Where is YOUR focus?

[Big H]

So I was out today in the best conditions I've been in for a couple of weeks....gentle breeze, no wind swell or chop, 4-7ft faces....didn't want to leave but I digress....

I'm in an uncrowded spot....it is usually not crowded at that spot and while there are better places to surf, you can't beat not crowded here.....so I was out with a local guy who has a board rental and drinks place on the beach who I know and we're trading waves and having a grand time.....there was a gaggle of about 8 on a peak 200m down the beach and 3 guys on a peak 200m up....

I see a new person entering the water....I'm pretty well offshore but can make out it is a woman with a shortboard....she paddles out to join the foreigners up the beach and soon loses interest there and paddles down past us to the other peak.....

Indonesian guy goes in and now it's just me.....the two of us were catching 3x the waves that anyone else was getting (local knowledge and while it's not apparent, visually it looks the same, it's the best peak with a rip running just off the end to take you back out back and ready to surf again....that's the reason for outpacing the other two peaks)....so anyway, this unsatisfied woman decides to come join me.....

She is HOT.....long blonde braid thick like a rope halfway down her back, surfer's body, deep tan, pretty face....looked like she was from Spain, Brazil maybe....wow!

That went through my head for about a second and a half then my focus sharpened and all I could think about was....
"She's trying to block me off"

So then in a wide open ocean with almost no surfers, I stuff her up after she tries to back paddle me then tries to set up underneath me so that she can block me off if I paddle....I go for a wave and she cuts down in front of me from an inside position trying to get up on the same wave though she just arrived, watching me as she's gunning.......I get up and almost run her down (narrowly miss, cutting right across her nose on purpose)....I paddle back out, and take my place....she takes a left and rides it as a right smack into the foam ball.....she then paddles back to exactly underneath me and slightly inside on the inside, right on the line I would paddle on if I were to angle in.....I paddle 20m laterally, deeper into the wave....she follows and sets up in the same line, looking at me....wave comes, I take it and paddle straight at her, get up and it's a narrow miss again....she gets the point and leaves for another peak....after a little while she comes back but sets up level with me 20m away and we take turns......



Hah....I guess my flirting days are done.....she probably gets away with that cute s#$%it with the young gun lineups, but discovered today that those games don't work with an old married geezer who is only interested in the waves....

BTW, she was wearing a pretty small bikini.....I didn't hardly bat an eye....

[billie_morini]

Big H,
fortunately your focus is on the sea. Unfortunately, my focus is on work. My misfortune is having two design-build contracts begin simultaneously. Mind you, I'm not specifically complaining about gainful employment. However, we're have the best surf season in 5 years and I'm barely able to even walk the beach with my big dog. Please carry the stoke into the sea for me!
billie

[RinkyDink]

If it was that uncrowded, maybe you could have let her take her wave and you could have taken the next. Maybe you could have said hello and told her you liked her board and found a surf buddy. Maybe you should focus on friendship and graciousness and take it from there.

[Big H]

Rink, there is sharing and there is blocking....I surf this spot around 4x a week...never seen this person before and I am supposed to let her just paddle out, block me off and allow her to take what she wants!?!? That's the point I'm trying to make; surfing in a bikini she probably has a gold pass in iineups and has developed pretty bad behaviour.....she was being ultra aggressive in a wide open break....I moved and she moved with me, I paddled for a wave that I was in position for and she tried to laterally cut me off.......she got what she was looking for and what she probably should have gotten a long time ago....

[RinkyDink]

Rink, there is sharing and there is blocking....I surf this spot around 4x a week...never seen this person before and I am supposed to let her just paddle out, block me off and allow her to take what she wants!?!?

Yes. You need to let anyone paddle out. You're not an owner. Don't be so arrogant to consider yourself one. You have no more right to be there than anyone else. Stop treating nature like it's a commodity. You're in a park that people in society have agreed to share. You're not in an amusement park where every ride has a value, e.g. the ferris wheel costs $3 a ride and the roller coaster costs $10 a ride. Stop bringing marketing values to the ocean. The waves you catch are not monetary transactions; they're a free benefit available to all who value the public space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_space. When you go to the library, you don't get angry at the person who checked out the last copy of the book you wanted, you wait for the book to come back to the library. That's what people do in a civilized society.

That's the point I'm trying to make; surfing in a bikini she probably has a gold pass in iineups and has developed pretty bad behaviour.....she was being ultra aggressive in a wide open break....I moved and she moved with me, I paddled for a wave that I was in position for and she tried to laterally cut me off.......she got what she was looking for and what she probably should have gotten a long time ago....

I don't think you can really know what her motivation was in wearing a bikini. Why don't you first assume the best of people? Maybe she was actually just trying to meet you, but you started unconsciously vibing her because you couldn't process having a sexy woman in the lineup. I wonder how many times women in the lineup get treated like crap just because they're female and men don't know how to handle their own arousal with common sense.

[Big H]

Rink I don't know where it is that you surf, but this is a world Mecca and people are mean and ruthless here coupled with the attitude that because they are on vacation "what happens in Bali stays in Bali" and are rude and have a very real lack of respect. She was not some newb on a wavestrom (no offense) who had stumbled into the wrong place....she didn't want to wait her turn and was going to force her way onto the next wave that came....now make a case, give me a good reason to by I should stand aside and let her do that.

