Surfing Waves

Am I the only one who finds the current trend towards localism a little worrying? As a surfer who wants to do some travelling in the not too distant future i feel somewhat alarmed that many spots around the uk and the world have heavey locals only attitude. I've been reading through some of the messages on the wannasur website to be met with aggressive posts from locals saying things like stay off my f*cking wave and such.

All this talk sometimes leaves me nervous to paddle out into lineups when there are decent sized waves even though im always respectful to all surfers in the water local or otherwise. I dont drop in and I dont get too pissed off if people drop in on me. I view myself as a vaguely competent surfer but not a good one yet! im ready to start learning cutbacks and snaps. I just want to be able to paddle out to a lineup and not have to think about whether i will get hassled.

I can undersand that local surfers dont want the masses crowding out their local beach, reef or wherever there local spot is. I however do not have a local break to surf at as i live in a stupid city inland and can only get to the surf on occasion.Also if i stumble upon a secret spot in the original way of just having a look round the corner from a well known break, do i automatically expect to get hassle from locals?

Isnt surfing all aobut having fun? I dont mind sitting at the edge of a pack and picking off leftovers but i cant do this forever! and i dont see why begginners are sometimes seen as targetsfor shouts of kook and such.

Let the begginners begin, let the kooks pose on the beach. but most of all let the surfers surf!

ok so thats my view sorry i rambled on a bit!

James

i agree... i am not a local to any beach, what am i suppose to do, i do however go to only one beach, and made my face known there.... i think so i consider my self a local. but if i want to travel i have every right to the waves the locals are getting as they do. i also dont mind a crowd out there.

its just because your on someone else's "turf". i was new to my area and when i started surfing your gonna be noticed and most likely locals are gonna judge you. but if you just respect them you'll fit right in and notice yourself after a while doing the "localism". you just get tired after a while of tourist coming in and thinking they own it all. when originally, your the one that lives there and your in their line up. but dont worry..its all good!! : )

well, i respect all surfers who respect other surfers. and when i go to a new beach, i dont think i own it, i just think i have a right to be on those waves, and when it comes down to a tourist and a local paddling for the same wave i think who ever is in the right position should get the wave not who ever is the local.

yeah it is geting pretty bad no need for alot of it ive heard stories of car tires being slashed etc becuse some one got in the way while padling out

the thing is here in the uk the locals get the best of the suf as it is spring autum and winter allways see bigger waves and they get it to them selfs hell im gonna be surfing all year round here but, i think that locals just need to accept that the waves are crowded for 2 months of the year and to just deal with it stick to the secret spots i dont know of any secret spots yet but even on the most busy of days i can still get the line up pretty much to my self wont say how thats for you to find out

i just think alot of the locals like being assholes like in april i was at croyde hardly anyone out it was big and i was riding the white water 2 locals paddled out right next to me theres a huge strech of beach but they decided to paddle out where i was surfing a wave took my board i lost my grip and it hit one of them they started mouthing off at me before i could even say sorry i just walked away from it, they only paddled out next to me to cause trouble they where looking for it and this is where i lose alot of respect for some locals

surfing is about having fun doesnt matter how you ride waves weither its bodysurfing bodyboarding etc (except kayaks they have no right to be there to dangerious) we are all there to have fun nat young once said the best surfer is the one having the most fun

as long as you stick to the surfing code ie never drop in and snake people then fleshin' the locals go there and ride waves

Localism. Now here's a topic close to my heart...
Sometimes it's a reaction to too many fun-boarders (sorry people), surfing unlike several decades ago is now accessable & easy to become involved in. It's easier to learn, specific boards are even made for that purpose, more gut-sliders, you name it, the water is polluted with learners wanting to stand up & call themselves a surfer...before they move on after their summer holiday to the next season's cool marketed consumer experience like snowboarding or whatever.
The thing is if anything...localism has died. Yep. compaired to the primal type-"a" male surfing crowd of the late 70's etc when you didn't even see older men or women in the water (they wern't yet a market to be taped) most breaks are well populated with a variety of people of sexes & ages these days....never saw that 2-3 decades ago did we?

