Wave hogs, what's your approach?

[hit_the_lip]

Recently I had a frustrating session. I had just gotten in the water and out to the lineup. There was a guy in the lineup that thought every wave was his. I paddled for a few waves, and once I saw he was paddling for them, I stopped, and just let him have it, even if I was in the better position. So, he'd caught 3-4 waves, and I had caught none. He was calling people off waves like "its mine, got it got it" This guy was pissing everyone off in the lineup.

Once I realized this guy wasn't going to give up a wave, and he was going to go on everything that came in, I thought, well I'm just going to have to get closer to the peak and take off on one. Well, a nice peaky wave came in, I made sure I had the inside track, and I took off. Off course, the wave hog caught the wave right in front of me, over on the shoulder. I was yelling at him "get off, its my wave, get off" he didn't move. I chewed his ass good when we got back to the lineup, and we exchanged words. It almost came to blows, but he paddled away to another peak. Afterwards, I felt bad for yelling at him, but its like c'mon, we all need to share waves. Not every wave was his wave.

How do you handle a wave hog, and whats your approach?

[pandarturo]

We get that here in Hawaii, which is why you always respect the local populace. When I get dropped in constantly at my home break I rush the wave and block every chance I get. I don't appreciate people that have no respect and take everything for themselves.

[pandarturo]

It might create aggro in the water but some people just need a good old fashioned ass kicking to step back in line.

[jaffa1949]

Blatant drop in he needed the words, if you could out surf him a big carve across would also help.

Drop ins snaking and plain hogging is just a not agood way to go! Often if the guy is as blatant as that you may find backing verbally from others he has burned.

Don't put yourself in the way of violence, some guys are just looking for a fight !

[pandarturo]

I'm always looking for a fight.

[hit_the_lip]

I feel like we should all have respect for others in the water. You should give waves, and waves should be given to you. Its a mutual respect thing. Sometimes I'm in a perfect position to catch a wave, but I won't go if I see someone else can catch it, and that person hasn't caught as many waves as I have. I want everyone to catch waves and have stoke.

But all to often these days, people are hoarding waves, and think they own the ocean. Surfers do not have the mutual respect, everyone can have fun concept in mind. So if I see a person is hogging waves, at the expense of others catching no waves, I'm going to go just to prove a point.

[jaffa1949]

When I reread the first post , it became obvious, the guy knew he was in the wrong, why else would he paddle to another peak. He had everyone else bluffed!
You called him on it, he walked , don't feel bad especially over a guy that obviously knows the rules, but won't apply them to himself.

The is a next step, but it is not nice and will,provoke a fight. It is called an ankle chop where you hit a hard bottom turn and bounce your board off the drop ins ankle, " oops sorry but you dropped in!" You didn't look etc, if you can complete the re entry of the ankle and keep surfing all good,
Severe downside can cause injury. Other downside you better be able to back yourself.
Third and worst downside....... The rest of that days surf will be an aggro fest and you will be one of the aggressors ( just saying)

[stevie]

i do hate folk lik that, you defo did the right thing

[pandarturo]

Lol jaffa that's evil

[pmcaero]

I'm wondering, if it ever comes to blows, how two people can fight in the water, while leashed to their boards, wearing wetsuits... sounds funny to me.

[jaffa1949]

I'm wondering, if it ever comes to blows, how two people can fight in the water, while leashed to their boards, wearing wetsuits... sounds funny to me.

Fighting in the surf is as stupid as it looks, if it really is that aggro a better suggestion is to be elsewhere.
Besides no matter how tough you think you are sooner or later you will run into somebody tougher, meaner or with a collection of friends.
Avoidance is the best strategy, and personally whenever I have got worked up enough to get aggressive even by mouth my whole surf is ruined.
Better a slightly worse bank that is less crowded than the aggro one!

