Ahipara lights up, Margarets shuts down
SO there he was, The Offsider, as a squadron of seagulls glided low over a swell like heralds announcing the arrival of the set of the day.
It was pumping again, dawn on the third day of the best swell of the year which lit up his neighbourhood pointbreak last Wednesday through to Friday and made those who got amongst it all feel like the recipients of some divine benevolence. Making the most of perfect surf wasn’t always as easy as one might imagine. Take the example of one very accomplished surfer who came in a little frustrated on the best and biggest day, having paddled out only to get smashed down the point by a big set, then finally making it out the back where she waited 50 minutes before eventually taking off on a smaller wave simply to ride something, anything, before her particular window of opportunity shut.
The points were notably crowded too, further indication the place is on the cusp of becoming a boomtown; even if the wider community remains blissfully unaware of what the breaks represent to the well-being of the whole district. Difficult to wonder how long it would be before local patience is stretched to breaking point every time there’s a decent swell.
Unable to remember the last time he’d surfed three good days in a row, The Offsider gorged himself to the point of going troppo, even catching himself having a conversation with a shag diving for silver fish in the low tide while he limped around for another lap. Towards the end, it felt like one of his knees was only hanging on by a thread the day before he was expected to play goalkeeper for the town team. He was almost thankful to find the swell fading on Friday evening.
Overseas, surfing also claimed its share of media headlines otherwise dominated over the past week by the huge catfight between two Kiwi cyclists at the Commonwealth Games, and the comments from rugby star Israel Folau that gays risk being cast into hellfire unless they repent. (In light of the latter situation, and as president of a local football club, The Offsider felt obliged to say he had no problem with anyone from the LGBT community signing up to play for any of his organisation’s three senior sides).
But it was the decision to call off the Margaret River Pro — leg 3/11 on the men’s and women’s world championship tours — because of fears of a shark attack which held truly major ramifications for the sport of professional surfing. It came about following two attacks at nearby breaks last Tuesday, the first when a Brazilian was badly
mauled at Cobblestones, and another nudged and his board bitten at Lefthanders. The Offsider has surfed Lefthanders as well as far weaker waves inside the seawall at Scarborough Beach in Perth. About a month after he flew out of Perth, a great white swam in to Scarborough and killed one bather and seriously mauled a couple more.
Many believed it would be ultra-bad publicity for the WSL to have another incident in competition, especially in wake of the cameo by a great white at Jeffrey’s Bay a couple of years ago. As in, how liable would the organisation be if a shark found its way between the jet skis and drones and had a go at a competitor? No surprises to find some typically priceless comments on various online forums. Like the guy who said, “Bummer for Jack Robinson,” referring to what the cancellation represented to the local wildcard who had dominated his opening-round heat at near-epic North Point against much more highly-ranked surfers, to which another had replied, “Bummer for the sharks.” Perhaps most reprehensible of all was the suggestion by a one Phil Roff, “Bring it [CT] to New Zealand. Very little worry of shark attack as there has only been one in the last 40 years and that was a swimmer. How about Raglan?”
Meanwhile, The Offsider pondered if the call to can Margarets represented the beginning of the end while the recent proliferation of artificial wave pools continued to drive surfing down a road paved with a million good intentions towards the Olympics and commercial sensibilities. The only potential bonus he could see is that it might create a whole generation of waveriders who won’t be keen to head out to natural line-ups patrolled by giant prehistoric predators with razorsharp gnashers. ■ The Offsider is Age sportsbuster Francis Malley. Respond at sports@northlandage.co.nz.