril as swimmer safety prompts talk of closure
Enthusiasts fear learners’ rite of passage from north to south beach will be lost if board ban is enforced
FOR years it has been a rite of passage for surfers at Sydney’s Bondi beach: children and beginners learn to surf at the northern end of the beach before graduating to the southern end, where the waves are bigger and rougher.
But this tradition could be under threat after authorities proposed a ban on surfing at the northern end in a move condemned as “silly” and potentially dangerous.
Waverley council triggered an angry response from locals who warned it would force inexperienced surfers to use the southern end of the beach.
Don Atkinson, a local surfer, dismissed the plan as “craziness”. He said: “It would be really dangerous to push every single surfboard on the whole beach down into that south corner. I think it’s really nuts.”
Shane Hartwig, another local surfer, said: “The beach is for everybody. There’s enough regulation in Australia without having to stop things because of perceived danger.”
The council said it had conducted a review of beach safety, with the results due in a month. Glass fibre boards are already banned at the northern end but the council asked locals for their views on removing all boards, even ones made of foam for beginners.
John Wakefield, the local mayor, said “large numbers of people” had complained about the use of foam boards in the denoted “safe area” for swimming.
“Soft boards are no longer as soft as they were and there’s been a number of residents and users of the beach who have expressed concerns about safety,” he said. But he insisted there was no current plan to impose the ban.
“It’s becoming a bit overblown,” he said. “No policy has been devised. No proposal has been received. There’s just a survey asking questions about what people perceive to be problems.”
Surfing organisations criticised the idea of a ban, saying it would end the traditional progress of surfers at Bondi.
“The southern end has the biggest waves and more rips,” Ian Wallace, of Bondi Board Riders said.
“You’re going to put everyone down in that one end and then you’re going to throw your learners in there, your kids in there…it just can’t work.”