Surfers are tough, no question about it. But there are limits, as three promising young locals found out this week.
Ben Lorentson, 15, Kaimana Cairns, 13, and Coco Cairns, 14, are the stars of Surf Code – Feel The Stoke, a video webisode series being produced by Tewantin’s Panga Productions for the Noosa World Surfing Reserve and funded by Noosa Council that will demonstrate the right way and the wrong way to do things in the surf.
The first thing the production’s technical advisor (your humble correspondent) advised the cast was that, because it’s Noosa, wetsuits and shivering are not allowed, despite it being the coldest morning of the winter. Only Ben obeyed, perhaps because his mum, Councillor Amelia, brings them up tough, while Coco and Kaimana may have felt that mum Carol and dad Shaun, who happened to be behind the cameras, were a soft touch.
But, it must be said, with commendable fortitude the three teenagers got through several hours of cold filming, with only one thawing break for hot chocolate, and we now have Surf Code pretty much in the can.
The purpose of this series of six one-minute episodes is to show beginning surfers of all ages how to surf safely in crowded conditions and share the waves fairly. It’s an important part of the NWSR’s stewardship strategy to promote behavioral change in the water and create safer and more enjoyable conditions for all. The series will rotate on social media platforms and all six episodes will be a permanent fixture on the Noosa World Surfing Reserve website. When things are back to normal, we also plan to use the video for school presentations.
Surf Code also includes some entertaining grabs from junior members of both Noosa Malibu Club and Noosa Boardriders, with the groms not holding back when it comes to dobbing in their mates for dropping in. Director Shaun Cairns says he tried to keep the series light and entertaining, while still getting through the important message about behavior in the waves.
And entertainment is certainly what we saw when Ben Lorentson warmed to his role (if not to the chilly water) as the bad guy, paddling out straight into the path of surfers riding waves, and snaking and dropping in on Kaimana and Coco. The stylish goofy-foot adopted a special kook stance for the shoot, so no one would think that these are the tactics he employs normally. Ben, a born entertainer, also does the narration.
Surf Code will be launched early in the spring.
The lows that keep on giving … and taking
It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good, if I have the old saying correct. That’s certainly what surfers almost the entire length of the Australian east coast have been saying so far this winter. While here on the Sunny Coast we haven’t seen the best of it, we’ve had plenty of fun days, but from the Gold Coast south a succession of East Coast Lows has created back to back major swell events from mid-June right through July. And there are still more to come before this cluster wears out, and with La Nina about to kick in, we could see a whole lot more.
If you’re a hell-man (or woman) no doubt you’ll be extremely envious of the Sydney surfers who scored monumental Deadman’s at Fairy Bower, epic Little Avalon and numerous South Coast slabs from Sandon Point south. But spare a thought also for those who live on a decimated, gouged-out coastline, like Wamberal on the NSW Central Coast, and parts of Sydney’s northern beaches.
As the sand flow follows its littoral drift from south to north, many places, Noosa included, are more exposed to the gouging effect of strong east to north east swells, with not enough sand in place to stabilize the beach. As surf forecaster Craig Brokensha noted on Swellnet last week, back to back swell events have a compounding effect and there is little that can be done to offset the impact.
Just make sure you’re not in it when your clifftop pool falls into the sea.
