Gidds:
Sorry don't speak Aussie, what is a "breaking beach"? They enforce it by having the life gaurds yell at offenders and kicking them out if need be. I don't get it, I just can't fathom what safety measures such a rule provides.
Pardon the typos and crappy grammar - a breaking beach is a beach where waves break. At a beach with large breaking waves (say, 6 feet or more) you would probably have to go quite a way out to snorkel, which may present an issue with rips and currents. On a beach with small or no waves, this would not be an issue.
Having said that, you may as well ban body borders at beaches too - and surf boards, they can all fall under the "swimming aid" argument. From experience in my days of crazed body boarding of the biggest waves I could find in Sydney, I remember a particularly rough day, with waves of about 8 feet plus, breaking a long way out at Maroubra beach. I never used a leash on my board, as I found that with big waves, I didn't want to be dragged back by the board should I get seperated from it, and it got sucked into the wave.
Anyway, this particular day, I got absolutely drilled by a huge wave that closed out on me before I could pull out. Got seperated from the board and got to the surface quite quickly. With the rips and currents, I had to swim for about 30 minutes straight to get to shore. Remember, as a body boarder, I had fins... Now, remember how long it takes an Olympic 1500 meter swimmer to swim the distance. Now double it. Having been into the whole surfing and body surfing thing since I was about 10, I was quite good at all the things you were supposed to avoid. Me and my buddy would consider it abnormal if we DIDN'T come in from the water over the rocks in rough surf. Sounds crazy, but with a little practice, we got quite good at it, and often the easiest and quickest way back to the beach was over the rocks.
But I digress, the point is, without fins, none of this stuff would have been be possible. I wouldn't have been able to swim out easily, for a start, no way would I have been able to swim back in, that's for sure. The swimming aids are just as likely to save you as kill you. banning them wont change anything. To look at sea life, you will now wear swimming goggles, you'll have to hold your breath, and you'll be damn tired because you can't kick along at a relaxed pace with your face down while breathing comfortabley.
To me, banning "swimming aids" is kind of like banning ABS and traction control on cars, because some people will think they are safer and will push their car harder. It's this kind of retarded logic that screws things up.
I think it's time to sack the lawyers and teach people to take responsibilty for themselves.
Z...
