Today's afternoon, Sebastien and I went for sailing at Maroubra. It was perfect 25knt side shore with occasional 4ft clean set and only 5 body barders out there, not in one peak in a whole beach!!
Then when we were about to get out, life guards kicked us out the beach...
They told me its just not allowed with no reason...

Why are they so brutal sometime? Do you guys know someone working there, and why?

I have seen someone windsurfing there before,and often see Kiters on the water in the late afternoon.
Is that because they were sailing/kiting after life guards working hour or something, or just I was so unlucky to bump into stupid lifeguards today?

dan berry said...
The reason is kiters. For a while you could sail if you asked the lifeguards first, always felt like it was a power trip though. Haven't even tried for years myself, dunko was out there not long ago.

Ha, so you mean Kiter is allowed now but not windsurfer?
Yeah you are right, I think it was Dunkan I saw in a picture at Maroubra a couple of month ago!
Wondering if he asked lifeguards first or just ignored them...

I thought you'd reply Dan, too quick for me. I was going to blame the kiters as well and I would have been guessing!

Oh yeah - why aren't you sailing, or have you been

Sailed wanda already. I think the day dunk sailed it was pissing with rain, lifeguards aren't as keen to "protect the beach" in the rain.
We stopped sailing there years back because the wind went funny. I always put it down to the developments just south of the rifle range.

Thought so Dan. 'Bra has changed!

Koichi,
Most lifegaurds are pretty good blokes, were they lifeguards (paid) or lifesavers (volunteers/clubbies). Lifegaurds usually only threaten to issue fines eg; when they direct someone out of the water & they go back straight into a rip. Again you really have to test the boundries before they will give a fine & in most cases they would also call the Police to let them know - that you are being a d...head -and also to verify you have provided correct name etc.

As Dan said, stoopid kiters have pissed them off before, hence the attitude.

When kitting kicked off they all went down there and made wind sports an issue, so now there is some confussion about what a windsurfer is.

the first time I went out there was two guys surfing, one was my mate. Then the life guard paddles out and tells me to go in.

I rang the council and asked them, remember the council employs them.
They told me its at the're discretion, I explained the situation and they agreed it seemed unreasonable.

The only power they have is to ring the rangers who will fine you. I guess then you take it to court if you feel it was unwarranted. But remember those guards are not the kind of guys you just tell to F off.

If I go out now I always chat with them first and say all the right stuff about not going near flags. They have said no and I have agreed as here was a number of surfers. Most of the time I just give he big "coooommmmooon bro"

It's a fine line there so don't stretch the friendship to much

Yeah dunk, it sounds like that would get you further than the big f u, we don't have issues like that down here so it sounds totally unreasonable to me.

How does a local council have the power to tell who can and can't use a beach or be on the water? AFAIK below the hide tide mark the beach belongs to no one, its public property and is nature's domain. Same with the ocean. Local councils over the years have taken it upon themselves to be more and more intrusive upon our lives. It would be interesting to know if there is any legal basis for half the stuff they regulate.

I always worked on the principle of catch me if you can. I didn't waffle around on the beach and once I was out I was out. Sometimes they'd stand there and wait for you to come in........ for an hour or so. Worked quite well.

also, no sail today. Worked & then got veto'd. Windy ALL day! Still windy!!

dan berry said...
Sometimes they'd stand there and wait for you to come in........ for an hour or so. Worked quite well.

That reminds me of when I worked in Leicester in the UK for 9 months. There was a lake 20 minutes out of town which would often get some serious wind and chop during the week. I would often head out after work as it stayed light till about 10 pm. Only problem was that there was a law in place the didn't allow any water activity after 6pm. Without fail every single time the local ranger would show up at 6pm signalling me to get off the water. I ignored him and after about 10 minutes he would give up and go home.

As someone once told me it's better to ask for forgiveness then permission.

DunkO said...
Agreed but I think the argument against that is they have been designated to look after the safety of all beach goers. Legally I don't know, some one else if free to test that

Who designated the councils to do this? It seems like local councils take it upon themselves to boss people around. Council paid lifeguards at beaches. Where has that come from? Did it come from the volunteer surf life savers who thought they'd like to get paid to boss people around on the beach?

Meanwhile council rates keep going up and up. Perhaps if councils got back to providing services like collecting garbage and fixing roads, rather than enforcing a bunch of dodgy regulations that have flimsly legal basis and take it upon themselves to control everything, council costs would come down.

Hey Ko,
When I used to live in Maroubra I used to go out a lot in SWlies often on my own. But i would often go and check with the lifeguards. Never told me off but always asked if I was good enough for the conditions (?) i.e. we don't want to have to rescue you if can't handle it ..
Anyway that was few years ago it may have changed now.

You should have come to Long reef! It was a bit out of control but good fun.
Lifeguards a lot more relaxed, they even went to pick up a guy that had broken his mast on the outer reef and was drifting for 30min.

Milsy said...
ha, dont come over to the northern beaches acting like this, pleading with clubbies, cooooomon bro, pffffffffff, again, dont come over here acting like this, they might start thinking were all the sorta men that act like that, ha, over here they pleade and grovel with us, its usually ignored !!!!!!!!!!!

It was a joke as all the lifeguards are bra boys, they are not clubbies. Clubbies are not paid lifeguards.

Pffffffff

LeLex said...
You should have come to Long reef! It was a bit out of control but good fun.
Lifeguards a lot more relaxed, they even went to pick up a guy that had broken his mast on the outer reef and was drifting for 30min.

Who broke his mast? I was glad I "only" snapped my extension and within an easy swim of the beach.

.............................in fact, **** it,,,,,,,,