SUP State Round WA

Some great photo of the the state round on the weekend,

(sorry about the long board photos)

hosted by the "Stand Up Surf Shop / Nth Freo"

http://www.woolacottimages.com/p635565496#h4cb59be7

some interesting scenarios in there as well, that could be worth talking about

Ha ha - looks like carnage out there. A bit like having the Cottesloe grom rescue-craft crew at Deep 6 on Sunday. Great pics, thanks for sharing.

I saw a SUP in the comp drop in on a surfer. Red comp shirt.

Surfer called him off, so the SUP cut back hard to try and hit him.

It was pretty dangerous and totally not on. Gives the sport a nice image.

A WHOLE NEW LOW taking it to the carpark. That is pure evil.
we are all out for the stoke, people need to share.
funny how no-one was in the long boarders area dropping in. i see so much anxt against SUP, i agree there are plenty of kooks about giving us a bad name having no control of their board or not knowing rules, but there are also short boarders of the same callibre.
respect others by how they ride, not what they ride.

It was a shame about the conflict between SUP's and free surfers it was the only negative on what was an awesome weekend.
I also missed the best wave of my heat due to a surfer snaking me for it and me just not wanting the conflict.

I do feel sorry for the surfers though with two of the peaks taken over for the comp on a weekend when the swell was up, I think if it was a stand alone comp and we were just taking over one peak it wouldn't have been so bad.

I also think if the peaks were reversed and it was SUP's at the point and longboards on the peak that we were on the longboarders would have copped it as well.

Still with the amount of swell around there would have been lots of spots nearby firing and I can only imagine what the scene would have been like if shortboarders were holding a comp and we were all over it like they were.
Hats off to the likes of Graham and Brad for keeping their cool when they had to deal with some of the idiots, i'm sure in both cases the surfer would have came out second best if it had escalated.

As has been said before give respect to gain respect.


Anyway enough of that here is a link to some sick pics of day 2.

http://www.woolacottimages.com/p983790847#h4ce06055

He's my take on the situation as a SUP competitor. We do have empathy for those who wanted to surf Avalon that weekend, it is totally understandable that people, locals and visitors alike wanted to surf Avalon during that swell. The fact is that a comp is organised at that location on an annual basis and is scheduled many months in advance. The comp was not chosen to run on that weekend just because there was swell. I presume that the locals who are members of the Mandurah Longboarders Club are quite happy for this event to run and have not raised any issues with Surfing WA regarding problems. They run the food tent which I'm sure gives their club a much needed injection of cash and a service that is much appreciated by all those on the beach. If they are a bit noisy in the morning maybe someone could go and talk to them about that.

The SUP competitors are told where there comp is to be held and that is where we surf. If we were told to surf elsewhere we would go there. If the surf was small or onshore we would surf anyway in the same place or somewhere else. Now I would strongly suggest that if the comp was not on that weekend that peak would been a lot more crowded including SUPs and longboarders, including locals and non-locals. I reckon a significant number of people decided not to surf there because there was a comp on and those who paddled out did so in full knowledge that a comp was on.

The guys surfing in the comp were surfing under comp conditions and went for waves that they thought they could get a score from and would not normally behave like that in free surfing conditions ( I can hear the howls of protest now, but that is true). I would of thought that was obvious out in the water and if you think of it objectively it's not an unreasonable thing to expect. It was possible for free surfers and comp surfers to share the peak and personally I didn't have any problems in my heats but I did last year. I can assure you the SUP surfers would prefer not to have to surf under those conditions and would prefer that the event was organised in a way that nobody was put out.

Now I think Surfing WA do a great job and the staff are incredibly hardworking, dedicated and reasonable people and I wouldn't want to put any extra stress on them but if "locals" don't want a comp there at all or they want certain conditions imposed surely they should approach that organisation in a reasoned manner and raise the issues. Alternatively, the Mandurah Longboard Club could be approached and made aware of peoples complaints and concerns. However, before you complain about Surfing WA running comps just remember they are the first port of call for many of our elite surfers we are so proud of and also provide valuable services and resources for surfers of all ages and from all disciplines of surfing. Services that the "nay sayers" may want to take advantage of themselves in the future when they are older or have kids.

I know that all the SUP Surfers in that comp are competent and respectful surfers and we do not apologise for the way we choose to surf. We are gladly part of the West Australian surfing community and whole heartily support Surfing WA for the fantastic job they do. Our events are professionally run and through our association SUPWA and Surfing WA we seek to move our sport forward in a cooperative and respectful way that is considerate of all ocean users. Hopefully the next time a comp is run at Avalon arrangements can be put in place that avoid conflict as nobody wants that.

Extremely well put Fergus. Events cost money to run, applications for water space are made thru DoT, competitors pay to compete under safe conditions and to enjoy themselves and push their skills - the competition environment is set up to allow this to happen.

Hahahaha , normally I would have given the box of tissues. I was representing SUPWA and WASRA soooooo I had to behave ;)

In my opinion this issue was not about surf craft but more about access to the waves,.

Whoever the bright spark was that thought it would be ok to run 2 comps (one at the point and one and one in the bay) at the same time on the same weekend got it wrong, combined with one of the best swells this year it was always going to be ugly.

Even if the 2 comps were organised completely independant of each other (not sure what the case is here) both organisers would have to of realised the 2 comps combined would take up the 2 main breaks for pretty much the whole weekend and that it would piss a lot of people off.

It it was always going to be crazy busy that weekend regardless of whether or not there was a comp, you can't expect to displace that many local surfers without copping some push back and from the photos looks like both sides were as bad as each other.

I reckon the lesson from last weekend is surfing WA or whoever ran those comps should not have ran them both on the same day..

Mals on the point one weekend, SUPS in the bay a week or 2 later.

Crack pipe point s icy cold welcoming party haha. I heard they won't be able to get there next year they have started a roof tiling business with cuzy bro and will be flat out any way I would never paddle out in a comp zone as conscious tells me you look like a rite peanut waves are waves if you don't catch one today there is always tomorrow Not worth the anger peace and love is good for sole lickitup

BTW. Sunday arvo when comp ended. Wind dropped still plenty of swell. Vertially no one out ?