I am lead to believe the peron lost control and received a concussion and torn hamstring and a trip to Geelong Emergency ward via ambulance.

Hopefullly the person involved will recover quickly and be back to thier family ASAP and luckily no one else was hurt!

If your band new to the sport and cannot control your SUP in the surf Ocean Grove Main Beach is without doubt one of the worst places on the surf coast to learn in summer.

On a lovely day like today the break attracts up to 3 - 5000 people in a very defined area. Believe it or not there are 150 - 300 people out at 6am.

If you do SUP OG we all try to stay to the left of the boat ramp looking out to sea as you will be away from the Go Ride A Wave Surf Schools and The Clubbie Flags and hopefully most of the kids.

Even Better:

If you take your board further down toward Barwon Heads past the Dunes restuarant you can have the whole beach to yourself and similar surfing conditions without the risks.

I guess Torquay Point and Lorne Point would have the same issues maybe worse again.

No one wants to get hurt themselves or worse hurt someone else.

Phill

In this case, i was told the SUP pulled a rail in 1ft OG powder puffs and it flipped over the top of him hitting him in the head as it went???

The main shop in OG selling Sups is referring all new purchases to the newly formed Surf Sessions Surf and SUP School for lessons.

Matt Lumley "Allrounder on Seabreeze" and 2nd at the Aussie Tittles is the Head SUP instructor so you cant go wrong there IMHO.

At least they are trying to point people in the right direction.

At OG in summer its not just SUPS every craft is dangerous due to numbers. However a 12ft sup side ways can take out a lot of people in one run.

A run away mal can cause just as much damage, but sups are the flavour of the month to give grief.

Phill

As an absolute noob in the surf re SUPs, I wouldn't dream of surfing Ocean Grove main beach. Too many targets and most of them as clueless as me. OG is strictly a boogie board spot for me. I might try further down the beach towards Barwon Heads as you suggest though. Cheers for that.

Hi OG, Happy New Year mate.
I hear what your saying,but I wouldn't worry too much.Here on the Goldie is much the same.In Billboards words (not mine ) I am an experienced longboarder( cop that one BB ) and I see this carnage often. I just give the new people the heads up if I see them doing the wrong thing in a nice manner.Most are cool but you do cope some crap from the odd person .
About five years ago my daughter copped a stray old chipped nose in the ear ( a newbie without a leggie ) Noosa and received 8 stitches on the second day of Dec holiday's and NEVER surfed again
Good idea to advise new SUP'ers to lessons,however its not just new standups doing the wrong thing.

mac

Hey Mac Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Role on Feb I say and Winter for that matter. Big swell no one out but the Crew ah there is a Heaven.

Phill

Hey guys,
great day for a flat water paddle down the Bells area without a prone surfer in sight,

Camo.

Nasty.. .. Glad it wasn't a novice SUP surfer that did it.. even though it was an accident and these things happen.

DJ

Another sad story!
At least it brings some balance back to the issue onthe back of the SUP accident. At least it takes the spotlight of SUP and on to the real problem - crowd control.

Just lost a mate to a jet ski accident down in the ACT , competent boatie with 20 years experience (on the ski) taken out by a boat in a narrow stretch of water. Why? Overcrowding.

I think that's why a lot of us took SUP'n up isn't it.....a chance to get away from the crowds, maybe lose wave quality but enjoy the second or third best bank further up the beach and not have the hassle ?

When I was at The Pass in April last year, it was super corwded - see the photo's earlier in this post. I went down for the late session thinking I get some uncrowded waves at dusk. WRONG. At 8.20pm, sun dropped behind the mountain 20 minutes earlier and it was pretty much pitch black bar the orange glow low on the horizon, still at least 40 in the water......it is a zoo. Great to surf it but even better knowing you're going home soon !

I wear a fluro pink Gath every 'surf zone' session now. First to keep my head from burning, second to protect my head if I fall and hit my SUP which is always possible as I'm new to it and thirdly to be seen easily and be protected from others and their boards. To much at risk to get a head injury !

It might look dicky and I cop plenty but I just don't give a s**t to be honest.

surfanimals said...

I think that's why a lot of us took SUP'n up isn't it.....a chance to get away from the crowds, maybe lose wave quality but enjoy the second or third best bank further up the beach and not have the hassle ?

Here Here!

Couldnt agree more Div
First surf since Christmas on monday due to a hammy tear. Walked over to the back beach and was gobsmacked by the crowd. Hadnt bothered looking at the surf for so long it came as a bit of a shock. Heads on em like flys on crap! What passes as a bank at the moment was inundated with about 50 punters and 1 stand up. The guy on the stand up was on high rotation and was catching way more than he was due. Nasty vibe all round in the water. Paddled out past the pack and copped stink eye all round. Funny thing was I couldnt recognise a single face and I've been here 35 years. Turned right at the peak, paddled for a couple of hundred metres west and in full view of the slavering mob proceeded to surf a comparable peak all on my lonesome. Speechless!
For what its worth I reckon accidents and bad press are predominantly the result off two classes of stand up. First, the clueless newbie. As we all came from this pool at some stage we need to cut these crew a little slack and run with the educate as opposed to regulate program. Second is the guy who has decided that stand up is a way of short circuiting the pecking order. Rather than use the vehicle to find uncrowded waves they use it as a means to dominate already crowded line ups. In short they catch more waves than their skill level warrants. Like the guy out at the back beach on monday, these are tough nuts to crack. They are generally super thick skinned and they dont give a rats arse!
CHEERS
Sparx

Well Gorgo,

We call it the pied piper syndrome!

When someone sees people catching a wave down the beach it must be better down that way, so they paddle to that point.

Then the sheep mentality kicks in and slowly the mob follows.

On hot day at Main Beach there will be 1000's of people around the boat ramp and the Surf Club, those points are like Touro magnets. Others move 2kms up the beach and share the peace and quiet with maybe 30 - 50 other people.

The best example of find a lesser break and have fun was last week when it was a very small swell and Rich, Kristi and I went looking for a wave.

As we drove along 13th we spotted a small peaking wave at Beacon. We normally avoid Beacon like the plague as it is a designated Short Board break and rightly so IMHO. On that day even Kelly Slater would have left his board in the car but it was SUP heaven.

We paddled out and had the location totally to ourselves for almost 2hrs and then a friendly Mal rider saw what was going on and paddled over to join us.

On several occasions we looked down the beach to Sign Posts approx 1km away which must have had 100+ people out falling all over each other it was a total zoo.

But the wave at Signies had to be better right!

Go figure???

Phill

surfanimals said...

I think that's why a lot of us took SUP'n up isn't it.....a chance to get away from the crowds, maybe lose wave quality but enjoy the second or third best bank further up the beach and not have the hassle ?


Shoosh not to loud ,