SAFER SURFING IN SYDNEY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 14 November 1924, Page 4

SAFER SURFING IN SYDNEY.

__——,. — PROTECTION aGAJNST SHARKS. SYDNEY, Oct. 30. Each summer brings its tragic toll of disasters -an the Sydney beaches, and the Surf Council is now making a determined effort to make bathing a s|afer sport. Surf boat crews, for example, are to be provided with harpoons, or shark spears, mainly to protect competitors at carnivals, but also for use in case of attacks by sharks on ordinary bathers. It is also proposed to equip the surf boats with belts and coiled, lines, to enable 'rescues to be effected by boat when people in danger are beyond the reach of the life-savers. It is proposed to give demonstrations to the general public on the beaches, of life-saving methods and the reasons for them. Frequently) out of Ignorance, the, public are a hindrance to the life-savera in an emergency. In all good faith they grab the life line, for example, believing that they are helping the life-savers, when actually they are impeding the progress of the rescuer and often risking the life of the patient who is being dragged back to the beach, simply because they do not understand the / art in the line movements. It is proposed to demonstrate on the beach how indiscriminate tugging at the line by well-meaning surfers may easily drown both rescuer and rescued. The practice of iskimming in on the -waves on hand boards is also to be stopped, while the bigboards will be permitted only outside the defined bathing areas. The “board artists” will have ,to be content to shoot the waves as others do. The boards have proved notoriously dangerous on the Sydney beaches. The policy of the Surf Council also includes the establishment of safety first signs on all the big beaches.