Bodyboarder Suffers Severe Head Fin Chop

Nothing makes a surfer wince like a deep, clean fin chop to the head. Perhaps it’s because the objects charged with steering our crafts are not too dissimilar in shape to the tomahawk that apaches used for parting scalp from cranium, or maybe because we’re all familiar with the dull underwater whizz of a surfboard flying past our heads. If there was a fin chop capital of the world then it would be Snapper Rocks. It’s a gruesome sight, but it definitely could have been worse. The head pictured is that of fifteen-year-old bodyboarder Caleb Brereton who suffered this head injury whilst surfing Snapper Rocks for the first time yesterday. “I surf at places like Burleigh and Duranbah all the time but it was my first time out at Snapper,” said Caleb, “when I looked at my hand after I touched my head I saw that there was blood everywhere. Then other surfers told me to paddle back in to the beach.” Stevie Lloyd, president of the North Bodyboard club (Who base themselves at the Spit on the northern end of the Gold Coast) says that surfing the Gold Coast points is, “Without a doubt more dangerous for bodyboarders,” and stated that’s why he “stays away.” He continued that, “There is still a little bit of bodyboard versus surfer mentality and the kids cop the worst of it.” Thankfully Caleb will be back in the surf once his sizeable wound heals. Just maybe not at Snapper. Occupying the bottom of the food chain at a heavily populated lineup, and the inability of being able to leverage yourself away from your craft in the light of a collision is the reason that bodyboarding is a health hazard on the Gold Coast points. Snapper Rocks Surfriders club treasurer Lorraine Bryant, who’s been surfing the point for thirty years said that, “If I was a bodyboarder I wouldn’t surf out there.” Caleb’s almost tragic predicament brings the lingering conundrums of the Gold Coast points to a head. When will there be a death as the result of overcrowding? And, how can the points be made safer without destroying the integrity of the surf spots that have put the Gold Coast on the map? (Original source: The Gold Coast Bulletin)