[Aqualife]

I think Jaffa is right, once it comes to any confrontation, the whole session is ruined, no matter what. It just destroys the vibe. Most of us surf to relax, de-stress and have fun. I've watched lots of confrontations, even fist fights in the water (inclusive of breaking fins out of the other person's board) and it's amazing how very bad things can turn very fast, so even though I am all for telling someone off when they are being a snake or dropping in repeatedly, I think in the end it's not worth it. I have yelled at people before and had strong words going back and forth and I felt like crap for the rest of the day.
My advice - let it be and go somewhere else, there is always another wave. I am also a big believer in karma, eventually they get what's coming to them.
Fortunately, I think over 90% of surfers are NICE people, so go and hang with them.

Also, the better you get, the less you get dropped in on, because people see that you can surf and they usually don't get in your way, so I'd concentrate on getting really good instead on getting really angry. I now just throw a lot of spray at idiots or surf by really close and do a last minute turn. If you get really really pissed off at someone, you can also surf behind them, get on top of the wave and spear your board at them, nasty, evil but I have seen it done.

Enjoy and don't worry about it.

Oh and you can also take a Buddhist attitude and think the poor bloke hasn't gotten laid in a while, has lost his job, had a fight with his girl or whatever and needs to let off some steam and let him be an idiot because he obviously needs to work some issues out. Pity works better than anger too.

[greg2935]

I'd agree with Aqualife, once the vibe is ruined, it doesn't matter if you're in the right or the wrong; you might as well just pack up and go home cause you'll just be stressed.

I also would not recommend going for someone's ankle, that sort of thing can lead to serious injury; especially if your fins are chipped and you make contact. Personally, I wouldn't want to feel responsible for maiming someone even if they are an xxxxx.

Greg

[jaffa1949]

I agree with you Greg,about the deliberately hitting someone even though I posted it. Ankle chops ( using the rail not fins) used to be an old time cowboy sort of justice, before leashes even.
There were often fights on the beach and some pretty heavy sorting of perceived infringements.
A number of über aggressive guys found they had writs served on them banning them from various beaches and from approach guys they had fought with. STUPID.

Nat Young the elder statesman (not the Nat on the WCT and rookie of the year this year) was severely bashed and needed facial reconstruction after a surf rage incident, Nat admits that with hindsight he contributed to the rage before he was bashed, the bashing was out of all proportion and had come to a head over a long term of slanging between two guys.

A book worth reading is what Nat wrote in conjunction with other writers called Surf Rage. Worth reading.
My last comment, the older I get the less alpha Ibecome from what I thought I was.

If you think about guys in the water, have a think about how they treat female surfers in the line up, what do you think of their persona then!

[oldmansurfer]

Usually I go around them or cut out when some one drops in on me but once long ago when I had much better control of my board I turned so that the nose of my board was directly under his rear end and then stepped on the tail to nudge him a little. He did not respond to this and I repeated this 3 or 4 times then he fell off his board. I guess he got upset and was coming after me but I was surfing so he had a hard time catching up to me. When I went to my car he came and threatened me. But this guy was someone who up to that point I would have called my friend. We grew up together, he lived about 4 houses down the road from me. I had no idea why he decided to drop in on me and if it were someone else I would never have done that. He ended up calming down and shaking my hand so... I could tell you some stories, is there a surf stories thread?

[oldmansurfer]

here is another story about wave hogs and how I dealt with it.
I was at UH and heard the surf was up in Town so I grabbed my board and walked to the beach. I got to my usual breaks 3's and 4's and the waves weren't breaking right for that swell but I could see the Alamoana bowl was breaking so I paddled across to Magic Island and the bowl was too crowded but on the far side was a break with only 5 guys out and it looked nice so I went out there. I heard it was called "Concessions" and later that it was called "Tennis courts". Anyway it was right breaking wave and was about 4 to 6 foot that day which would be wave faces up to 10 feet and real hollow, tubing out.


When I got out there these 5 guys were being possessive about the waves. One guy would line up on either side of me so by convention I had to let the surfer in the more critical position take off but when I backed off, the surfer in the more critical position backed off too and the other surfer to my right in the less critical position would take off. I knew I could take off deeper than any of them because I was real good with late take offs and could usually take off deeper than most other surfers. So I positioned myself at my limit which was likely well beyond their limts and I kept paddling until the deeper guy had to take off. He didn't a couple times and I caught those waves but then he went for it. He usually ended up wiping out and I did this repeatedly but I think he got real tubed on at least one wave. That was fun for a while but I still didn't catch many waves.