I like good vibes in the water; so often here it is the opposite as you have to fight for your waves....I give respect when I get it and conversely am able to stand my ground and stuff someone up when they deserve it.....I would love a break where there was a loving kumbaya spirit....ain't happening around here. doni have more right to others for a wave? Heck yes, in that case I had more right than ANYONE....I'd been waiting and it was my turn!!! And I took it!!!!

Now I never ran right at her, just close, and never in a way that if I lost control she would hav been hit. That would be reckless....only warning shots across the bow.

[Big H]

Big H,
fortunately your focus is on the sea. Unfortunately, my focus is on work. My misfortune is having two design-build contracts begin simultaneously. Mind you, I'm not specifically complaining about gainful employment. However, we're have the best surf season in 5 years and I'm barely able to even walk the beach with my big dog. Please carry the stoke into the sea for me!
billie

Will do, and congratulations for the professional purple patch!

[Big H]

The whole point was that I was not looking to make a friend, meet someone, trade numbers or even aroused in the least....I spent a second recognizing the book cover but from that point forward she was only another snake who was going into their bag of tricks to fight for waves rather than showing some respect, chilling out and waiting her da%#*mn turn. What made it a notable story is that she was unusually aggressive for a mediocre surfer which to me says that she has been getting away with this kind of behavior and my assumption is that it is because of how she looks because like you Rink, most guys would try to make friends or more with a hot chick or at the least stand aside.

[oldmansurfer]

I would have probably said "Are you intentionally getting in my way? Because that is what it seems like." And if that didn't fix the problem maybe something like "Hey you need to get a better bikini, I can see your Hoohaa, and what is that? Herpes or something......., disgusting."

[RinkyDink]

Now I never ran right at her, just close, and never in a way that if I lost control she would hav been hit. That would be reckless....only warning shots across the bow.

If you want to fire warning shots at other surfers, then make sure you do that with every surfer (male and female). I mean if you only acted that way with girls, then you'd be a kind of fancy lad, don't you think?

[Big H]

Believe me, I stand my ground with everyone, you included.

[RinkyDink]

Believe me, I stand my ground with everyone, you included.

I'm not going to stay silent when somebody advocates endangering others based on some half-baked assumption about the motives of a person they don't even attempt to speak to. I can't stay silent because I don't want other surfers who read your post to go out and think it's okay to aim their surfboards at people as a way to resolve a problem. That's just idiotic behavior and it needs to be called out. Shame on you. Clean up your act.

[jaffa1949]

Go figure this

[Big H]

Rink, you are twisting what I said to fit your outrage. Like I said, I was aggressive and ran at the girl, but not in a way that was reckless or endangered her at all...if you get out of the whitewater and off your foamie and dare to enter into an aggressive aggro lineup you'll start to learn offensive and defensive tricks and techniques....you never have to there are spots that can be surfed with more mellow vibes, but if you want to get onto good peaks here there is no choice and like I said, tourists can be extra nasty largely in part due to the fact that they have no investment in that break and might never be seen again....she knew them, started tricking as soon as she rolled up on me....I did as well and did nothing that I haven't seen done many times before....the whole point of the story was that I was not distracted by her appearance and treated her just like any snaker ought to be dealt with...there were no doe eyes, no "this way m'lady" or whatever fancy boy thing you were trying to say....pure 21st century and she got the equal rights treatment on the level.....that she came back to the break later on and behaved herself said that she not only got the message but she understood how she ought to be acting.....

Like it or not, there are grumps and neck breakers like me at home at their home breaks around the world....I'm a nice guy, but won't put up with visitors doing dirt at my home breaks....neither will they and you should be careful since indignant attitudes and opinions on who has the "right" to say or do something are going to do little to help you if you cross the wrong person and snake their wave or drop in on them.

It is about respect and if it is not given then it will be taken; I extract it less forcefully than others do, but get the same end results.

I know that you're going to give me stick but consider this....I was at the same break a couple of weeks ago and watched an Italian surfer decide to practice surfing whitewater right in front of a beach vendor who was fishing. Vendor is a friend, I speak to him daily and he is from the same ethnic group as my wife who he has met as well. I see the Italian stand up in front of the guy and start to throw the bird and yell at him....5 min later sure enough he becomes tangled in the fishing line and proceeds to yank the line so that the fisherman loses his rod into the surf even though I see the fisherman waving his hands (later explained to me that he was trying to get him to calm down so that he could come cut the line)....anyway, story ends with the Italian being hit several times with his own board over his head and back after he'd been kicked and punched to the ground by 5-6 local guys who were near the fisherman. On society's fringes, lack respect and there are consequences.

[Big H]

....and about the stomping....if you ask why didn't I do something the answer is that IF I had gotten involved it would have been to lay a couple of licks on the Italian, not to save him (not my style though....I can't remember a fight that I've been in where I wasn't outnumbered and yeah, there have been a few )....he asked for it and got thrown a beating and a lesson....the guys were sheepish when they explained the whole scene as it played out to me when I got out of the water (in bahasa)....I told them that they were right but not to get so mad so early in the morning (translated: you took it too far).

[RinkyDink]

You know, there's no loss of face in admitting you made a mistake. It's not easy to do, but I respect the person who recognizes their foibles and has the humility to admit to them rather than double down on something stupid. We all make mistakes. But hey, whatever, we disagree. I'm more concerned with making clear to other surfers that they should not follow your example.

[Big H]

Lock it up; I'm done.