Having scored a few pleasant and relatively uncrowded sessions on the points during the week leading into Easter, not to mention a beautiful morning of small but perfectly-formed Crescent Head the week before, I took one look at the cams on Good Friday morning and made the executive decision to leave the holy holiday wave offerings to those whose need of a surf, in some cases for the first time, was far greater than mine.
Instead I jumped on the e-bike to check out the circus, walked the beach until the covering of cool cabanas made it impassable, enjoyed a couple of body womps, and then sat down over a good coffee to make a list of old guy tourist whinges. Here they are:
1. A roundabout is not a pedestrian crossing. In peak holiday season, tourists walk out onto the road at Noosa Drive and Hastings Street without looking and with scorn and even rage if a driver cuts them off. Most drivers would rather not maim a child or its entitled parents to prove a point, so all day long there is a log-jam of stalled traffic trying to leave or enter the Main Beach precinct, caused by people who dawdle across the street as if it were a pedestrial mall, which it isn’t. Yet. There are zebra crossings on Noosa Drive and up and down Hastings Street. Please use them.
2. If you must drive your car to the beach, learn a bit of parking etiquette. At the surf club car park, for example, there is one way in and one way out, with a system of one way lanes within. It is not nice nor appreciated when you zoom up a lane the wrong way in order to cut off the cars (usually surfers) waiting at the other end for a spot to become vacant. At the Woods end of Hastings Street, where there is a remote chance you might find a park, don’t block the road while you eye off people moving in the general direction of parked cars, even if they are jangling keys or pressing remotes.
3. Don’t put your cabanas up blocking clear access points from sand to surf.
4. If you’re going to have a crack at surfing, buy a couple of lessons first. Or at least tell your board hirer your level of ability and ask him/her to suggest a suitable break. And read the Noosa World Surfing Reserve surf safety signage before you hit the water.
I could go on, but that makes a neat segue into the next piece.
Noosa needs a surf management plan
It’s more than five years now since we succeeded in having Noosa declared the 10th World Surfing Reserve, at which time the idea of a management plan to help sustain our five point breaks and six beach breaks was first mooted. I’ve long since retired from the presidency of the NWSR, but I was delighted to hear that current president Kirra Molnar and her hard-working group are at long last getting somewhere in presenting the case for a surf management plan along similar lines to existing plans at the World Surfing Reserves of Southern Gold Coast, Santa Cruz (California) and most recently North Devon (UK).
The Noosa plan is being developed in collaboration with Noosa Shire Council, so let’s hope that it doesn’t end up stalled like the destination management plan, but it’s off to a good start, partly thanks to a serendipitous offer of assistance from Plymouth University undergraduate Rosie Brooks, who had previously worked on the North Devon plan. Rosie has been resident in Noosa for three months under secondment to the NWSR and over that time has developed a very impressive scope plan for consideration of council.
I was able to take a sneak peek at it this past week and, while I’m not sure about her contention that Hastings Street business owners don’t appreciate itinerant workers, and I could live without the detour into Blue Mind Theory, Rosie, with the support of the NWSR team, has produced a well-researched, perceptive and compelling argument for the development of a surf management plan, one which she should be very proud of and which we who surf in Noosa should read and support on its progress through the bureaucracy.
Community Awards coming up
Still on the Noosa World Surfing Reserve, hard-working Kirra Molnar tells me that nominations for this year’s NWSR Community Awards close on 30 April, so if you want to nominate yourself, or someone even worthier, scan the QR code on the poster image reproduced on this page and read all about these worthwhile awards.
And while you’re at it, grab tickets for the presentation night at Boiling Pot Brewery coming up 10 May and featuring the cool sounds of DJ Kurt. As Kirra notes, all profits from the night will go towards protecting our beautiful beaches and surf breaks.
FOOTNOTE: As I meet deadline for this week’s edition, nothing to report of note on the home-front Easter swell, which never really fired, and not much to report from Bells either, where only seven heats had run by Easter Sunday night. But Sydney, oh my lordie, just a month after the Alfred beating, a monster ground swell caused havoc in some places and brought tears of joy to Northern Beaches surfers. Waxhead Matty Chojnacki posted this Good Friday gem of him enjoying all-time North Narra. Don’t know who shot it, but great work!
