Surfing Waves

Ok so I just want to know what you guys think about this situation. Last week I was surfing in Nicaragua and there was a dude who was going for every wave, and he was good and all but I was noticing if hed miss a wave hed get mad and I thought well It's normal. Then all of a sudden a wave was coming so he paddled across me in front of me he then turned around and started going for the wave, I didnt see and I slipped of my board on when I was popping up and hit him on the way down since he just came out of nowhere. After the wipeout I waddled towards him and I thought he was going to ask if I was ok lol I was wrong. I asked You good? and at first I thought he was kidding I was smiling and everything and all of a sudden he started cursing and causing a huge show in the surf saying he was going to break my board and he through it in the air, we were still in the water so nothing happened to it. I was like relax it was an accident and it pissed him off even more lol he tried to waddle towards me but I just hopped on my board and paddled away. Opinions on this situation? I'm not fighting over a wave... Surfing is supposed to bring people together.

There are many things that go into wave etiquete. I think the rules vary slightly from place to place but it sounds like he was a wave hog and he didn't think you were important in the lineup. It also sounds like you dropped in on him which is not good. I don't think violence is a good solution to anything so it sounds like it ended ok. If he paddled deeper than you to get the wave he was wrong and if you dropped in on him you were wrong so two wrongs nothing right there but at least you didn't fight over it.

In a situation like the one you describe there are two wrongs, firstly the other guy is a wave hog paddling across in front of you and there turning to take the wave inside WRONG.
You taking off and dropping in even though he has stolen the wave WRONG.
Stay away from guys that rage on themselves about their performance, as soon as they can lay the blame on someone else, you are it ( non local , learner, drop in no matter what.longboarder softboarder etc)
You are at fault, at least in their inflated ego world.
Since you are traveling and learning at the same time give yourself the room to progress avoid hogs.
Sadly the surf world is not always a peace and love place.
In many countries you, at your age, will be seen as a cashed up American gringo brat, to be taken down in any circumstance. Travel light like with your smile, but know it ain't gunna cover you with some people SORRY!!

954,
I offer two thoughts related to this experience derived from many years of surfing, as well as many more years working professionally.

1) "Joke 'em if they can't take a fleshin'!"
2) Remember and use this canned response when another surfer who is hogging all the waves asks, "What are you doing?!" when you catch one. The canned response is, "I'm surfing, Dude. I didn't come out here simply to watch you surf!"

P.S. I've used #1 at appropriate moments in my career and it's always a winner.
P.S.S I've observed #2 used at a specific Santa Barbara break one morning before work and it made me laugh so hard I did not require an additional ride

best regards,
billie

Smiling - hmm, means your happy. To him getting hit by your board wasn't a happy feeling. A common thing that Japanese do when they're nervous is to smile and laugh. That's a really bad thing to do when they drop in on a local in Hawaii. The first thing the local sees is them laughing. " so wat , you think dis funny ? " and gets punched in the face. ( and then the fins snapped off )

Best thing is to apologize and then apologize again. ( with a solemn expression ).

By the way, I hope you treat the kook that drops in on you and cracks you in the skull, the way you feel about the situation now from your point of view, a few years from now when you're the resident ripper.

Update to my response to 954 date and time stamped Wed Apr 15, 2015 9:43 pm:

My original reply to subject topic was modified by a forum software filter. Please know I did not use the term, "fleshin'" in my suggestion 1. The specific word used by me, which was a correct application of an English verb, begins with the letter "f" immediately followed the vowel "u" and the two combined successive consonants "c" and "k."

Please know I would never use the substituted gerund verb, "fleshin'." It's simply not in my salty constitution!

Billy fell under the filter I swear!
Auto check will rip out his hair,
It naturally occurred
When he used a swear word.
bad manners in surfing will make him fuss,
Blather,,say shite and cuss.
Shake his fist in the air
For soothe I declare.
He's peed off

[quote=Best thing is to apologize and then apologize again. ( with a solemn expression ).

