Experienced surfer etiquete

[IB_Surfer]

So today I got the brunt of an angry surfer, I'm not a begginer but for the life of me I did not get what he was complaining about until afterwards:

After about 2 hours surfing I got tired and stuck to the shoulder, letting fresher arms take the waves. There was a head high wave, we both paddled but he was inside, when I saw that he had it I pulled back and he went on. On the way back he started complaining, I told him I did not drop in on him so don't complain and then, I figured later, he started complaining that I "cumbled his peak" which I did not get right there and then but figured out later, I thought he was complaning that I tried to cut him off.

Anyway, the question, and let me preface this with 15 years surfing experience so I know etiquete, is that something to appologize for? Crumbling a wave because I backed off?

He was more miffed that I did not appologize than what I did, which I guess could be seen as rude of me for not appologizing. If it is then I'll start saying sorry, just did not know that was poor wave etiquete. Please advise me, I thought I knew more than this.

[drowningbitbybit]

Screw that

You paddled for a wave, and then backed off when you saw someone was on it. Are you supposed to form an orderly line and go one after another? No. You take the wave you think is yours and then adapt if need be.

Surfing on sydney's city beaches, every wave will have ten people paddling for it and then either a drop-in fest (Bondi) or the quickest guy gets it (Maroubra). But, the point is, if you didnt paddle for waves that 'may or may not' be yours and waited for the perfectly positioned empty wave, you'd never get one.

Crumbling a guy's section is to be avoided obviously, but hey it happens, no point in complaining about it, and a half decent surfer should be able to deal with it with minimal fuss anyway.

[isaluteyou]

Nothing wrong with what you did. Nothing to apologise for either you didnt drop in on him as for crumbling the wave big deal in most instances at least one other person would be paddling for a wave anyway. And anyway if you cant navigate a tiny little bit of crumble then jeez dont complain get better + theres no way of knowing if the wave wasnt gonna crumble in the first place sounds like he was just looking for someone to blame eh

As far as etiquette goes its only a guide sometimes theres no way of knowing who is in the right. A classic example is lets say you drop down a wave that has a closed section behind you. Theres no way of knowing is a surfer is around that section or if they could even make it round. Its not your fault as theres no way to look round corners and its not their fault for the same reason. It suprises me how often people get agro over such a situation.

Generaly if someone accidently drops in on me and i call them off the wave and they do pull off its all good. Personaly im not fazed im only worried about ramming into the back of someone or them collided with me.

Rule of thumb theres gonna be more waves so getting agro over 1 wave is stupid not unless we are talking about epic barreling shallow reef or monster surf which is life threatining its no big deal

[b123]

crumbling a wave? he's seriously going to verbally complain about that?

[IB_Surfer]

I contacted my shaper who gave me the answer below. He used to surf contests as a team rider and has travel-surfed all over the world, so I think I can rely on his answer:

What you did is known as "waterfalling" a wave, causing the wave to break where otherwise there wouldn't be a section. Now, at any surfspot that the wave breaks absolutley perfect, no water out of place, ie indo; this could make a surfer riding the wave upset because it could turn a perfect barreling wave an unmakable and thus dangerous situation. But the guy surfing a beach break in sd, which is commonly littered with sections and closeouts had no right to bitch. He should have just been stoked you didn't drop in and then kick out. Personally I look for sections when I am surfing, and if you cause one, Right On! I get to do a little floater, lipper, or 360 where I wouldn't have normally gotten to, stoked! So my point is if he was a good enough surfer to get pissed enough to bitch then he is just a jerk, he should have hit the lip and kept his lips shut.

Never even considered that I could be "waterfalling" someone else, learned something new, but for a shoulder high wave I think the agro was way off in complaining.

[CHarvey]

That's a great answer and I completely agree with your shaper.
Good thread.

[oldgrom]

HA HA HA your shaper said it perfect, buy that guy a beer and then one from me !!!!! Shizz mabie in perfect conditions you might have done that but we are not talking perfect ,overhead, tube, glassy, etc. conditions or a competition snake job ither and no real danger of creasing a wave existed... Shizz it coulda crumbled even if ya didn't try for it. Sound like a cry babie who will bitch just to bitch. He should be thanking you for pullin off and getting any friggin ride at all in the first place and second you coulda caught it and rode ontop of him as you screamed at him for killing your ride. I just laugh at them kinds of dumb F agro tude rejects. Next time tell him your sorry you did not know he was a pro surfer and ask for his signature, then snake a grip of waves from him or do a bunch of attempts will pull off's that will realy make him pissy,,, then catch one ride over him scream at him again for being a such a barney and call it a day.

[deshram]

I used to make fusses about things like this when someone cut me off or something, i realize now that its really just unnecessary, for the most part everything is an accident even when something happens and its not my fault ill still ask if someones ok or tell them not to worry about. However its obvious when people like that guy are just over aggressive about everything, those kind of people i dont apologize to but i just stare them down or drop an f-bomb at them, the over-agressive people are easy to spot as well, the last guy who me and my friends got into an argument with got his leash pulled by my friend on the nicest wave of the day and did a faceplant into the wave. Point being, there's no need for an attitude.

[esonscar]

If there have been poor sets all day, and then an awesome killer wave of the day comes through, and on take off the down the line view is a perfect wall of water shaping, and all the moves I am about to try are established, and it’s a full on hard mega angled late deep take off, and then just as my legs feel the compression of trimming the surfboard to get some speed up to start doing some moves, the dam thing is sectioned by some bloke who wasn’t looking properly - grrrrrrr !

But the moment passes quickly and I get more in a silent huff than anything else.

It does happen but hey ho - that's surfing.

Where I surf there are plenty of shouts to alert each other of deep take offs and stuff even before the dude starts to paddle.
A good wave comes in and its like " Hey you - I'm going for this deep - don't get the way okay " - and if the dude has been seen to be catching and surfing everything – just let the wave go to him (her !).

‘scool really.

[ANZAC]

Yep... can cause issues.
When someone on the shoulder does that to me, ill hit the lip fairly hard, just about right on them.... It sucks when a section shuts down early cause someone tried to paddle into the wave while your on it.
I wouldnt winge too much afterwards, unless it was a pretty good wave. Usually Im fairly confident they would be pretty sure to not do it again.