Surf in Australia: In the beginning of the 1900's, it was prohibited for anyone to swim in the sea between 6:00 in the morning and 8:00 in the evening. Whoever breached the law was imprisoned and not seen well by the community. One day, a gentleman, probably drunk decided to take a dip at noon. He was wearing a jacket and tie and many people came to watch him and decided to imitate the act. The police quickly came and everybody arrested and fined them! The two main reasons for this law was that farmers didn't like employers to leave the work during hot summers to refresh themselves at the beach, and secondly; Australia still had prisoners at that time who did forced work. It meant that if you had a tan, you might have looked like a prisoner. But as time passed, the law also lost its effect (VIP's were breaching the law anyway) and 1901 was the year it officially became legal for people to swim at Australian Beaches outside of those hours.
By 1950 the first imported wood surfboards had arrived in Australia. They were copied and adapted for Australian style and materials. Australian surfboards became lighter than their American and Hawaii counterparts, smaller in size and weight. By the 60's the Surf explosion had started and with it came friction between surfers and life savers. The biggest problem seems to be that surfers and swimmers were not happy sharing the same sand bar and life savers used to place the flags in their boundaries. Fights were inevitable. Later, a decision was made to distinguish areas between surfers and swimmers. At around the same time, the Council decided to charge a kind of surfboard license, which consists of a sticker glued on the board. This law and easy council revenue didn't last long either.
Surfers and Bikers have a lot in common....
How is that cannabis is okay in South OZ, also I think in parts of Sydney, WA and ACT, British Columbia, Netherlands, California .....
Yet we fill our courts and tie up police, spend tax payers money policing a crap law that is due for change and politicians know it.
Maybe this is out of place here, but I wished to point out that history is strewn with crap decision making. Sunday trading, 6 o'clock swill, rabbits are nice, gorse will make good hedges, lets bring them to NZ.
Politicians respond to squeaky wheels. Lets really start squeaking on ACC.
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Originally Posted by scissorhands
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