Surfing Waves

Hey all, I have a question regarding the "unwritten rules" of surfing. Here's the story behind the question.

Last week I was out on a fairly light day and was just trying to catch any wave I could. My experience level is low, so I usually try to keep an eye on the more experienced people in the line up and let them get first choice on a set of swells. I usually try to pick up the waves that aren't being "fought" after. Anyways, I was paddling to catch this wave and I noticed one other person trying as well. Well, we both ended up catching it apparently and this person proceeded to bitch me out because I was "supposed to let the person closest to the break" take the ride. First off, I haven't heard this before. Secondly, I don't have eyes in the back of my head and therefore had no idea they were even there. To add insult to injury, the person decided to point out that "it's obvious I'm just learning" and that "I'm lucky it wasn't someone more aggressive, otherwise I would have been in a fight."

So, my question is, was I wrong? If so, what do I do to correct it.

Also, let me toss this question as well. I surf goofy foot and therefore find it a little easier to catch waves that are breaking to my right. Does this mean I should stay off waves that break to the left until I get a bit better?

No... it means you should look towards the peak before taking off. It's not an unwritten rule, its written everywhere. It's rule number one when surfing, Guy closest to the peak has priority, end of story. Sounds like the guy put you straight, maybe a bit harshly, but at least now you know.

^^^ What he said.

Does this mean I should stay off waves that break to the left until I get a bit better

No reason why you should put off practising on them now.

bomber35 wrote:Hey all, I have a question regarding the "unwritten rules" of surfing. Here's the story behind the question.

Last week I was out on a fairly light day and was just trying to catch any wave I could. My experience level is low, so I usually try to keep an eye on the more experienced people in the line up and let them get first choice on a set of swells. I usually try to pick up the waves that aren't being "fought" after. Anyways, I was paddling to catch this wave and I noticed one other person trying as well. Well, we both ended up catching it apparently and this person proceeded to bitch me out because I was "supposed to let the person closest to the break" take the ride. First off, I haven't heard this before. Secondly, I don't have eyes in the back of my head and therefore had no idea they were even there. To add insult to injury, the person decided to point out that "it's obvious I'm just learning" and that "I'm lucky it wasn't someone more aggressive, otherwise I would have been in a fight."

So, my question is, was I wrong? If so, what do I do to correct it.

Also, let me toss this question as well. I surf goofy foot and therefore find it a little easier to catch waves that are breaking to my right. Does this mean I should stay off waves that break to the left until I get a bit better?

The unwritten rules have been written numerous times even on this very site
https://surfing-waves.com/surfing-etiquette.htm
try also
http://www.surfrider.org.au/2010/01/the-surfers-code/ it has pictures to help.

BTW The Surfrider Foundation where ever it is, is a valuable member of the surfing community take a little time to read from their site, I recommend it.

Wow! You are totally in the wrong dude.

When you are paddling for a wave, you should already be aware if anyone closer to the peak is also paddling for it - it doesn't necessarily mean you should stop because they may miss the wave OR the wave could pitch up and it comes too deep for them.

But if you do decide to paddle for ANY wave then you should be constantly aware if there's someone else to your left if you are taking off tot he right and vice versa. Especially just beofre you decide to commit to a pop up.

Thanks for the replies! Since I first posted this, I haven't had any other issues, but I am still learning nonetheless! I appreciate to link to the etiquette section as well! In retrospect, I think what happened in this particular situation is more clear to me now with a few more weeks under my belt (and about 30 more hours of surfing time! ). Anyways, basically I was wrong by not checking towards the peak in this case.

Bomber, good to see you are learning, hope the enjoyment factor is right up there too

jaffa1949 wrote:Bomber, good to see you are learning, hope the enjoyment factor is right up there too

Definitely! Got my pop up down, working on my bottom turn and just trying to keep that speed up. Seems my bottom turn is causing me to slow down too much and the wave passes or I get stuck in the mush. I have since learned that speed increases a bit of relative stability, and maintaining the former is a bit tricky right now.

Try angle slightly in the direction the wave is breaking. Will help your dialemma.

Hey guys, I had a pretty bad encounter with someone while surfing today and just wanted to get your feedback to help me learn. I am very courteous while surfing and have read all the etiquette posts so this once caught me by surprise!

I had paddled way out back and finally this big (for me) 4ft wave. I made the drop and was carving up this solid right hander. The wave started ramping up steepness and begun peaking up to re-break with another steep drop. Just as I'm at the peak about to drop down, I see this dude at the bottom of the wave yelling at me to not hit him. Despite being on the verge of the wave folding and dropping me 2m down the face, I managed to jump off the board and avoid hitting him as he wasn't moving or getting out of the way as I was approaching.
As soon as I came to the surface from the wave smashing me down, the dude starts yelling me and saying 'do u always surf straight at surfers' and everything else under the sun.
To be honest I couldn't even see him below the wave until I was basically about to drop down it and I mentioned this too but he kept yelling at me for about 5minutes. It didn't help that we were paddling quite close to each other after the wave so he just kept going on and on about it.

I was pretty sure that I had read that you basically always try and give way to the surfer on the wave and even when I managed to avoid all damage to both of us and our boards, he still had a go and accused me of all this stuff.

What are your thoughts? What else could I have done to avoid this in the future?

The worst part is that the wave was shaping up to be an absolute stunner and I had to bail off it!

