Well there's more than one side to the story,
27 April 2012 09:07 AM
G'Day all,
Well unfortunately I was the unlucky one in the way last Sunday. I'd been surfing for about 3 1/2 hours and honestly it was about as good as the Carties breaks get. Wasn't spending much time on the section that is Carties. I was getting most of my waves from Platties and halfways. Managed to shimmy across one right through into Carties and rode all the way through.
As I pulled off a couple of young kids on lids (I think, it's a bit of a blur) were paddling out near me. We came over the next wave and the SUP was slowly turning to catch a wider wave. He really had eyes only for the wave and was watching over his shoulder as the wave came up behind him. I couldn't get inside him cos of the guys inside me so had to go wide or get mown down. The wave jacked a bit more than he thought so to compensate he changed his entry angle to wider angle. Basically straight at me. In all this time he never once looked toward his path he would take. At the last second he realised he was going to run me over and just jumped off his board. I duckdived as deep as I could but must have left my left leg up as you do, and got smashed by, I guess, his fin. I felt instantly sick in my guts and my leg was agony. I surfaced and gave him a verbal spray. Lifted my leg out of the water so he could see it. "Look what you've ****in done to my leg" His reply was,
"Well you shouldn't have been in my way" !!!!!!!
He then grabbed his board and paddled away leaving me to make my own way in to the rocks. Blood was pulsing out of a 10cm gash in my lower calf. A couple of people helped me out over the next hour to get me to hospital. (Big thanks to all involved, you know who you are if you read this) Ordeal was not over yet...
Doctors advised me that the cut was so deep that I would require surgery. The bone and surrounds would need to be cleaned properly or infection was a good possibility. I was put on the surgery list. Unfortunately/fortunately I was a fairly low priority and spent the next 3 days getting bumped by more urgent cases. No food or water until 8 pm each night until it was certain I wouldn't be operated on that day. Finally Tuesday arvo operation was performed and here I am stitches, crutches and no surfing for I'm not sure how long.
To reply to some of the speculation on this thread...
I've been surfing 30 years.I don't rip but I go ok. I've made some good decisions in the water and some bad ones... like most of us I reckon. I have gotten in peoples way over the years and people have gotten in my way, it just happens sometimes.
The previous morning I surfed the open beach at Buddina. It was bigger Saturday and to be honest was probably outside my comfort level, but I took it on. I only mention this to refute claims I should have duckdived the wave rather than paddle for the shoulder into SUP's path. It just played out that way. I have no problem duckdiving 4 foot waves. I just had little choice and judged that Sups entry angle he should clear me, until he changed angle.
When Carties gets bigger and the swell is straight out of the east there can be waves that break tight to the rocks (the better ones) or there can be bigger wider fatter ones. So Carties does not break down the same path every time. When you pull off a wave you are where you are.
MrsBradPitt it was a strange swell as Carties/Platties was very good (strange) and the crowd was way down on normal numbers.
A few thoughts...
If there's someone in your way, and there is doubt you can get around them, pull back, it's just a wave. If someone sits inside and doesnt move when your trying to take off, give them a spray but pull back. It's just a wave. At least once anyway.
If someone is coming straight for me from now on I'll be protecting my body before my board. It's just a board.
If you injure someone in the surf, even if you believe you were not at fault, help them to the beach. Paddling away is a dog act. Face what you have done even if you are copping a spray. I gave this guy a mouthful, but if he helped me and showed a bit of remorse it would have been such an improvement on what actually went down.
I'll get better and be surfing again soon and was very very lucky. Another 2 inches down and my ankle would probably been crushed. It was a big impact. I hope the SUP got a good look at the damage inflicted and he had a rethink of his actions later on.
Wanna see some photos???
Poida
I surf a SUP because of a long term back injury and still secretly harbour hopes of surfing a very voluminous shortboard when the back is completely healed from the operation. Like Ocka and co, I surfed shortboards for a long time and marvel at the abilties of the young crew now. Unfortunately that's about 10% of the total out in the water. The rest are wannabes with big mouths. For all we know you might be the greatest kook out? Give us all a break, the joke's over there are far more injuries from rogue shortboarder and mal kooks than SUPs. Check SLSC statistics. We all make mistakes, yes he should have been further away but any halfway decent surfer would have been able to read what was going to happen and protect himself even if it meant getting his board fin chopped or rolled along the rocks, (which by the way could have been the culprit of the gash having had some experience with getting rolled along the point in a couple of large swells.) Sounds like he was to busy mouthing off instead of thinking!!!
Bit of Karma perhaps??
Had a big day dealing with morons at work. 
