You’ve probably been snaked in your lifetime, and you may have wanted to throw your board at the offender’s face. But you didn’t. One man at Snapper Rocks did, however, after being snaked by boat captain and abalone diver Mark Morlock, 41.
Morlock reports that after dropping in on him, the culprit approached him and, after exchanging words, “He let his board go from between his legs, straight into my (Morlock’s) face.”
Morlock made it to the beach where he received first aid from a lifeguard where the aggressor continued to try to fight him. He was initially taken to Tweed Heads Hospital then sent to Gold Coast University Hospital where he received 12 hours of micro surgery on his eye. He will learn if he loses sight today.
It is not known at this time if the incident was reported to local police. This incident comes 13 months after local police started patrolling the Snapper Rocks area for surf rage, a move that was seen as largely unnecessary.
Surfers tends to believe that we can self-regulate issues that occur in the water, that the hierarchy will manage itself, and those who don’t know better learn the hard way. It is no secret that violence has played a role in surfing’s past and present. Sometimes it travels under the guise of “respect.” But when it comes down to it, violence rarely begets respect. Nor should it.
