From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Tue Aug 22 2006 - 18:43:08 EDT
You might think there's enough waves in the sea for everybody, but no... Rival surf gangs fight for the waves, by Loic Rich, FIRST POSTED AUGUST 10, 2006 The note was scrawled on a scrap of paper, fastened under the car wind screen wiper: "Next time you surf this beach you get sliced and your car gets waxed". This bizarre-sounding threat was carried out yesterday in a remote Cornish beach car park, and is the latest of many incidents to blight British surfing culture. The victim's "crime" - to have come from another parish for a surf at this much-coveted beach - was enough to antagonise two local surfers to deliver their message. "Wars happen for a reason," says "Tony" - a local surfer who does not want to be named. "They might wear relaxed-looking clothes and carry around surfboards, but some surfers have the same mentality as football hooligans." "You've got 40-50 young men in a 50ft-long space, and when one nice wave comes in, there's going to be ajostle. Some have got the right haircut, brand new boards, trendy clothes, but they can't surf. They get frustrated trying to impress the girls. They literally punch their way to the wave. I've seen mass brawls, guys thrashing about, blood in the water - it's like piranhas have invaded." Surfing is a $2.6bn a year global industry - £200m in the UK - but many blame its increasing popularity for the rise of wave-rage attacks. There has always been a bit of aggro, but recent summers have been marked by an escalation of violence keeping pace with its booming popularity. The British Surfing Association has even distributed a code of conduct for learner surfers in an effort to reduce the aquatic confrontations. Complete story: http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/index.php?menuID=2&subID=808
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