Surfing Waves

okay so im a beginner shortboarder and i went out to an LA beach last weekend and looked for a pretty decent beach break. There was the semi-crowded lineup next to the pier(they all looked REALLY experienced) and 10 feet west of them was a small group of mates and i decided i'd rather be near a less crowded lineup because i'm still learning. so i swam near them and kept a safe 4 foot distance away from them. But i kept getting this vibe from them that i wasn't supposed to be there..? They kept shooting me the stink eye
and i don't know what i did wrong?! i thought i read up enough on surf ettiquette but idk.. anyways didn't want to be somewhere i wasn't accepted, so i gave them their 'local respect' and left. didn't even get to catch a single wave . I just want to know what i did to piss them off so when i go to a different beach i have better luck

surfbetty wrote:okay so im a beginner shortboarder and i went out to an LA beach last weekend and looked for a pretty decent beach break. There was the semi-crowded lineup next to the pier(they all looked REALLY experienced) and 10 feet west of them was a small group of mates and i decided i'd rather be near a less crowded lineup because i'm still learning. so i swam near them and kept a safe 4 foot distance away from them. But i kept getting this vibe from them that i wasn't supposed to be there..? They kept shooting me the stink eye
and i don't know what i did wrong?! i thought i read up enough on surf ettiquette but idk.. anyways didn't want to be somewhere i wasn't accepted, so i gave them their 'local respect' and left. didn't even get to catch a single wave . I just want to know what i did to piss them off so when i go to a different beach i have better luck

Hi surfbetty, I hope you are talking at least yards not feet because in a crowded line up you would be sitting on top of the next guy. Your intention sounds good but in a short beach breaky situation the action area for any wave could be between 50 to 100 yards, a 4 foot distance away is less than the length of a short board. The truly sad thing is that an unaware learner is a danger and often the way they are dealt with is, to aggro stare them out. It is a rare break where learners get a fair go.
BTW every new person that enters the water at any break is instantly assessed as to their ability and where they fit in the local food chain.
Decisions will be made on your paddling style, your board, your physical appearance.
If you are talking about a group of mates surfing a spot then they are going to be more territorial as they would see it as their wave and if it was down the beach from a group of more skilled surfer than them, then you are further down the food chain.
Sorry bout that

Jaffa can you go into details about paddling styles?

oh okay that answered my question pretty well, and yeah i meant yards not feet. Sucks to be at the bottom of food chain though:/. and what did you mean by paddling styles..?

you can tell by the paddling style, if somebody is rather a newbie or not...

a seasoned surfer will have a totally different style... the power of the strokes, the way he arches the back, does he keep his feet together etc..
all things a person new to surfing is "strugling" with..

A brief Uncle Jaffaism on paddling styles.
What does a newbie paddle like?
They are often unbalanced on the board lying on the board off centre, with legs trying to stick out like outriggers to support balance as they paddle the leg on the side of arm paddling sticks into the water major wobble ensues followed by an increased major wobble on the other side as that side tries to correct. = sudden jerky corrective movements.
FIX by putting both legs together and keeping them there until you pop up.

The leg metronome paddle,legs in an upright position beating in time to the opposite arm as taught in competitive surf paddle on racing boards gives a fast paddle out on a floaty surf rescue board but unbalanced for take offs on waves.
FIX by putting both legs together and keeping them down until you pop up.
The not lying far enough forward on the board paddle, easily the most dominant learner paddle, tires the learner out as they spent most of their effort bulldozing water and totally ineffective for catching waves.
b]FIX [/b]by be being brave enough to risk catching the nose on take off.

The demented water spider paddle where the paddler has arms and legs going at a rate of knots but is unco-ordinated and generates a lot of splash, may even be using the feet as flippers off the back of the board and arms stroking out wide from the board.
FIX Go to nearest surf school and start again.

The no idea how to paddle out through or round the white water with any of the above "styles",
FIX please sit on the beach and watch the traffic in the surf read the waves watch where the surfers ride and whether you can truly handle what is going on out there.