Real locals have given up. They've been overrun with mals, mini-mals & funboards. Game over...People playing localism these days are throwbacks to a lost era.

I travel & surf alot, I never have any problems at foreign breaks. It's simple, before paddling out into a semi-crowded break...just watch awhile, see who's getting waves & who's not, why- are they kooks, try-hards or just useless. Are they being snaked by locals? Just watch & see, if you see a good break working properly all surfers (within reason)will be getting waves, however, if you see lots of guys paddling trying to "call" a wave, or paddling inside of others...there are problems within the pack.. If you can, suss out who the "alpha male" is, is there a ringleader? There usually is.
When you identify him, paddle out & sit near him. Don't hide you've got every right to be there.

Now, when a waves comes, you'll (mysteriously) get the oppertunity to catch it & display. You'd better. Paddle like sh_t, catch it & ride it. If you do, you'll get your share of waves all day and be treated as an equal. If you fail, you're fu_ked...and you may as well get out of the water cause you won't get a wave to yourself for the remainder of your session.

Yep people, standard crowd behaviour, just like on the discovery channel.

For a far more articulate description of this stuff & relating it to surfing go to surfline.com & check out "surfology", best reading I've ever seen on the topic.

I cant choose eather of thoese choices...

At the end of the day its a matter of respect. That respect in becoming lost with the massive explosion in surfing popularity. The community is breaking up I've been watching it over the years.

There are a few of us that do our part to help knit everythign together and educate.
This is one of the reason why I post here and on many other Surf forums. It all helps to educate begininers on the un written rules.

Like I said its all about respect.

Therein lies the cause of all our problems, the "explosion" of surfing as a lifestyle has created an oversupply of surfers with a limited quantity of waves.

What sh_t's me about many beginners I see, is they just don't give a rats arse about learning the rules or how to conduct themselves at a crowded break on their mini-mal funboard aircraft carrier accident waiting to happen. All they want to do is stand up, so they can say they've done it & move onto their next consumer experience..... Fu_k the rest of us, and the delicate code we all observe in the water.

On a daily basis over summer at my local which is a popular tourist resort here in NZ I have to fend off flying di_kheads without legropes, squealing 13 year old girls way WAY out of their depth, both in water skills & ability, how many people have I pulled up on my board & paddled them in because they've lost their leg-rope less funboard and their struggling to swim back in? I've lost count. I give them the word on the way in though...

That's why I think localism when "administered" by grown-ups or mature surfers who are wise enough to educate & make the "offender" think about what they've done is sometimes a good idea. Send the cu_ts in I say.

Put it this way, I get more waves & have a better, safer surf at other heavily localised breaks than the funboard hell which is my local over summer.
Make your own call.
Brent

Anonymous wrote:
What sh_t's me about many beginners I see, is they just don't give a rats arse about learning the rules or how to conduct themselves at a crowded break on their mini-mal funboard aircraft carrier accident waiting to happen. All they want to do is stand up, so they can say they've done it & move onto their next consumer experience..... Fu_k the rest of us, and the delicate code we all observe in the water.

i kinda agree with you.... beginners should know and follow the rules but when i was teaching myself with no movie to watch or internet to use i didnt know about surfing rules untill my friend yanked my leash to pull my off a taken wave and told me about it.

i also agree that those who dont know how to surf well should not be out in over there head, it does ruin a lot of waves. however i dont think that you should yell and take decent surfers waves just because they traveled there and you lived there. if the guy is a good surfer let him have some waves.

i agree about the kids that have no frikin clue about what they are doing and they just sit in the way on good waves and look at you. or when they paddle onto your wave stand up, you catch them and then they fall or stop or do something to where you have to go down. i mean everyone falls but it was my wave to begin with.

