The shit they pull, huh?
“Worst. Herald. Ever.” —Galactus
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Maybe the surfer was serious. And don’t call him Shirley.
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The surly surfer surely shouldn’t surf the seashore.
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I grew up around this area, and had classmates that would wake up to go surfing before 0 period.
There are some hardcore surf lifestyle folks in Manhattan Beach, Hermosa Beach, and Redondo Beach, and to a lesser degree in Torrance and PV. These are also the nuts that flock to the beach when there’s a closure due to a huge storm (and subsequent sewage overflow/E Coli craziness).
I am so not surprised by this.
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I mean, I can hole up for three to eighteen months while we figure this out so I don’t kill several people through negligent disregard. I get not everyone can, but surfing is a luxury.
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Not only that, but some of us live in tiny-ass dwellings. If you live in a McMansion w/ 37 exercise machines you ordered off of QVC I can get it, but for the rest of us…
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“ hiking, climbing, mountain biking, swimming or anything else even slightly risky”
You’re shitting me, right? People die just going for walks in desert areas that aren’t even that remote after getting lost and running out of water, mountain bikers have done the same - I recall reading about two who were found dead in a desert area after getting lost, they were found around 100 meters from a clear trail! Here in the UK it’s common for people to get caught out in the open on the moors, or in mountain areas, when the weather changes from warm and sunny to thick cloud and rain in 30 minutes, and mountain rescue teams end up scouring a huge area for hours! And our mountains aren’t even that high, but they’re bloody dangerous. There are beaches not all that far from me which are also dangerous, the tidal rise and fall is 42 feet, second highest in the world, with very large areas of thick mud exposed at low tide - two hovercraft were bought by public donations after a five year old girl got stuck and drowned before rescuers could get her out! They get called out over 200 times a year because of stupid, ignorant people who ignore all the signs!
Rescue teams should not have to put themselves at risk because of the stupid and entitled ignoring clear instructions.
Even you ought to be able to understand that!
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Surfing ended early due to surly hurly-burly.
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Manhattan Beach is in California. But they need the money too.
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That tells me so much right there.
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Understood. Per my previous, I was referring to the states like CA and NY that don’t toe the line with his horrifying policies are going to get little to no federal assistance and will carry the financial and logistical burden in a massively disproportionate way. The link was just because Cuomo pointed it out yesterday.
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The beach is closed. And the only way to keep too many people going to a closed location is to keep anyone from going to a closed location.
That’s the biggest problem for these kinds of rules, particularly in an individualistic society like ours. Everyone thinks the rules are there for other people, and it isn’t hurting anything if I’m the only one breaking them. We all think we’re the special ones to whom the rule don’t really apply, and that’s going to get a lot of folks killed.
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Even driving in desert areas can be hazardous, and not just because of breakdowns. When it rains in, let’s say, Las Vegas or Phoenix, dry streambeds become raging torrents, and yet people drive into them every year; some of them drown as a result. Arizona has one good idea: if you choose to drive into a flooded area and need to be rescued, you will get billed for it.
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Proof that there are no libertarians in a pandemic
I’m going to respectfully dissent on several of the points folks have made here. Sure, this surfer was being a dick. But what if he was just running on the beach?
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Don’t underestimate the importance of outdoor exercise on health & wellbeing, including the immune system. Sitting on the couch decomposing is not how we are going to successfully get through this.
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While there is some increased risk associated with driving and other outdoor activity, it is relatively minor. For people in densely populated areas, that risk is much, much lower that exposing themselves or others just going for a walk in their neighborhood.
Example: I live in the exurbs of a medium-sized city. We went for a walk from our house yesterday of just short of 2 hours. We encountered about 40-50 people out on our walk, and everybody gave more than the required distance…except for three people who were walking on a 10th wide path, three abreast, and didn’t go single-file to give space. We went off the path as far as we could without falling off a steep hillside, and the nearest person in their group violated the 6’ distance rule for my whole family. In contrast, we went hiking the day before in a more remote area, and never got anywhere near other people, because there were just fewer people about. When we encountered people going the other way on a narrow part of the trail, we turned around, went to a wider part, and stepped off the trail so they could pass.
So the problem is assholes, not exercise. Closing trails and trailheads is as short-sighted as the mistakes that got us into this mess in the first place.
And keep in mind that not everyone can walk or run for exercise. I have a friend whose legs are messed up badly enough that he can’t walk for more than about 200 yards. But he can row all day. Now they are closing the boat ramps. Yeah, people shouldn’t be wakeboarding right now, but for people who depend on kayaking/canoeing/rowing for their primary form of outdoor exercise, this is a bad policy.
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I miss the more innocent days of ye ol’ inter-webs.
Am generally in agreement with these points. I think that there are some mixed messages circulating right now, (both policy implementation and popular consciousness re. what is and isn’t safe or allowed), it’s also going to vary a lot depending on where we’re talking about.
I’m in a two room apartment, with upwards of 7 million people in the surrounding larger metro radius. Getting out to areas with low concentrations of people to walk or bike is essential, but can be tricky, (totally staying off sidewalks because 6’ is impossible). Many trailheads have been closed nearby - but people have also been encouraged to be outside respecting the social distance protocol and continue to get exercise. Many of the trails that are open are now more crowded than in normal times, (with folks not working). I turned back on a narrow fence-bound hillside trail to avoid a group of people on a stretch where there was no option to divert, and am now choosing destinations more carefully based on that criteria, (there are good firetrails with truck-wide paths available).
When it comes to national parks and remote areas though, the idea that people should definitely not be traveling long stretches to places with limited medical services is important to stress. Example of the rapidly evolving nature: on March 18 many parks were waiving entrance fees to give people something to do in the lockdown, by the 25th many of these same parks are closed to visitors. source
This situation could be going on for a very long time (18 months is one figure floating around), we’ll need to develop more reasonable ways to deal without prematurely decomposing in our tiny cells.
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Definitely. There’s a trail nearby that involves long stretches of walking on a narrow ledge holding onto a cable to keep from dropping hundreds of feet into a narrow gorge. No way that trail can be kept open. On the other hand, there are trails that are essentially closed two-track with plenty of separation available for folks heading in opposite directions. Those should be kept open - but they aren’t.
It’s certainly no time to go on a cross-country trip to Yellowstone. But it’s worth keeping parks open to let people get out and exercise, while at the same time reducing crowding in urban areas for people who can’t leave the city center.
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