Do you know how wide to paddle around a break to avoid collision
Do you know how to avoid collision by heading into the white water
Have you read the unwritten rules in regard to who has priority and what is the etiquette at that break
Do you know where to sit so you are not in traffic?
FIX please sit on the beach and watch the traffic in the surf read the waves watch where the surfers ride and whether you can truly handle what is going on out there.

All of these things are important, but a good thought here, have you identified the vibe of the break before paddling out
If it is already aggressive and full of drop ins and snaking do you want to be out there Most reasonable surfers would pick another break even with lesser quality just to be without hassles.


Every break has it's own set of mellow surfers who will teach and share if you approach them and the break in the right way.
There is also the other side of the coin, a set of knuckle dragging D..heads who pollute the pleasant experience of surfing when they paddle out.
Their first target to big note themselves is always the new face in the lineup if they smell beginner it's even worse. NOT FUN.

Learning curve and a little thicken of hides helps, just keep on keeping on

Great post as per usual by jaffa (do youhave any cake mate?)
The xxxxx in the line up are tend to not to be the REALLY good skilled ones. They don't need the douche attitude to be on the top of the food chain, while hte okay-but-not-so-great ones need to put on a facade to scare away new faces so they can claim their place.

And re.paddling, go take a look at your local break, it is very easy to differetiate the experienced and the learners from their paddle just from observing on the beach.

Katsura wrote:Great post as per usual by jaffa (do youhave any cake mate?)

I had my cake and ate it.
I know Jaffa cakes but it's from both my Rugby days and rolling down aisles at surf movies when they were shown in theatres.
There was nothing like a thousand or more hooting surfers packed into a movie theatre screaming farting throwing jaffas (for those outside Australia marble sized round lollies hard orange flavoured and coloured case and chocolate centre), soft serve icecream had just come out and you would bite off the bottom off the cone and if you were on in the balcony seat you blow into the cone and blow pipe the icecream to the seats below, this raise screams of anguish and hoots of derision, the lights would come on somebody would be ejected and the movie start again.
There were fights but no nasty stuff.
Toe to toe stuff, no kicking when down or knives or anything else, just the alpha surfers and it always seemed to be just once, and they figured out who was better and that was it, and no revenge. So Big Wednesdayish

yeahh, thats it.I think im going to laugh the whole day every time i remember your post jaffa.i lost it at demented water spider. this should be a tutorial.

thanks these are ALL great tips(: especially Jaffa's. I hope i improve soon enough to not look like a kook in the ocean... practice make's perfect right?

surfbetty wrote:practice make's perfect right?

nobody was born a master yet...

Nice advice, our local surfbreak is such a small bay area & small take off spots and really crowded on good days that we're often sitting on top of each other, it's lucky if we have 4 ft between us, usually about 2 or 3 feet and double line ups in the back with a newbie line up on the inside too!- one in front of the other ha ha...when you take off, you often have to paddle through a narrow opening in surfers to get onto the wave. Nobody gets agro though, everyone's pretty cool with each other & strangers - we're all there for the same reason.

Thats an interesting point about being at a really busy break and everything being ok. Somewhere like that, everyone is used to surfing in those sort of crowds, so it's no big deal. If it's a crowded day at a break that only has a few out, there's possibly a greater likleyhood for aggro.

drunkbuffy wrote:Nice advice, our local surfbreak is such a small bay area & small take off spots and really crowded on good days that we're often sitting on top of each other, it's lucky if we have 4 ft between us, usually about 2 or 3 feet and double line ups in the back with a newbie line up on the inside too!- one in front of the other ha ha...when you take off, you often have to paddle through a narrow opening in surfers to get onto the wave. Nobody gets agro though, everyone's pretty cool with each other & strangers - we're all there for the same reason.

Great a good civilised break, as they can be sometimes

I agree,ethiquete is all.

Go surf Early morning,just rising the sun. Usually the vibe on line-up is better than like at 11 am or 3 pm.
Also the crowd early morning is nothing close to later.
aloha guys