Surf Etiquette in the Line-up

[matt...]

effective - i used to use this when i was younger.

now, it's: "do that again & i'll rip ya f.ckn head off"

never had to exchange blows in the surf, 30+ years worth, only words.

here's a classic:
i used to live at fairlight when i was 18 - 23, and sampled quite a few decent NE swells at N.Steyne.
lovely lines being fanned by a light westerly - the type of wind that gets in your ears as you are about to take off.
anyway one day when i was about 22, N.Steyne lefts, 5 foot, on my backhand, i accidently dropped in on Justin Cook (he was of a similar age, maybe a bit younger, this was the early '90's when he thought he was a hot local, but hadn't cracked the tour yet.)
anyway his line was: "hey mate, are you deaf?"
my reply was: "whaaaaat?" (pretending i didn't hear him)

i realised my mistake & pulled out, leaving him to it...

it still makes me laugh today...

[bumfluff]

Funny thing happened to me the other day on the Sunny Coast. Paddled out for an early and two c*cky teenagers paddled out, puffing their chest out and giving me snake eyes. No problem so far.

Then one of em drops in on me, goes right then straightens out right into my path. I have to straighten out and jump off as I have no where to go. I surface and his board is in my face and my arms are hitting it trying to surface. He retrieves his board, gives me a filthy look and then paddles back out.

I let it go to see if this would continue as I try to get along with the locals. Then one of his mates paddles out, goes straight up to him and says "F*ck you're a r*tard, you just dropped in on that dude you f*cking dumb cnut!!!" and then splashed water in his face. His mate then turns to me and says "he drops in on everyone eh" and I said "yea I know". Old mate looks at me and I tell him his board nearly hit me in the face. He appologies and it didn't happen again.

[otway1949]

Yesterday was a small but good mal day after several bigger better days.
Unfortunately as occasionally happens family and district social requirements shut out the surf sessions on the other days.
It was small enough to share with the kids on holidays the older local guys encouraging. Then a family of Dad and a 13/14 year old and a 10year old son paddle out straight to the inside. The 13 year proceeds to snake brother father and younger struggling groms.

Drops in on me on a long awaited wave that was definitely my turn, couldn't hold the line or turns in front of me falls off and takes us both out, he cops my board in the head not intentionally but karma non the less.
Comes up injured only to the ego. Complains and is told by me and others that he earned the knock.
Is called off several other waves and called into others when it was clearly his turn, tries snaking is faded and warned to respect the other kids learning and think about taking turns.Appeals to Dad, Apologises to all and sundry loud enough so they all hear that his son had the manners of a dickhead.
Son falls into the pattern of things, and Dad and sons are then genuinelytold where they could get an even better wave in the morning.
Humiliate the bad behaviour, reward the good.
13 old apologised in the car park without prompting from Dad, say it was their first time in the country away from Queenscliff.
Final comment, I'm glad I live in the country, it may get crowded but you have to live iwth the locals so sharing is a lot easier. Cue M.O.T.E music.

[Beanpole]

Great story. Of course the point is the grommet was young enough and had a reasonable parent. There are a number of other scenarios that could have turned out from some of the groms I've seen in the line up. Maybe they just need more trips away

[matt...]

agreed. groms with attitude/no care factor in general are a problem.
up here there seems to be particular problems with groms from the boardriders club.
last summer i saw a late twenties, good, local surfer enjoying a surf at the beachbreak, then out paddles 3 x 15 or 16yo groms that are in the boardriders & have all the attitude in the world.
Snaking, blocking, blatant drop-ins, one particularly over-confident grom calling in his mates to drop in on the other surfer. they were good surfers, there is no doubt there, but no surf ettiquette, no respect for the other surfer.
the guy in his late twenties was getting frustrated, as anyone would & had words to one of the groms. all 3 paddled around him & the over confident grom was saying things like "what are you gunna do about it mate? gunna take us all on?" and continued to paddle in his way.
i paddled over and said nothing but engaged in blocking tactics of my own. i was heckling (non-verbal paddling techniques) the groms and allowed the other guy to get a few waves. 2 of the groms distanced themsleves from me & the other surfer. the over confident grom was getting frustrated at my heckling.
after about 15 mins the groms paddle down the beach and the situation diffused without any incidents.

