Another local surfer saying why trap must not have a webcam... - Relating to the Trap

Forum Web Cams Relating to the... Another local surfer saying why trap must not have a webcam...

5/25/2007 4:53 PM

	Al Clare
2 posts

Another local surfer saying why trap must not have a webcam...

Regarding the idea of putting a web cam on the seafront at Aber overlooking the Trap – I think this would be a very poor idea. I would like to know more of this – who is backing it and why? Is it intended purely to give a view of the wave at the harbour reef? Who wants it and what benefits do they think it will give? Are there commercial reasons behind it being proposed? Some very good reasons have already been logged as to why it’s a poor idea by regular Trap surfers, including some very valid safety concerns, and I would like to add to the weight of objection by local surfers against a web cam at Trap. I haven’t met any local surfers who would want a web cam there.
Nowadays anyone can find surfbreak webcams on the web without much difficulty, but I cannot think of a similar break to Trap that has a webcam! Surfers who know breaks well will know what I’m on about. There are webcams overlooking Croyde, Llangennith, Fistral, Woolacombe, Hell’s Mouth etc (all very well known beaches that regularly get waves and can handle lots of people in at the same time on lots of peaks), but putting a webcam at Trap would be like putting one at P********n or M*****k in the south-west, and I know what the locals of those breaks would react like to anyone who tried to stick a webcam there!
Why the asterisks? It’s along the same lines as why there shouldn’t be a webcam at Trap. They don’t need advertising and publicising. They are special breaks and they are a bit out the way for the masses and they don’t work very often, they can’t handle that many people in at once, and they can also be punishing for the unready and inexperienced. Same as Trap (although the old gal does get her mellow days too…). You’ve got to wait for it because it doesn’t work that often, and you’ve got to understand the conditions on the day, which can be extremely variable, especially with the effects of a large tidal range and two rivers pouring over the reef. It’s just not the sort of break to encourage people of all standards to from far and wide, which is the sort of thing a webcam would do. Trap is already busy enough with locals and the numbers of visiting surfers who find their way here. A webcam would definitely lead to regular over-crowding, with the bad behaviour and safety issues that readily follows, especially with the sort of surfers who just check webcams and don’t know the first thing about tide charts and met office forecasts. We do not want to be over-run with drop-in merchants!
I’ve surfed Trap for donkey’s years and I love the place. Anyone who thinks that sticking a webcam at Trap is just providing a service for people just doesn’t know surfing well enough to know the implications. I’m not exaggerating. I would very much recommend that the proponents of the webcam think very carefully about things now before taking any further steps towards installing a webcam overlooking the Trap.
To this end maybe a public meeting could be held, so that all interested parties can come together and talk things through, and learn what each corner wants, and doesn’t want!? Just an idea.
From the Aberystwythharbour website it says “Our Mission is to create a web site to support the natural community based in and around Aberystwyth Harbour”.
A webcam at Trap would antagonise one of those long standing natural communities - Trap’s local surfers - not support them.

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