Miles Masterson: Surfers vs. bodyboarders redux

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Recently the South African Bodyboard Association (SABA) held its weeklong annual surfing champs in the Elands Bay area of South Africa.

Whilst this is not that newsworthy, what the greater surfing world probably doesn’t know is that there were allegedly a couple of semi-violent incidents during the event between surfers and prone riders, as well as some fallout on a local surf mag’s blog shortly afterward.

One of the versions suggests that a couple of surfers got agro with some of the bodyboarders when the contest directors decided that the perfect three-to-four foot lefthanders at Elands Bay offered ideal conditions for their drop-knee division. With that in mind, they brought their entire event infrastructure down to the beach and cordoned off a section of dune to run their contest.

Some surfers apparently took umbrage to the event being held at this popular wave, hurled abuse and threats at the unwelcome bodyboarders, who gave as good as they got, and some blows were reportedly exchanged. One source (a bodyboarder) was quoted as saying that the surfer (or surfers) in question tried to hit a teenager but quickly shut up when he hit them back. Another source (a surfer) said that he surfed through the contest area and was threatened and abused by bodyboarders.

Yet another source (also a surfer) then tells me that they tried to access the beach across the cordoned off area and were rudely told they had to walk around it. I’m not sure if this was before or after the above incidents took place but still, I don’t think anyone has the right to limit beach access, event or not.

As a stand-up surfer of more than thirty years, I will admit to somewhat of an ingrained disdain of bodyboarding. It’s probably every surfer’s nightmare: rocking up at a point break up the coast to find it overrun with bodyboarders in contest singlets. Now we get to the crux, though. The guy who told me about the event is one of South Africa’s best free surfers and has a blog on the surf mag’s website.

He posted a comment there about how I had told him on the beach that there hadn’t been a contest at Elands Bay for about 20 years (which I did). In his blog, he went on (perhaps a bit harshly and to his own admission) about how lame this was and how dare the bodyboarders take over the wave for a contest, etc.

Within a day of his posting, a bodyboarder called ‘You know who I am bru’ unleashed a diatribe aimed at both the blogger and myself. I was first in the firing line, the bodyboarder singling me out as being one of the most opinionated guys in the South African surf media (um, that’s what we are paid for?) and that I should check my facts as there had been many contests at the break over the years.

Of course, if I’m writing a commissioned piece for a magazine I would fact check but it was just a passing comment for f’s sake. A bit of digging confirmed his POV and I found out that there had been a few varsity and club events at the break over the years, but still, no SA stand-up champs that I am aware of.

Regardless, from his ‘opinionated’ comments, I’m pretty sure I know who this person is and for the record, I’m not surprised that he aimed his venom at me. A long-time vocal local at a beach break in Cape Town, where back in the day when stand-ups ruled the roost, bodyboarders like him weren’t exactly made to feel welcome. So I’ve developed somewhat of a reputation among his ilk as being an ‘esky lid’ hater.

My decade-long tenure as editor at /blunt/ (a now defunct SA music/extreme sports magazine) no doubt exacerbated this. Though we positioned the mag as a publication for all board sports including surfing, skating, wakeboarding, snowboarding and even BMX, we mostly excluded bodyboarding and dissed them a few times in articles - though mostly just as a joke!

We got a lot of hate mail about this, er, stance, and I admit to sometimes being nasty to them in my editorial answers. Although, it was again mostly tongue firmly in cheek. As a result, my pariah status in the SA bodyboard community, who had their own mag published by the same company (and with whom we got on well it must be said), was infamous.

In fact, it got so bad at one point that whilst at a contest in Durban once, I got wind that a burly, aggressive top SA bodyboarder was looking for me and wanted to have ‘words’ with me about my attitude towards his beloved sport, and I should leave the beach or get beat up. Though I was hanging around in plain sight and told his messengers I wasn’t going anywhere and was quite happy to have a ‘chat’, I never did ‘connect’ him. So whatever, you get the point.

So let me now try to justify my long-term issue with many bodyboarders. The beach break I grew up surfing at (and took a long time to achieve ‘local’ status at after many years of drop-ins and grommet abuse) didn’t start out being anti-bodyboarder. Far from it. Some of our good mates were doing well in bodyboarding contests at the time and were always standouts when the waves were heaving.

Unfortunately, thanks to a few bodyboarding contests at the break (one involving an irate and notorious local who took an axe to their trestle table, but that’s another story) and its mostly pitching, close-out nature, our spot became more and more popular with the prone crew and things began to get out of hand. Back in the 1980s, when localism was what it was and even outside stand-ups could expect a smack in the gob for hassling us, this didn’t go down well.

But there was a reason, and it’s the same reason bodyboarders have struggled so long to get respect all over the world to this day. They would pitch up in packs, all paddle out together and full of attitude would paddle straight up onto the inside. Most of them, we had never seen before and had not paid any dues at the break, thought they could get bomb sets and call the established crew off the peak at will.

And so things degenerated. And my beach, and locals like me, got a rep as haters. In my more volatile late teens and early 20s, I admit I burned bodyboarders at random. Our rallying cry was “burn a lid a day and keep the crowds away” for a long time.

Naturally, now a grown man close to forty, I’ve evolved and only burn bodyboarders when they paddle on my inside, just like I would any rude, impatient stand-up surfer. Moreover, whilst my generation probably retain most of their antipathy deep down (mostly for the above reasons plus I'm damned if anyone can convince me bodyboarding is as difficult as surfing), we’ve since come to accept that the ocean is for everyone and now include bodyboarders among our mates.

But, what am I trying to say? I’ve grown up and I don’t hate bodyboarders per se and very few surfers I know do either. If a guy or girl on any craft is pleasant and smiling and waits their turn, the wave is theirs, which is how it should be. And yes, some do rip and get sick pits on waves too ledgy for us, good for them, I don’t really give a shit.

But it seems some of them do. Like the guy who responded to that blog. Perhaps it’s in some ways justifiable considering where we have all come from, but these guys have still got such a chip on their shoulder it’s ridiculous. Point in case: I heard some bodyboarders making derogatory comments about surfers on our beach the other day but you will rarely ever hear a surfer do the same. We just don’t care anymore. A quick perusal of bodyboarding and surfing websites and chat rooms will show the same. Surfers say nothing while lids bleat on and on.

My final message to these surfer-hating bodyboarders? Let it go man, just let it go. Wait your turn and everything will be fine.

Last word though. I once met a bodyboarder, who was world champion at the time to boot, whilst on a trip to California. A very likeable guy, he confided in me after a few whiskeys that he actually thinks the sport is lame and that he only does it because he is not good enough to get sponsored for stand up, but still wants to be paid to ride waves.

This is a gospel truth, I’m not making it up or saying anything myself. Figure out who he is and ask him. Makes you think though, doesn’t it?

Now, cue those nasty, anonymous comments.

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