That's the thing...a good surfer will get waves wherever he/she is, localised break or not. If he's a good surfer, he'll get the oppertunity to catch a few waves...the locals will be sussing him out and they'll be curious. If he's ok, he'll get his fair share for the remainder of his session.
If he's a wobbling, shi_t usless flounderer, they'll chuckle inside & snake him at every oppertunity ...why? because he's already proven to the assembled pack he can't catch a wave offered to him. They'll think to themselves..."I'm not spoiling his surf by doing this and he's already let perfectly good waves go to their graves unridden".

Localism is an extreme example of this thinking, but unknowingly, most surfers practice this mind-set on any given day at any crowded break. I do. It's just called hassling for your share.

f he's a wobbling, shi_t usless flounderer, they'll chuckle inside & snake him at every oppertunity

sorry this made me laugh a bit but whats the point in having rules to follow if your not gonna follow them hes prob thinking, if there not gonna play by the rules why the hell should i

hey brent you know you can make it so your screen name on here has an auto sign in.

i agree with him, here in hawaii i dont even look like a local but i know the faces at my usual spot, and when i see an unfimiliar person in my way or sitting right in front of me, i get upset. when its someone i remember seeing a year ago when i first started going there, i let it go. and its too crowded there too, and here in hawaii there ae no secret spots from the locals, so on good days it can be hard to get waves. but the tourists and sunny day girly people leave when it starts getting dark, or on rainy days, those are the best.

you know, i cant sit here and bash localism cuz i am a local and at my home break ya i can get frustrated at the newbies but hey not all of them are just doing it to "stand up, so they can say they've done it & move onto their next consumer experience". some of them are like that but i can tell if they just want to learn so that maybe they'll be in the line up one day to. i dont know about you guys but i remember how it was when i started out. but you can pretty much tell who the ones are who want to really learn and will take a beating and then paddle back out and the ones who just buy a nice shiny board and get in the way. but dang..some of them just want to learn.

Yea, I know, I always forget to log in...
God knows, you can't win out there...be the perfect gent & you'll spend your days pulling out of perfectly good waves for fear of running over spotty faced gut-sliders, Michael Moore clones floundering around & the Olsen twins lookalikes on their summer holidays. Fu_k knows, just do what you have to to get a wave. New topic please!!!
Brent

It looks to me like this subject morphed from localism to bashing of newbies, people surfing longer boards and kayak surfers. There are competent and incompetent surfers riding all sorts of boards and barges. Judge them on their ability not on what they ride.

The water is for everyone to enjoy but do it within reasonable rules. If you are agro about visitors to your local break then please stay there. Keep your waves to yourself and your buddies. Please don't travel the world to ride other great surf spots, many of which will be far better than your local break. The locals at those breaks have the right to keep you out if you have the right to keep them from riding your break.

Lets all have fun together.

where do you surf?

i cant agree with you more vbbeachbum! i mean you guys are really bashing the people who are now where you once were at sometime too. i mean cmon we all know there are those that just get in the way but tell them the the basic known rules and problem solved. no need for this insane bashing of new surfers. the water is for everyone..just surf.

I'm not down on beginners.....just the ones with no interest in surfing protocol. There are many. Why is it a discussion on localism always morphs into a beginner being offended & thinking they're getting slagged off?
God knows.

Well isn't this close to the heart to alot of people.,I can understand why.I think its because we have all been beginners.We have all been intimidated either by aggressiveness,wave size and conditions and even people that rip.I remember when I was learning there was a time when there was nothing but frustration.I just couldn't get IT.It seemed everyone around me had mastered the art and I was just a spectator.
Then one day it happened,I caught that wave that makes you want to surf for the rest of your life.I was stoked.Paddling around with a big smile on my face and hungry for that next one.In reality I was barely competent but whether it was my enthusism or just being in the right place at the right time,I started getting waves.
Now I'm not a local at any beach,I just surf where the waves are so I find a good attitude and respect goes along way towards getting the waves and getting to know the guys that surf there everyday.
There is always going to be redneck egomaniacs out there that are going to jump all over us for mistakes,bad decisions, etc,(it's a bugger being human),but they are the ones that are frustrated and blinded by the situation,while ,hopefully,we've let it go and looking for that stoke that another good wave will give us.