Do you use them much with a mal? saw a couple of nasty incidents this weekend, both at the same spot.

I’ve used them a couple of times many years ago at Dee Why point and Collaroy and I got away with it but I didn’t feel too comfortable and I did scrap my fin a few times.

There are places down here where it’s the only way to get in, like Mona Vale Basin but then it’s a really easy one.

Yesterday this young guy at Collaroy went to jump off the rock pool wall with this beautiful orange mal, looked like a specialist nose rider and the kid was really good. He looked to be no stranger to the break, lots of people knew him.

Anyway, there he was on the edge of the rock pool tentatively moving from one side of the chain fence to the other as he tried to select the right set. I turned away and when I looked back, there he was waist deep on the rocks trying frantically to get his board off the rock pool wall as the sets were smashing him. I thought, there’s no way that board could not have been dinged up, but he was there again this morning competing in a reef riders comp so I guess he was lucky.

The other guy this arvo at the same rock pool jump off was not so lucky. He had a beautiful mactavish that did not look too old and he really must have misjudged it in a big way.

I didn’t see the set he jumped onto but I think it must have been same one I got a wave in because just as I’m paddling back out, I’m right beside the rock pool wall and I look over and see he’s in the same position at the young guy yesterday, standing waist deep where he shouldn’t be, in front of the wall and getting pounded, but the mactavish is wrapped around one of the chain posts on the top- edge of the rock pool and snapped completely in two.

For me it’s just not worth it to try to do the same as a shorty or a foamy just to save a bit of a paddle. That guys decision today has cost him over a grand.