[Beanpole]

Going through this problem at the moment as my son wants to join the local boardriders club.
He can do what he wants to but from my experience over the years it can be an opportunity to hook up
with a bunch of local ratbags and older surfers who are happy to lead impressionable youths down the path of wild partying, territorial behaviour, etc.
It sure was in my case

Can't believe the freedom groms had in the seventies e.g. how many parents these days would be happy for Steve Cooney to bail out to Bali with a couple of surf explorers at 15 or however old he was when Morning of the Earth was made?


Grommets always have been annoying but in the past they were also mercilessly abused by the rest of the pack. These days they run riot.
I guess the changing times mean changing attitudes.

[oldman]

Olds I hate it when people confuse "to" with "too".. Just sayin'

No confusion Jimmy, a mere spelling error.

Been very sloppy lately 'cause I really find it hard to give a shite, but I'll bet I get 10 for one from you.

Don't wake the sleeping pedant.

[scod]

I hate competing for waves, so I don't. I bugger off somewhere to a crappier break with less ppl.

In particular I can't stand the grom search groms that try an catch every foish fart ripple that pops up.

I guess I could agro in the surf, but then what's the point of having the surf.

Being a dirty westy has its advantages I guess, it means its easier for me to travel to less populated breaks coz there is no temptation to walk down the road to the local and jump in. I'm so used to driving 30-40 mins for a surf I've just factored it in now.

Being a lousy surfer has its advantages as well - no expectations.

[mustkillmulloway]

surf etiquette? how abouth swimming etiquette

i don't want swim between the flags so lets get 10 guys and swim out and stand right in front of were those fifty guys are surfing

and abuse em if they run me over...cause i'm a idiot

[dUg]

LOL fong, the summer before last my local had 3 really fun banks, including a right directly in front of the surf club. There's a reasonable number of guys in the club who surf and they are sympathetic - they often move the flags 20m south to just outside the channel and everyone's happy. One really good day on a Sunday this old dragon came up on the patrol roster, rocked up around 10am an stuck the flags in the sand *perfectly* lining up the mid-wally section. There were already 10 guys out there ( including 4 locals who'd been out for 2 hours ), but it didn't seem to bother the old bat... she obviously decided the flags *must* be put there and nowhere else along the 500m to the south, or 200m to the north. I was sitting over on the left just up the beach, and I could see this cat lady blowing her whistle and waving her arms every time someone took off and raced through into the inside section. I looked over and saw butterfish get a belter, buckets of spray off the back, ending in a big floater in the shorey to end his session. I could see her marching up the beach to have a go at him ( he's the most laid back, easy going bloke you'd ever care to meet ) and was just laughing my head off. Watching the body language from the water, he pointed up the beach, then down the beach and shook his head, shrugged his shoulders. Old patrol bat was doing that finger in the chest thing to him, and I could see her silly head bobbling ( the yellow and red cap ) while she was lecturing him. Piss funny.

[Beanpole]

surf etiquette? how abouth swimming etiquette

i don't want swim between the flags so lets get 10 guys and swim out and stand right in front of were those fifty guys are surfing

and abuse em if they run me over...cause i'm a idiot

Damn annoying those surfboard riders the way they go diagonally across the wave ruining it for everyone. I'm sure they do it on purpose.

