SAFETY IN SURFING.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18241, 27 November 1924, Page 9

SAFETY IN SURFING.

VARIATIONS AND CONDITIONS. SOME COMMON-SENSE RULES. Yesterday's drowning fatalities were tho subject of conversation last night between some well-known surfing men and a representative of "The Press." Tho opinion generally expressed was that New Brighton was a "safe" beach, but that all beaches required knowing. "In nearly all local eases of drowning in the surf, tho victim has been a visitor who has not known the, beach, or an indifferent swimmer, who has not. taken sufficient care," said one of the speakers. He made it clear that his remarks did not apply to yesterday's accident, about which he "knew very little. A question as to whether the northern end of the beach was more dangerous than that portion in the vicinity of tho' pier, was answered more or less in tho negative. One speaker said that ho was more familiar with the pier, or central, portion, and on the occasions ho hud bathed at North Beach he had found more "potholes" than lie had been used to, but thoso conditions might have been peculiar to the particular times he had bathed there. There should be no real difference in the conditions, for there wus only about a mile separating the two bathing points, North Beach and tho pier, and they should be affected in the same manner by the tides, as thero was no difference in the coastline for practically tho whole distance of eight or nine miles, from the estuary to the mouth of the Waifiiakariri.

Advice to Surfers. '' I don't want to pose as an authority, " said another surfer, who was approached by the Pressman, "but thero aro a. few common-BOnsc rules which old New Brighton surfers know and obey, consciously or unconsciously, and it would be well if they could bo passed on to the bathers who arc more or loss strangers to tho beach. I hnVe 'bathed nt all points along the beach, between the estuary and the Waimakariri every season during the last eighteen years or so, and I consider I know (something of Now Brighton. I admit that I have' bathed in the vicinity of tho pier more frequently and regularly than elsewhere, nnd that that is the portion where I have been able to observe the varying effects of the different tides. But wherever one is bathing along the New Brighton beach one needs to bo proparcd for conditions different from those experienced the last time one was out, for there are changes from day to day," continued tho speaker. "For instance, otic may find the tide dead low, with a swell and one roller coming in, the wave breaking regularly at the same point. Before; ono reaches the roller, one may find a calm stretch of water, with a channel which increase's the depth from knee to waist or breast high. Past the channel, tho beach rises, and thea bather finds himself again kneedeop all tho way to the roller. The wave, if it is rising comparatively high in tho shallow water, may leave n nasty backwash, and if the bather goes beyond tho wavo he may find that tho outside swell has a back drift. At half-tide, or full-tide,, when tho waves are from light to medium in strength, and fairly frequont, thero may be only strong inward rush after each wave, and u comparative calm till the next roller breaks.. A dozen different conditions might be met with in as many days, and the golden rule for the bather who has , not sufficient local knowledge to warrant his going far out, is to koep within one's depth, so that if it is found that there is a back-wash ono can dig one's toes into the sand. "Thero are occasions when there is a dead calm and no current either way, and then it is as safe a quarter of a mile out as it is in a swimming pond. I have known such conditions to exist at dead low tide. There is,-of course, the 'rip,' or cross-current, which sometimes runs from north to south, but it is usually so well defined that even the most foolhardy bather docs not venturo far out when .it is running. It occurs during or after a nor '-wester, when the river water is sweeping along the coast.

"Should one be suddenly swept out "beyond one's depth, when :i fairly good sea is breaking on the beach, the best advice, or, at least so I have found it, is to allow oneself to be swept back to the next breaker, and then take full advantage of its assistance to come in. It is not a pleasant sensation, going out to sea feet first when one is striving to reach shore, but a swimmer makes a mistake in battling vainly against the current, for, in all probability when the next roller breaks over his head it batters him down, and he is too spent to throw all his strength into the effort to come in with the wave. The result is that he can't hold his breatli when underneath, and ho gets a mouthful. To the experienced swimmer M*ho keeps his head, such an experience is merely a valuable lesson, but it is more serious for 'the man who has not the coolness or the strength to conserve his energy for subsequent efforts." What about tho man who finds that there are no rollers to bring him in? tho speaker was asked. "That would bo a case for the lifeline, I would imagine," was the reply. "Tho man who goes out beyond the breakers in anything like a decent surf is looking for troublo, even on the best beach in tho world-rand I consider Now Brighton is one of them," he concluded. *