By the way, I hope you treat the kook that drops in on you and cracks you in the skull, the way you feel about the situation now from your point of view, a few years from now when you're the resident ripper.[/quote]

Sage advice from a noble mind - it's about having fun, but not at the cost of someone else's enjoyment, apart from which, "sorry" never cost anything and goes a long way towards resolving a potentially combustible situation, regardless of who's right or wrong............................ and in a million years from now, who's gonna give a **** !

waikikikichan wrote: A common thing that Japanese do when they're nervous is to smile and laugh.

Yeah the Japanese are weird. I worked in a B&B and a customer saw me at the line up. He kept praising how well I surfed and I know for a fact that I was surfing badly that day. He was so much better and yet he kept praising me and telling all of his friends that I'm an amazing surfer. I felt like a complete idiot and well embarrassed.

jaffa1949 wrote:In many countries you, at your age, will be seen as a cashed up American gringo brat, to be taken down in any circumstance. Travel light like with your smile, but know it ain't gunna cover you with some people SORRY!!

I am hispanic, and I'm a native born spanish speaker. Plus I looked older than most of the people there, and I definitely wasn't one of the worst out there.

Well, a little common sense (but something that we sometimes need to struggle to put on our heads) is: you can avoid a fight, you avoid a fight.
Surfing is, as people stated already, not always a friendly environment. There will be friendly people on water, but also snakers and short tempered people. If we want to be able to surf with less worries of getting our face beat (being right or wrong in the situation), sometimes we need to swallow our pride.
A while ago, I used to be unable to do this, not in the surfing (didn't even surf back then), but on day to day. I just couldn't swallow pride to avoid complications. Needless to say this didn't make me any good, and for a good time now I've been trying to change this. Guess what, you start feeling much better when you focus on what's going right then what's going wrong.
For example, there was this day, that a guy snaked on me pulling my leash. Old habits would make me curse him words that would be filtered just like Billie's post . I could get in trouble, ruin a whole day session because of one wave. So I just breathed, swallowed my pride, and got away from the guy. Happened to find a friend of mine there and have lots of fun that day.

By the way, the example Jaffa gave of an "American Gringo" is just an example. They can find any reason for having a bad image of you. Just the fact that you're not a local, or anything really. It doesn't really matter, I guess his point is that you need to overcome that image, or at least coexist in the line up with no troubles, and having a discussion with a short tempered guy on water isn't going to help.

Hope the best to your surf trip, more surfing and less mishaps!

Jaffa, It's rage, I tell ya'!
Gonna hafta stick it to the Man!

Even the women surfers get rage

....veerrry interestink, Ol' Man...
thanks!

You reminded of a scene from a video of wipeouts. Go to 2min19s. Apparently that's what happens when you drop in Gerry Lopes (someone said it's him) .



Even though it's only wipeouts on the compilation, I kinda enjoy this video. It has soul and simplicity on it

Speaking of surfing etiquete "DON"T EVER DROP IN ON GERRY LOPES AT PIPELINE" although he seems like he has mellowed out in his old age. Back in the day that would be a good way to not get to ever surf at pipeline. Probably still true although Gerry wouldn't get too upset these days. However the locals would drop in on you on every wave if you managed to make it out into the lineup without getting beaten up and tires on your car slashed.

oldmansurfer wrote:Even the women surfers get rage

This one could have been avoided if they had spoken to each other and split the peak!

it's Gerry Lopez with a Z not a S.


get it straight before he sends his buddy Conan to cut you in half.

Wowow owww!! Those clips were terrifying! The jet ski and the boat

Abandon ship! Abandon ship!!

I was out at the Alley last year at the point and I saw a surfer on a longboard take off on a crumbling peak. A second surfer on a shortboard dropped in and took off right on the edge of the crumbling section. The first surfer surfed beneath the second surfer, then went up the wave and slammed into him to knock him off. The first surfer carried on down the line, while the second surfer wiped out pretty heavily.

The first surfer was about 50 and about 110kgs.
The second surfer was 11 and about 30kgs in a wetsuit.

Well done sir, you have established your position in the line-up, which is the biggest d!ckhead in the water