A spank on the arse by a surfer!

[bgdkmetzger2003]

just recently I was sponging over at a local break called windansea. Its kind of a tough situation there because the wave only breaks in one spot usually, so there are a bunch of people right around the peak at varying distances from the beach. so when an outside wave comes in you get caught inside of the takeoff zone sometimes. anyways i was caught inside of the zone and i was on a sponge. this guy was taking off and the only thing I could do was duckdive right under him. i made it under but he (i believe deliberately) speed pumped right on my tail bone. it didnt hurt that bad but it pissed me off. i immediately came up and looked around for him but I couldnt find him. i didnt even remember what he looked like. what a fleshin'!

[grub]

What do you expect when you are laying on a speed hump ; don't no the full details but obviously he/she should do everything to avoid you, but I do feel you made a wrong decission. If you are obviously going to get in the way, do the polite thing and just cop the white water, ruining someone's wave would be both upsetting for you and them...

[PapaW]

Its one of thoes things unfortunatly, I'm forever hitting surfers at busy breaks, mainly cause they always get chunned or can't take the drop and end up int he take off-zone. You can only do so much dodging but after all it is that person in the take off zone/paddeling out main responsibility to move towarss the white water or away from the area.

It happends, I wouldn't worry about it. But i see why your annoyed, it could have been worse with the fins slashing you.

[jennie]

whats the best thing to do in that situation then? say your paddeling out and someone is coming towards to you, they are on the wave and you are on each others path, is it the person who is one the waves responsibility to dodge you if it is obvious that the person paddeling out cant get out of the way?

If you arent going to make it over the wave in time is it best to head back to the white water then?

[PapaW]

It is curtosy for the person paddleing out to paddle towarsds the broken part of the wave and dive that ranther then mess up/coppaps the unbroken sections for the person riding. (this is of course if your heading for each other, if you will make it past with plenty of time then its not a problem)

If thats not an option of too little time then duck dive deep and watch out for your legs! I've seen some nasty fin slashes.

last resoort... Infact no, NEVER do this, is to ditch your board.

[bgdkmetzger2003]

you guys arent picturing the right wave.....the wave is a big A frame that was mushing from the top. He was coming down from the peaky A straight towards me. There was no white water. I just tried to dive under him and everything would have been fine except he speed pumped right on my backside. I think he did it on purpose because I never felt fins on my back just the pressure of the board being pushed down on me. Then I couldnt find out who did it...

The wave at this break is very different from most breaks in the area, definitely different from beach breaks. it a quicker drop and more peaky.

[PapaW]

So why where you right under the peek?

[bgdkmetzger2003]

because everyone is at the peak in a big group, some people are further out and some people are closer to shore. There just happened to be an outside wave that caught some of us inside, while at the same time there were guys dropping in at the top of the peak.

[GowerCharger]

A capable surfer will do their best to avoid you (although some seem to think its a challenge to get as close as possible).
If youre paddling out and a guy is up and riding towards you and you dont know wether to go for the shoulder or take the whitewater, firstly keep your eyes on the surfer to make sure he has seen you and knows your there, most will give some indication of where theyre going and which way you should head, if they havent seen you, or as a last resort, roll onto your back with your board over youkeeping your head covered like a longboard turtle roll- if your gonna collide better take take a ding in your board than your back.

[bgdkmetzger2003]

thats a good suggestion about the turtle role, i never thought about doing that. if you look at the wave, and remember that I was basically in front of the peak, and he was riding straight down at me from the peak, i really dont think there was anything I could do but go straight under him. there was no white water for me to go towards you see. he was taking off just behind me if I had been trying to catch the wave, I would have been paddling like 5 feet in front of him. instead I turned around and found him coming straight at me, so I dove under him. I dont mind the fact that he went over me, its just that he purposely tapped my back. thats what pissed me off.

[Manaiakalani-Mosquito]

That sucks man, I think GowerCharger is right on the subject though.

[Broosta]

bgdkmetzger2003 I don't think there was anything else you could have done and the guy that got you was a dick, or he was not in control and could not avoid you, erm... and therefore still a dick for taking off without correct ability to be safe. I know, I've surfed there and it gets well busy and certainly has the power. Safety needs to come first - however good the wave.

Reckon if you do decide to turn turtle you need to watch out for you fingers ! Guillotine springs to mind!

Courtesy dictates the surfer not riding the wave should try to go towards the whitewater, but competition rules state the surfer riding has to avoid the surfer not riding. Comp rules make sense as surfer riding has far more ability to manouvre than someone paddling out - for safety's sake.
So really I go by if I am paddling out and a rider is on the wave and if I have time I will go towards the whitewater. But if I'm paddling out and a rider comes straight towards me and I can't tell which way he wants to go then I just stop and sit tall so I know he's seen me and leave it to the rider to avoid me. Obviously if the rider really looks like he's gonna hit me then its do whatever you can with the time you got etc.

[PapaW]

A capable surfer will do their best to avoid you (although some seem to think its a challenge to get as close as possible).
If youre paddling out and a guy is up and riding towards you and you dont know wether to go for the shoulder or take the whitewater, firstly keep your eyes on the surfer to make sure he has seen you and knows your there, most will give some indication of where theyre going and which way you should head, if they havent seen you, or as a last resort, roll onto your back with your board over youkeeping your head covered like a longboard turtle roll- if your gonna collide better take take a ding in your board than your back.

Thats one of the best peices of advice I've heard in a long time. n1 GC.

[CheeZee]

Yep going with the above, roll it over and hope for the best

being a learner( not that you are)..but i am constantly in the wrong place at the wrong time ! and over the last couple of seasons obviously ive tried to learn a little more about line ups etc and the format for each of the bays i visit but i still get caught out and see that horrible sight of a torpedo heading in my direction .. i normally wait untill the very last moment to check that the guy has seen me and if hes not or cant make any direction change to get round me then its under i go regardless of what happens to me.
Its a tricky one because i have found myself in the past being used as target practice (last spring at Woolacombe) .. and the two guys were kinda closing me off no matter what i tried to do so i guess in that situation you do whatever you can to sort it out but never get outta the water

[GowerCharger]

yep, the same thing happend to my brother years ago in indo, a beginner heading straight towards him with no control, he rolled, and the board got a big 1/2 dent running the length of the board. I hate to think of damaging my board but if that had been his back that could be a serious serious injury, and when you into surfing isolated spots an accident like that could leave you in real trouble.

[bgdkmetzger2003]

I don't think the guy in my situation was an amature. I think he deliberately went over the top of me. If you know windansea like broosta, you know it could happen there. Ill never know for sure but I think everything happened as it should have, except that he pumped on my back.

[CheeZee]

Well .. i like to think that these guys that are out to hurt others eventually get their payback .. all comes around

[grub]

I don't think the guy in my situation was an amature. I think he deliberately went over the top of me.

hmmm, don’t know how it is there but back home you are lucky to see a body boarder and if so they generally don’t get much respect, so could well be deliberate... Here in Portugal I think body boarders may out number surfers (definatly use too) and everyone seems a little easier about the idea; I guess comes back on culture. I do have mates back home that will try to rob any body boarder of a wave, take it as a grain of salt; if you couldn't get out of his way the guy was in the wrong and that’s all that can be done about it