Over a hundred people gathered Saturday at Sunset Beach in Dubai, UAE to protest a local ban on surfing. Surfers argued that the death of a swimmer at the beach on Friday might have been prevented if there had been surfers present to help save him.
The city claims that surfers are hazardous to swimmers and have stepped up efforts to keep them off the beaches, fining anyone found with a surfboard in the ocean or on the beach. There have even been reports of fines issued to people who simply had a board in their cars. Police are confiscating drivers licenses until owners pay a fine of Dh200(US $54.45).
The protest organizer, Scott Chambers who is the director of Surf Dubai stated, “We have been surfing here since 1992 and to this date there have been no injuries to any swimmers through surfing on this strip.”
A further argument set forth by surfers is that there’s a tradition of surfers helping out swimmers in trouble. One of the protestors refuted the city, “There would have been surfers to pull out the person who drowned as we often do, but we were just too afraid to turn up, not knowing what to expect from the police and the municipality.”
Due to beach development projects such as the artificial islands, Sunset Beach is the only place in the emirate of Dubai that is conducive to surfing. The sport is popular not only with residents, some of whom are foreigners who list surfing as one of the reasons they moved to Dubai, but also with tourists. Many of the luxury hotels in Dubai UAE are located on or near the beaches and list surfing and other water sports as main attractions for holiday travelers.
An online petition of over 1,000 signatures will be presented to the city next week in an effort to get them to reverse the ban.
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