Surfing Waves

i have been on green waves for about 6 months now and am fairly competent though no where near good... i'm fairly sure i have a grasp of ettiquette even when it gets busy.... and always follow my own stone clad rule about right of way as i still regard myself as a green wave noob, which is "if in doubt pull out"

found an uncrowded and clean 3ft wave this weekend... 3 other guys out. 1 shortboarder and 2 longboarders. paddled out on a 7ft short/hybrid. started chatting between the 3 wave set that seemed to be the only thing happening... really chilled and relaxed atmosphere.

all was going well when 2 guys who i'd previously been chatting to and who seemed fairly sound on the beach paddled out on 10ft boards. when a set came in they took a wave each and one of the other longboarders took one... they then paddled out again, took up position and did the same thing again. this continued for about an hour.

i've seen wave hogs before but this was ridiculous.. if you were in their way they'd just run you over without question. tried shouting, politely asking what they were up to, only to be ignored..

was considering getting my BIC and just dropping in but in the end just had enough and got out...

in a way they did us a favour as we travelled a few miles down the road and found really clean 6-7ft perfect waves. crowded but nothing like as agro.

i just drop in on them if they don't let any waves throw same old story between short and long always going to be there.

i dont hog any waves unless im surfing with DBBB

had a couple of goes at dropping in... kinda hard to stand up with the nose of a long board sitting on your back tho.
also... really loving the new board and didn't want to ding it.

this guy was beyond ignorant tho.... pure

Phil wrote:i dont hog any waves unless im surfing with DBBB

...so leash grabbing of longboarding wave hogs is the way to go

Hard to say...been on both sides of this argument.
I would have paddled out to the top spot and scratched into a wave deeper than them to claim mine.
Like I say I have been on both sides...if I see a peak not being ridden from the top and people are shoulder hopping, I will take the top spot and all the sets as long as they are not going to challenge it.

It is a fine line between happiness and gluttony. Sometimes my vision is blurred.

Buy a 12ft paddleboard and take all their waves.

It's just the pecking order really. It's nice if someone gives away a few, but they don't have to. If they are capable of getting all the waves, then they can. If you want some, you either have to get in amongst it, and hassle them, or go find somewhere else to surf. Dropping in on someone because they are getting more waves is not cool IMO.

look at the direction they usually go for, and take off at the opposite direction to them.

Crepuscular has a good point and if the break doensn't break either way.. gotta take off deeper

Hang11 wrote:It's just the pecking order really. It's nice if someone gives away a few, but they don't have to. If they are capable of getting all the waves, then they can. If you want some, you either have to get in amongst it, and hassle them, or go find somewhere else to surf. Dropping in on someone because they are getting more waves is not cool IMO.

guy on a 10ft board is always gonna beat a shortboard onto a wave... pecking order aside... few of the locals there were getting the same treatment. he wasn't getting more waves.. he was getting all the waves.

might try taking off a bit deeper... failing that next time i'm bringing out a hammer... lets see him get in early with a board full of holes

did try taking off left as much as i hated doing it... good to get a bit of practice which actually paid off... can now go left on a shortboard. so did some of the others out there... he'd see it and go left the next time..took all i could do to stop one of the local lads slashing his tyres. like i said complete

garbarrage wrote: he was getting all the waves.

That is a pretty dickish way to behave, especially if he wasn't a local - kind of asking for trouble.

If he is taking off to the direction your going on every wave... That is dick

why not just sit on the peak?

as soon as he scratchs for something on your inside, shout him off

very unusual over here... read about it happening more in other countries. usually pretty chilled. some of the more advanced breaks can get a bit competitive but usually nothing more than sharp comments and hassling.

have heard about it creeping in a little bit in recent months as surfing is taking off in a big way at the moment... can't wait for winter to cool things down a bit (no pun intended). gets rid of the fair weather surfers crowding the place up.

nice to see another insomaniac surfer danny. hard to sit on the peak on a shifty beach break... off the N59 sligo way if you know it, you'll know what i mean. will give it a go the next time though. still getting to grips with the new board... late take offs are proving a challenge... getting there quickly but was out there lookin to get in early... he was creaming some of the other guys out there... big lad on a log's pretty intimidating.

yeah... there was a fight between the Brazilians and the local surfers up @ Queensland's Gold Coast recently in Australia...

garbarrage wrote:

Hang11 wrote:It's just the pecking order really. It's nice if someone gives away a few, but they don't have to. If they are capable of getting all the waves, then they can. If you want some, you either have to get in amongst it, and hassle them, or go find somewhere else to surf. Dropping in on someone because they are getting more waves is not cool IMO.

guy on a 10ft board is always gonna beat a shortboard onto a wave... pecking order aside... few of the locals there were getting the same treatment. he wasn't getting more waves.. he was getting all the waves.

So he was taking off way outside, riding his barge for how long, then paddling back to way outside before another wave came along??

waves were coming in 3 wave sets... bout 10 minutes apart... didn't even have to break a sweat to do it.... he'd take one his mate who was a little less agro (in that he'd pull off before running over you) would take the other... then one of the other 3 longboarders would get the last... they were decent enough and occasionally let one go if they saw one of us in a good position to take it.

wasn't the best conditions, but cleanest we could find... got out to find loads of missed calls and texts about the beach a few miles away that was firing... so not all bad.

Sounds like you went to a gunfight with a lettuce. :p

Pain in the butt when there's a couple out on longboards...he takes one, his mate takes the other. It was like that last week when I was out, some guy taking all the best waves in the set, while a bunch of us on the shortboards just had to keep pulling out. In the end we all just said feck it, and started getting up on the waves...he moved on! There was a great vibe amongst us...no dropping in. It was just him being an a**hole....thankfully not all longboarders are like that....although it seems more and more of them are...around here anyway.