Bra Boys

I found the Bra Boys documentary to be very interesting; I never would have though that a surfing gang would be so rough. In fact, I never thought there were surfing gangs at all. Its even scarier that their location, Maroubra, is right next to Coogee, where I have been many times. I have never seen a surf competition or been involved with surfing in the United States, so I cannot compare, but it really struck me when they said that the Australian surfing world is envied outside of Australia, but looked down upon in Australia. I found this to be very accurate. Surfers from Australia were very cool-seeming when I was young, and many aspired to be professional surfers like them. Surfers in general were definitely role models to young kids.

I also found the relationship between surfers and police to be very interesting and corrupt. While the Bra Boys did often get themselves into trouble by starting fights or protecting their territory, the police are supposed to be indifferent to who you are, and treat everyone fairly. I found it unneccessary that the police made these surfers their target while there were other bad characters in town, evidenced by the surfer's parents who were robbing banks and doing drugs. The Bra Boys were no angels in this relationship either, becuase they did target the police sometimes as well, but the relationship goes back much further than the Bra Boys. I really got a kick out of the ridiculous laws that the government came up with to try and deter the surfers from surfing.

I thought this was the best movie/documentary shown to the class yet, and I really enjoyed it.