He was wrong, you were right. It's his job not to be in the way (as a surfer), but your responsibility not to hit him (as a human being). You saw him and did all you could to avoid a collision, and seemingly were successful.

Sounds to me like he was a bit of a prat.

The other guy sounds like an absolute noob in the way, he was in the wrong, but you did the right thing by not running into him.
Why I say absolute noob, he didn't even know which way to go to avoid a collision.
Noobs make lots of squeaking noises when they are scared to try and justify their being in the wrong.

If you have a run in like that again observe how much the other person knows about surfing, lack of awareness and abuse make everybody's surf lousy!

What the hell was he complaining about? You didn't run him over, does he want more? He shouldn't have been there to start of with

I think he had a pretty new looking 7s board so was pretty probably just peaking out over whether it was damaged or not.
The funny thing is that because my board is also basically brand new and pearly white, after the incident he was holding on to my board thinking it was his (or was holding it as collateral incas his was damaged?)! It was a bit akward trying to take it back from his clasp.
I've never had an incident like it where he just kept going on and on about it and shouting stuff even when we were paddling away like 20m apart.

Aside from ruining my stoke for about 30mins, it was probably one of the best days I've had and the conditions were great. I got a couple of really long waves that brought me back to that feeling I had in Kuta which I'd been struggling to replicate at my local beach! Loving the new board too, seems to cater for a range of conditions from small to mid and in learning how to use its rails which are more defined and edgy then my last boards

I've been on both sides of the story. Once I saw this guy about to drop an amazing wave, and couldn't read which way he was gonna drop (or which way the wave was breaking basically). When it came to me he was geting closer it was too late, and my reaction was to turtle roll and hope for the best. He didn't go for it, I heard a few yells and appologised as embarassed as I was.

Also I've avoided some drops so I didn't hurt some one in the way or even bailed in the middle of a wave for the same reason. As stated by people here, it's the surfers responsability to get out of the way. You were right and even saved him from an accident, he should be thankful and apologetic.

About the surfer priority question, make an habbit to look up your shoulder while paddling a wave, the one closest to the lip gets it. Of course if you are on a beach break where the breaking point isnt so constant, you can be a gentleman and let the guy waiting for longer in the same spot go for it. Not on surfers etiquette but an act of kindness.

The waiting longer courtesy should apply, sometimes it is possible to call somebody into a wave you could /be entitled to , by way of sharing.

A good way of working a line up is the conveyor belt inside guy catches wave surfs and ends up on the waiting line as it goes one by one to the inside take off! Ideal but fails immediately anyone paddles straight back to inside.

That's the idea, you all take turns but then you have that guy that paddles and misses multiple waves. We used to let you miss 2 waves then back the end of the line. But it can be worked out one way or another if you take time to get to know the other surfers and discuss the issue. I am so glad the braddas used to cut me some slack when I first started surfing. Now where I surf there are often multiple peaks to take off on. I am generally at the biggest peak which is outside of where most surfers go......except the SUP guys. Then I have to dodge the guys inside. I am getting better at it .....haven't hospitalized anyone recently.....(just kidding, I have managed to avoid hitting anyone so far). Sometimes you just can't help but be in the way. Some surfers won't give you a clue which way they want to go so generally the thing to do is to go deeper into the lineup so they pass in front of you (also when you do that it may put you even more in the way for the next wave) but if there is a chance to get out of their way without gettting pounded I try for that

I had some annoyingly 'selfish' wave takers last friday when I went out.

I got out to my normal spot after sitting in 2 hrs in traffic to get there on a friday afternoon. For the first time in ages, the waves were just dead. Like 1ft every now and then kind of dead.. Most people were on longboards while I was on my 6'3 to make things worse so I paddled further down the beach to another non-crowded area with a different peak. I had been waiting there about 15 minutes by myself when finally I could see a decent wave coming about 400m away.
All of a sudden, this long boarder who had just caught one wave a couple of minutes earlier starts paddling my direction and catches the wave about 20m before I could get it on my shortboard! I had already started preparing for it, aligned for it and started to take a few padle strokes for it and he just took it before I could.
Given that no waves came for another 10 minutes I was pissed! Due to my good etiquette, I would then pull off and let him take it once he was already on it.
The worst was when I would be waiting in my spot for longer than anyone else, have a long boarder try and steal the wave before I could get it and then only to have them not paddle hard enough to get the wave and let it roll past!

At least the tide came in and a swell started to build so I got a tonne of waves after that but still frustrating that some people will just go for wave after wave regardless of how long you have already been waiting before them etc.

This points to the downfall of surfing etiquette in everyway. Self entitlement and greed, there are time when just because you can should. Do this without awareness that. Benjl has been waiting on the peak by himself for 10 minutes, just because you can take it , should you , NO emphatically!

Should you paddle inside after catching a wave, should you take more waves because you think you are a better surfer. The fish you shouldn't ride is selfish!
Gets hard though when others are just that self entitled.

BTW some line ups in different countries have different variants on the rule. Especially Japan and Taiwan, don't know about Brazil or Peru but have seen bad manners IMO by people from those countries in Indonesia.
A lot of European new surfers lack of etiquette is just plain lack of knowledge, Aussies can be pretty arrogant but can be pulled into line. hawaii is very welcoming if you respect the line up and the level of your ability there.
California is an unknown game for me!

The land of Whaikikamukau is largely , welcoming too.