Stuart Nettle April 5, 2010

We live in interesting times. Professional surfing is embracing new technology, seizing the bounty and bounding forth into its own Brave New World.

Sort of...

Surfing and computer technology are well-matched bedfellows. We all laughed derisively when 'surfing the net' became the one-size-fits-all term for hooking up to the W's. But taken on another level the metaphor fits.

The internet may have been created by the best military minds but, discounting porn peddlers, it's surfers who are making best use of its abilities.

Take surf forecasting for instance: everybody wants to know what the future holds and surfers are no different. So what happened? Years of model data were fed into big, high-powered computers with acronym names. Each new day the surf forecasters divine the results from conflicting data and deliver the news with an illusion of authority by using terms such as 'captured fetch scenario', keeping the bets hedged and the hook baited.

And if you wouldn't mind clicking on an advert. That'd be real handy.

Exchange of information is one thing but the nets ability to relay real-time data has taken surfing the net to a new level. With a just a few mouse clicks keen punters can see the surf in Taranaki, Noumea or Sydney. Not just read about it by report but scope it on a webcam: the crowds, the wind, the consistency. Sitting here in Torquay I can see the surf pumping up in Sydney. It looks good.

Surfers are internet pioneers, of a sort. Harnessing the new tools to reshape the world we live in. Yet amongst the progressives are the Luddites stubbornly standing steadfast as the Brave New World displays its rosebud.

It's Day Seven of the Rip Curl Pro and one round of the mens has been run in sub-standard surf. Yet, all the while, other coasts - Philip Island, the West Coast, the East Coast - have been pumping. We predicted the swells from days out. We saw the swells hit on the little webcams. So how about utilising some of this technology and getting mobile?

It's not like there's no precedent. In 1979 the Coca-Cola Surfabout went flat in Sydney and the organisers whisked the surfers to somewhere with waves (Bells ironically). Might be a few more competitors these days but Avalon airport is just up the road, and as long as their boards aren't over 1.6 metres (not sure what that is in feet) Jet Star could have the pros in Sydney for $69, tax included.

Better yet, fly 'em to Ballina and hop a Maxi Taxi up to Lennox Head. Bugger The Search, hold the Bells Beach Rip Curl Pro at Lennox. Steve Shearer is down here at the moment - he can't do a thing about it!

No doubt the bean counters at Rip Curl will throw cold water on my theory: something about bums on seats and costing too much. But that's blatant obstructionism and is the sort of thinking that will hold surfing back. If we all thought like that we'd still be surfing longboards and using footy jumpers to keep warm.