[Little]

Before you read about it in the Manly Daily, let me state the facts: It's been a decent swell pitching hard onto shallow banks and breaking real fast. If you've just dropped into the pit on your backhand and hanging on by your toenails, you're entitled to call off a kook about to drop in and have your request acknowledged. First time he nearly took my head off as he came flailing in on top of me. As I bailed he actually came down on top of me and smashed me into the sandbank. Naturally I gave him a stern talking to and a warning. Less than ten minutes later he repeats the performance and my board is in bits. I take affirmative action. I understand he gave a surf rage story to the Daily.

[mustkillmulloway]

i'm on your side little.....believe me

i think we need a lot more rage.....it's just bullshit in the water now days

i know so many good surfers who just don't surf anymore cause it's such a shitfight

it is kinda they gave their life too surfing and now find it full of norska and otto on there 12 week " HARD CORE" surfing adventure from europe

and the brazilians who are just the worse surf with anywhere

[monkeyman]

Same with me - North Steyne, guy drops in and has no idea - I make the section call and he does a top turn instead of pulling off... I run over his nice new board and miss a nice wall (luckily on an older very tough board) . He thinks he was in the right and that I snaked because he hadn't looked right back at the peak where I appeared from... then yesterday another one, I call after making the section he top turns and my rail smacks him in the shin... It's not like it was Waimea out there and you had to go. Just use your eyes and look for people who can make sections (and don't force the section down by paddling and watching from the shoulder). That's two in two days and I almost can't remember the last time I axed anyone like that.

[buzzy]

This weekend: I had two guys drop in on me with me on the inside paddling next to them and indicating I was about to take off. Both executed a radical "falling over" maneovre. On these two occasions they both claimed they were "first to their feet"- which I find amazing they'd know as they had their back to me and never looked, but anyway....THIS ISN'T Surfing etiquette and whichever backpacking surf school teaching this needs to get their arse out of the 60's.

Now sure, if I'm already up and riding then don't snake me. But if two guys are paddling for the same wave at the same time the guy on the inside has it. GET IT.

[Trev]

This weekend: I had two guys drop in on me with me on the inside paddling next to them and indicating I was about to take off. Both executed a radical "falling over" maneovre. On these two occasions they both claimed they were "first to their feet"- which I find amazing they'd know as they had their back to me and never looked, but anyway....THIS ISN'T Surfing etiquette and whichever backpacking surf school teaching this needs to get their arse out of the 60's.

Now sure, if I'm already up and riding then don't snake me. But if two guys are paddling for the same wave at the same time the guy on the inside has it. GET IT.

Unfortunately those Nat Young inspired surf etiquette signs are mostly to blame for this. They state "first to their feet" has right of way. But they're badly worded. Sure if you're up and riding, you have right of way over someone taking off inside youfuther in, but that's not what they say.
I was surprised recently to find a local rider who has several years experience and is quite competent asking me why the guy inside him was yelling at him. I had to explain that they both paddled for the wave together and the fact that he was up first didn't give him right of way. Seems he had been operating under the guidelines from the Nat Young signs ever since he started. He's pretty embarrassed now.

[buzzy]

If I win Lotto I'll pay for these signs to be changed then. It'll say;

"The surfer closest to the curl gets the wave."

"If a surfer is already clearly up and riding you can't try to steal the wave from them by paddling to their inside. That's bad form and called snaking."

Simple. How hard is that? Nat? Right your wrong. Mr. Moneybags.

[oldman]

True, some clarification is required there.

Surfer clearly further outside gets the wave first, gets to his feet first, owns the wave. I equally can't stand guys who catch a wave 20 metres further in then the guy already on it and then claim inside status.

But where the timing isn't clear-cut, the inside man gets it.

This doesn't sound like buzzy's situation.

Mea culpa - on Friday at a well known and ridiculously crowded city surf break, I executed a flawless drop in.

It was hit or miss, I had to go, the other guy was only a maybe chance of getting it, and when I did notice him, which was after a couple of speed pumps I jumped through the back of the wave, which was a supreme sacrifice as it was about to finish with a small barrel.

I apologised sincerely and immediately and he was cool about it.

All class.