Durban - Surfers surfed again on Monday morning after surfer Jean-Marc Tostee posted on his Facebook page on Sunday night that surfers should go surfing on Monday morning after nailing “the final loophole in the law”.
Last week Wednesday, Springbok surfers Beyrick de Vries, former captain of the team, and Ntando Msibi as well as attorney Graham Taylor, were among a group of eight local surfers who said they had hired a charter boat to launch at Wilson’s Wharf and drop them off the coast beyond the shark nets where they surfed at New Pier.
Tostee said: “Crossing the beach to go surfing is allowed!”
He continued to say that the police were just doing their job of controlling the beaches and may not all know about these dealings yet as it’s early days but you could not be charged for going surfing or walking across the beach to get to the surf.
“And please get this part clear: If a policeman asks you to leave the beach then you get to choose which way you want to go: into the sea to surf, or to the promenade. His job is to prevent people gathering on the beach and spreading Covid - but he cannot write you a fine for being on the beach to get to the sea. If he does it's worthless and you can toss it in the trash. However, if he asks you to leave the beach and you choose not to move then you are opening yourself up to disobeying the instructions of a law enforcement officer and that is a different charge, which is prosecutable,” said Tostee.
He said if anyone is harassed, they are welcome to call him and he will clarify the law to the person who has their facts wrong.
Speaking to the Daily News, Tostee said there was no story but that was after he said they had been surfing from 5.30am. He said they surfed when the conditions were good and could not surf every day. When the wind picked up like it did on Monday, then they were out of the water, that was why they surfed in the morning.
“There is no story, there is nothing to report. We just went surfing and we came out. We had a chat with the police and they had a chat with us and that’s it, I’m at work, everything is fine. There’s no story,” said Tostee.
Meanwhile, metro police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Parboo Sewpersad said seven surfers were chased from Dairy Beach in the morning.
Daily News