Surfers on Whangamata Bar yesterday. PHOTO/New Zealand Police.
Surfers on Whangamata Bar yesterday. PHOTO/New Zealand Police.
Police will "educate" surfers after a morning in which they were caught not maintaining 2m distances on the iconic national break, the Whangamata Bar.
On Wednesday morning at the beach entry leading to one of New Zealand's 17 nationally significant surf breaks, Lance Pitcher smiled to himself as the barthat regularly draws 40-50 surfers on a moderately good weekday was surfed by four people.
Surfers on Whangamata Bar yesterday. PHOTO/New Zealand Police.
"It brings back memories of the 70s and early 80s," says Pitcher, who has surfed the bar since he was aged 11. "It would be nice if they were all local."
Whangamata Police have issued five warnings for breaches of the self-isolation rules including one for a bach owner who drove 400m down the road to "check the surf".
"People who drive there draw attention to themselves and will be followed up by us," said Sergeant Will Hamilton on Wednesday. "The driving isn't essential travel."
By yesterday that message had changed.
"Over the last week and a bit the community has been fairly well compliant with the rules the Government has said we must abide by. The exception and pretty disappointing to see was this morning on the Bar," said Whangamata Sergeant Will Hamilton.
"Some have been flying under the radar until now...there is a total disregard for social distancing and the rules in general."
He said essential travel had been clearly defined by the Government. "This is not a game, this is not some rules for some and some for others; this is as real as it gets. We have one chance to beat this, and this is it.
"What that means. Do not surf, if you are surfing or are heading to go surfing you will be spoken to. Our first option is to educate and then encourage compliance. If this is not successful then enforcement action may be taken.
"Do not drive anywhere unless it is essential travel. Expect to be spoken to if you are moving around in a vehicle. Stay home means stay home."
In Pitcher's estimation there are between 60 and 70 local surfers in total in Whangamata.
But there are days when 50 or more surfers crowd this long, peeling lefthander.
Non-local and incompetent surfers on the bar have been a rising source of angst in the Whangamata surfing community - and the Covid-19 lockdown has added fuel to the fire.
"It's hectic," says Pitcher. "Too many people don't know etiquette and how to respond under pressure when a set is coming and a rider is coming toward them. They're paddling up the face of the wave . . . and putting in danger the people who do paddle back inside, because the surfer has to straighten out."
Pitcher and other local members of the Whangamata Boardriders Club have been warning out-of-towners still travelling to come surfing.
The club posted on its Facebook page that it didn't want anybody to travel for waves.
Pitcher says as of early this week surfers in Onemana were sticking to their local, Whiritoa and Tairua surfers were also generally walking or cycling only to surf.
Whangamata Boardriders President Lance Pitcher. PHOTO/Supplied.
On Monday, one longtime and mellow local surfer lost his cool on Whanga Bar when an international traveller paddled out and did not have the skills to be out there.
"They're a danger to themselves and anybody else in the water. They've been asked to go in, not necessarily politely, by some reputable gentlemen who normally don't get hot under the collar," says Pitcher.
One week into lockdown, the community fabric of small towns on the Coromandel is starting to fray as people suffer the spiritual and emotional impact of being unable to practise their sport.
When one keen golfer in Tairua found a surfer assessing the conditions in which four or five others were already surfing yesterday, he said he would report surfers to police.
Government advises that people avoid surfing. Similarly do not use any challenging trails in your local area for tramping, and nor should you go out in a boat or undertake any risky physical activity in the water which included fishing and kayaking.
Outdoor exercise facilities like playgrounds, community courts for tennis or basketball and private golf courses where people touch outdoor equipment can spread Covid-19.
Wave riders said earlier in the week that they were sticking to the rules of staying 2m from people and putting nobody at risk when they walk to the ocean. "
At home I hear chainsaws going around me, and I see people riding bikes without helmets. I think we're the least of everyone's worries," said one.
The country's national surfing body, Surfing New Zealand, put out official advice on lockdown last Wednesday and it hasn't changed its stance.
"The government has now clarified, through Police Commissioner Mike Bush, that no one should be driving anywhere . . . other than for essential reasons like buying food and medicine.
"For the next four weeks, do not drive to the beach to surf or for any other reason. Stay at home, and exercise at home or within short walking distance of home (while maintaining at least 2m physical distance from others)."
