The dangers that lurk below
In our terms that generally means fish with teeth aka Mr White. However, if you’re in the tropics, it means rocks with teeth! Coral. Well OK, it’s not technically a rock.
Coral is the hard calcified outer skeleton (exoskeleton) secreted by many types of marine polyps. Coral reefs are thus composed of a many different types of polyps that have calcified outer skeletons.
And you definitely don’t want to fall on it. It’s sharp as sh*te and will cut you to ribbons. Which doesn’t help when many of the reef passes one tends to surf in Indo, Fiji, Maldives or elsewhere are shallow as anything. Margin for error is pretty darn slim.
Even the fairly friendly reef we’re surfing here in the Maldives at the moment is shallow enough that on the low tide you can snag you leash if you drift too close to the ledge. Now THAT’s a kak feeling. Set coming towards you and you tethered to a piece of staghorn.
It’s not actually recommended that you grab some goggles and go for a snorkel – cos what you see down there will make you nervous! Once you check out the wild array of pointy, sharp things that are lurking down there, you’ll realise why rule no.1 is don’t fall off!
Coral is the hard calcified outer skeleton (exoskeleton) secreted by many types of marine polyps. Coral reefs are thus composed of a many different types of polyps that have calcified outer skeletons.
And you definitely don’t want to fall on it. It’s sharp as sh*te and will cut you to ribbons. Which doesn’t help when many of the reef passes one tends to surf in Indo, Fiji, Maldives or elsewhere are shallow as anything. Margin for error is pretty darn slim.
Even the fairly friendly reef we’re surfing here in the Maldives at the moment is shallow enough that on the low tide you can snag you leash if you drift too close to the ledge. Now THAT’s a kak feeling. Set coming towards you and you tethered to a piece of staghorn.
It’s not actually recommended that you grab some goggles and go for a snorkel – cos what you see down there will make you nervous! Once you check out the wild array of pointy, sharp things that are lurking down there, you’ll realise why rule no.1 is don’t fall off!
No soft landings here....
Dr. Ricky Grigg, a great surfer and an expert on coral reefs says the hardest reefs are at Teahupoo and Pipeline, as the bottom in both places consists of a fossilized super-hard limestone covered with a thin layer of living coralline algae that is equivalent to cement. As for the sharpest, pretty much any atoll pass in the South Pacific that has low to moderate surf wrap-around breaks. There you get live species of Acropora and Pocillopora corals that will cut you to ribbons if you fall on them.
K, so we’ve established that you don’t wanna fall on these critters, so what kinda exit strategy options do you have?
Certainly don’t try dive off and penetrate as one would normally do at home, but rather act like a starfish with legs and arms splayed out trying to prevent yourself from going to deep.
You don’t want to be straightening out and riding the foam to escape a closeout. In many reef situations, this will merely leave you in a more difficult spot -- trying to paddle free of shallow, invisible reef while dealing with turbulence and whitewater lines. Even a seemingly risky move like pulling in and exiting out the back is better.
If you have to duckdive when you’re on the inside, keep it as shallow as possible and don't grip your rails…..instead place your hands on top of the rail line and push down. Getting your fingers squished between board and reef sucks.
If you're close to exposed reef or rock, don't fight the water flow. Water seeks the path of least resistance, and will usually flow clear of exposed reef and toward deeper zones, carrying you with it. Well, that’s the theory anyway!
K, so we’ve established that you don’t wanna fall on these critters, so what kinda exit strategy options do you have?
Certainly don’t try dive off and penetrate as one would normally do at home, but rather act like a starfish with legs and arms splayed out trying to prevent yourself from going to deep.
You don’t want to be straightening out and riding the foam to escape a closeout. In many reef situations, this will merely leave you in a more difficult spot -- trying to paddle free of shallow, invisible reef while dealing with turbulence and whitewater lines. Even a seemingly risky move like pulling in and exiting out the back is better.
If you have to duckdive when you’re on the inside, keep it as shallow as possible and don't grip your rails…..instead place your hands on top of the rail line and push down. Getting your fingers squished between board and reef sucks.
If you're close to exposed reef or rock, don't fight the water flow. Water seeks the path of least resistance, and will usually flow clear of exposed reef and toward deeper zones, carrying you with it. Well, that’s the theory anyway!
Pro surfer Kealla Kennelly after her close encounter with the Chopes reef.
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Love bites from the reef
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When eventually you and Mr Coral do meet – cos inevitably this will happen…make sure you clean out the cut immediately, and do a damn good job of it unless you want a premature end to your surf trip.
Wash the wound out well with fresh water (you can mix in some hydrogen peroxide or vinegar if you have) and ensure any pieces of coral are removed from inside the cut using tweezers. No tweezers, no problem, just scrub well with a scrubbing brush (even a toothbrush will do). Rather have smelly breathe than an infected leg. Squeezing some lime into it might sting like crazy, but it’ll help kill the coral.
Apply some antiseptic to the wound, Bactroban seems to work wonders at killing the bacteria. Keep your cut covered up. Opsite plasters that you can grab from the pharmacy work well cos they are super-waterproof. If you see some red lines starting to form around the cut – bad luck, you have an infection, get your butt to a doc or swallow some antibiotics.
Wash the wound out well with fresh water (you can mix in some hydrogen peroxide or vinegar if you have) and ensure any pieces of coral are removed from inside the cut using tweezers. No tweezers, no problem, just scrub well with a scrubbing brush (even a toothbrush will do). Rather have smelly breathe than an infected leg. Squeezing some lime into it might sting like crazy, but it’ll help kill the coral.
Apply some antiseptic to the wound, Bactroban seems to work wonders at killing the bacteria. Keep your cut covered up. Opsite plasters that you can grab from the pharmacy work well cos they are super-waterproof. If you see some red lines starting to form around the cut – bad luck, you have an infection, get your butt to a doc or swallow some antibiotics.
If the reefs die the waves they create die with them. Another epic Maldives line-up. Image Naveez.
We're surfing a pretty tame reef by tropical pass standards, and even it has teeth. A boat of Aussies rocked up a coupla days ago to share the break for a day. Garth had just been wiped and was busy negotiating the set whilst standing thigh deep on the reef, with one of them coming towards him on the next wave. The ou didn't see him, and next thing was in the process of an off-the-top...only to realise that his landing spot was right where Garth was standing. A mid-air bail saw him go down with the lip, and get properly drilled into the reef. Once the tangle of boards and boadies was resolved they made their way to the channel for a damage assessment. Turns out the poor guy had some serious tiger claws on his back, and Garth a myriad of small scratches all over. SA 1, Aussies zero!
So far we’ve established coral reefs can be bad for our health but what you may not realise is that we’re bad for their too. Around the world, coral reefs have shown a 30% decline since 1980, with at least 75% of remaining reefs in danger; right now certain parts of the ocean (including the Caribbean) have no healthy coral reefs remaining.
What is the cause? No single thing really, rather a bunch of different factors including, ocean warming from global climate change; ocean acidification (as CO2 emitted to the atmosphere dissolves into the oceans); overfishing and pollution.
Today a third of the world’s coral reefs may face extinction, making them the second-most threatened group of organisms on the planet (after amphibians). Not a good thing when they give rise to some of the best surf on the planet. Kill the reefs…kill the surf.