I noticed there were bigger sets (8 feet) coming in that broke outside about every 15 minutes and no one was riding them so I paddled out there and sat and waited. On the first wave that came in I got in the tube and when I came out one of them was paddling up the wave so I cranked a hard turn right next to him spraying him with water in a sort of fade back/cutback maneuver. The fade back turn slowed my board and I got in the tube again and when I came out another of them was paddling up the wave so I cranked another turn and sprayed him and got in the tube again. When I came out a third surfer was paddling up the wave so I figured what the heck and sprayed him too and got in the tube again. This was turning into a great wave and as I was in the tube for the fourth time I found myself wishing one more of them was there when I came out and my wish came true. I sprayed him too and got in the tube again. When I came out there were no more surfers but I cranked a hard turn anyway and got in the tube again. These were not clean tubes and each time I was completely covered in foam and also completely covered by the tube. The end tube ride collapsed on me but all in all it was a fantastic ride.


I paddled back out and the group of them paddled toward me. I thought ok now I am going to have to fight them. But they just talked to me and asked me if I was from there. I said no I was from Kauai. They said "Oh! That explains it. We just wanted to let you know we were going to let you catch waves now." And just like that they quit trying to hog the waves and we enjoyed the rest of the day surfing together and talking story. They were basically good guys but hated the invasion of surfers from elsewhere pushing them out of the spots they surfed since they were little kids.

The waves were slow weak thin lipped waves but real hollow and great for getting tubed. I never surfed this break again but I was glad I did this day. This has to be one of my best all time waves in terms of the beauty and because I repeatedly got completely deeply tubed and just for the satisfaction of spraying those guys who were trying to hog all the waves.

[jaffa1949]

Isn't is amazing how so many individual waves or a special session sticks with you for life

[oldmansurfer]

Yeah I am so surprised there is apparently no best wave or best day or surf story thread here. I have a bunch of them

[jaffa1949]

Yeah I am so surprised there is apparently no best wave or best day or surf story thread here. I have a bunch of them

Fixed, viewtopic.php?f=6&p=168027#p168027

[55funsurf]

It took me years to work out that a fundamental aspect of my surfing attitude was selfishness...

When I came to terms with that in myself I could start to see it in other people...

From experience, I suggest,

either stay in the line up and get smart with watching how the selfish person behaves when a set comes in.....They can't catch every wave in the set so its either get in early or let him or her go then position yourself for the 2nd or 3rd wave....

As for calling out on waves....I would drop all that, but it doesnt hurt to alert a person you are there on the inside if you think they didnt see you....

If you want to be really assertive and if you have good skill look for him paddling out when you are riding in and if you can manage chuck a big cut back so he gets a bit of spray, or do a re o over his head...but obvioulsy dont hit him,

or if you really want to scare him off, make out like you havent seen him and enjoy watching him sweat as you show total uncertainty as to which direction you are heading....but obvioulsy dont do that if you dont have the skill or confidence......

Other tactics include, head down the beach, gets some calm, enjoy some paddling, see if you can pick off another peak, failing that head in, sit on the beach wait till he is out then get back in or if you have to, get out out and drive off to find another break....

Plenty of time in everyone life to go surfing...it doesnt all have to happen at that one moment and have your total life experience in that moment totally distracted by the selfishness of one individual...It is hard and it happens, but we dont have to get sucked in by it all,,,,

Its one thing to be totally committeed to surfing, but dont lose sight of what a great thing it is to do and enjoy it....

and if you think its all going badly and you are disapointed with not getting many waves, then think, how much paddling and duck diving practice did you get, how many waves did you see and observe, how many waves did you observe and learn about from watching others and take some positives with you when you get back onto the beach....

and if all that fails, just thank your lucky stars that you are not him.....stay cool and people will respect that....

Rossa