Regulated Surfing: An end to our freedom?

If you surf in the UK during the summer you cant fail to notice the vast numbers of "surfers" in the water- hotspots like Croyde and Fistral are rammed with beginners and surf schools all vying for their own little space, all dropping into and onto each other. The situation is the same in SW France so much so that the city councils around the Hossegor area are considering regulating surfing!

We spotted this alarming news in Drift magazine, which is online at the moment but is up there with the best in terms of content, images, ethics and design. Well worth checking out. The paragraph below is from their story, the image is ours taken at Croyde bay:



According to regional French newspaper Sud-Ouest, after the high number of surfing related accidents resulting in injuries that occurred on the Capbreton – Hossegor - Seignosse stretch of coast this last summer (up to 35% more than the previous summer), these City Councils are studying the possibility of setting up some sort of surfing regulation. A regulation that, they say, would mainly affect surf schools (they will have a designated stretch of beach each, so as not to have an excess of learner surfers in the same break) but also surfers with rentals and, presumably, little or no ocean experience.