Surfers beware

scotto

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Hamilton Essentials
By Compiled Rob Faulkner
The Hamilton Spectator
(Jan 22, 2007)
Surfers beware

You don't hear many surfing tales from Hamilton. But last week we got some international attention -- and not the good kind.

Surfing website Surfline.com reported Tuesday about St. Catharines surfer Kevin Bering, 24, who was surfing at The Bridge near the lift bridge the day before.

For the non-wetsuited in the crowd: The Bridge is a famous local surfing spot below the Skyway, with a natural sandbar that creates a "break" so good it has drawn surfers for 40 years.

But as Bering paddled out into the cold surf Monday, he got a chill. Sitting on his board, waiting for a wave, a plastic bag holding two hypodermic needles floated by him.

"When I saw what it was, I paddled away from it as fast as possible," writes Bering, a self-employed carpenter who spent two years travelling in Oceania. "I didn't want to be anywhere near it."

Fellow lake surfer Magilla Schaus, 55, co-director of the Eastern Surfing Association Great Lakes District, quickly spread the news through the surf world.

It's only a matter of time until a surfer gets poked by a needle, says Schaus, an injured Buffalo firefighter. A cleanup two years ago by local surfers at The Bridge also found a needle on the beach.

"Who knows whose arm a needle has been in or what's inside it," said Schaus.

He says dozens of surfers in this area are drawn to the three-metre waves possible at The Bridge. You need north or north-east winds of about 20 km/h; it happens several times a year, with the best during fall or winter storms.

Schaus wants needles tagged with microchips so they can be tracked to the source. If they turned up on hockey rinks or soccer fields there would be a public outcry, he contends.
 
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