Nearly injured someone else

[BaNZ]

I'm very new to surfing so I can't turn yet. Nearly hit someone yesterday, I thought I was going to get pass the other guy but it was all too quick. I couldn't react and before I knew it, my bum hit the board and I fell off. Did I lean too much or maybe I panic and fell off?

What is the right way to handle it? I know I should've just let that wave go but I stood up and it was only then I realised I'm going to hit the other guy.

There were quite a few near miss that day as there were over 80 people in the water.

[peazz]

Now im a beginner as well, but to me it seems as it the other surfer was in the wrong.

Correct me if im wrong but he should be paddling behind you where the wave is already broken, not sitting in the middle of the line of fire where the wave is unbroken.

[gd6]

Could you clarify what the other person that you almost hit was doing? It looks like he was just floating in a spot where he should not have been. If he was just floating there, then he was kinda asking to get in somebody's way, and was lucky you bailed. Once you get better you'll be able to turn out of a wave a little more gracefully, or navigate around someone, but it doesn't look like you did anything wrong. To me it looks like you got worried about hitting someone and just bailed by not staying on your feet.

[peazz]

@GD6, It seems that the other dude was just lulling in the water ^ in my eyes, was not Banz fault wat so ever.

[jaffa1949]

Having been to Taiwan I can tell you there is very little awareness of where to sit in the lineup or even which direction to go often when I was riding a wave caught further out side I had to choose a line through a group of floaters in the way, it was better to pull of than try to guess which way anyone was going to go or whether they would just sit

Often the floaters would be from a surf school or a group of friends just "surfing" together.

BaNZ you did OK to avoid an accident!

[BaNZ]

Yes, I panic and didn't know what to do. I wouldn't say I bailed correctly as I was so lucky that I didn't collide with him.

I'm not entirely sure what he was doing as I didn't notice him until I stood up. I didn't ask what he was doing, I just apologised and asked if he got hit by my board then I quickly went out to the lineup. I assume he is just trying to get out to the line up because he is not on a foamy.

If I had step back and brake to let the wave pass me, would it be a better choice?

Last week I jumped off the board because of a similar situation. There were a group of 5-6 shortboarders and they were just waiting for waves further inside. I was heading directly towards the middle of them and I couldn't navigate around them so I jumped off and try to grab on to my board. They told me that by jumping off the board it put them at risk because they were going to duck dive under me. But there were so many people there and it is hard to know which way they are going nor do I know if they are going to duck dive or not.

jaffa is right, it is not one person per wave here. It is all you can eat buffet here. As long as you don't hit the other person, you can get on the wave and you will have to go through a bunch of floaters on shortboard. You can see the other 2 surfers behind me of that video. My guess is probably half a dozen of surfer was on that wave.

[IB_Surfer]

Well, glad you didn't injure anyone. Close calls are common, it was your turn this time. It won't happen that often, but I can guarantee it will happen again.

I have actually hit someone, been hit by someone, and countless of near misses. I always apologize even if not my fault, the apology is for having almost hit someone, or for getting in the way, but never because I think it's my fault, it rarely is. You'll be happy to know that the worse injuries will be the ones you do to yourself LOL

[peazz]

Like a nasty fin chop

[Jules Surfgirl]

Hi BaNZ,

if you don't want to hit somebody don't look at him! Look aktive away from him. Than you will miss the ones floting around to 90%! I got the tip from someone and it works for me most of the time! ciao Jules

[peazz]

Jules makes a good point, From my experience (mainly from my carver skateboard) That you go where u look.

Generally your body will adjust its self where ever u look. Think about when u take a wave at an angle, You look left or right, decide where your going and you look down the line and magically you just end up going that way.

+1 Jules

[BaNZ]

I've done it again! Luckily it was my friend so he wasn't too pissed off. I fin chop his feet! Ouch.

[peazz]

Take this with a pinch of salt, but seems like he should not of been on the wave u were already surfing? I could be epically wrong, but it seems you had right of way, but on another note, you could of looked down the face of the wave and twisted your hips to avoid rather then bailing out.

Correct me if im wrong pros!

EDIT: Step back on the board, weight the tail and lift your nose to do a sharp turn in future

[jaffa1949]

We can't see it all but it certainly looks like he dropped in, as you were clearly heading left and had come across a fair way, in weak waves like this there are often multiple take off points.
You BaNZ need to work on your ability to turn for all sorts of reason, including avoiding collisions no matter the right or wrong of them. STOP JUMPING OFF in crisis learn to do something like turn.
Your friend is equally unaware and should be thinking of where he is going and where other people are going.

The entire collision was avoidable if both of you could learn to turn more easily.

[BaNZ]

It's definitely my fault as I saw him but I couldn't turn apart from jumping off at the last second.

I can't do a sharp turn yet, I can only lean on the board to make it turn slowly. Both of us started learning last summer. We were chatting and catching waves together. After the incident we stayed as far away from each other as possible!

Instinct tells me to jump off... I remember a few weeks ago same thing happened to two other shortboarder who were further inside. I was riding the wave and going directly at them I didn't know what to do so I jumped off. They both duckdive when they saw me coming and I ended up on top of them.

I better focus on learning to turn and control the board! I can catch green waves much better now. We were running a small competition that day between the locals and I caught more than any of them by a huge margin.

[peazz]

your putting others at danger by not knowing how to turn Banzs, I recommend u get lessons to teach you this, Jumping off is all good if you can direct your board but you obviously cant, I have close shaves all the time, but i never direct the board at them, I notice whats going to happen and pull off some super human stuff, Im yet to have a collision thats my fault.

For example, I was at bondi in 2-4ft swell, some teen was paddling out right infront of me i come out of the white water and bam he was there, I got back on my chest turtle rolled and lifted the board up instead of planting a sharp nose into his temple.

Surf at less crowded places

[jaffa1949]

Let's put it this way both of you are to blame you for not being able to turn to avoid an accident and him for being exactly the same it all looks like he dropped in. FFS Ride different waves from each other If you must ride the same wave talk to each other about which way you are going to go. Learn to read the break and discuss what you are going to do.
Please start using some thinking and talking to help your surfing

[BaNZ]

I will take some more lessons this weekend!

jaffa you probably have first hand experience of the people here thinks it is a great idea riding waves together

I did went to less crowded place. There was less than a handful of people but the wave looks really good. I got pass 2 area where the wave breaks but by the time I reach the final area I'm worn out by the white wash already. Rip was too strong and it carried me to places where there were shallow dead coral. I spent some time trying to find where the rip takes you out but it was too close to the coral so I gave up and went elsewhere.

[jaffa1949]

I understand what you mean the learners in Taiwan thinking the experience is improved by more people being on the wave. As 冲浪爷爷,a lot of the crowd at NanWan stopped to watch me surf and since I am able to turn well I could avoid those that didn't stop to watch. I also did a lot of hand gestures and spray throwing to emphasize what I was doing, especially important was to still show respect .
Note for visiting surfers to a new surf environment, be careful about what you teach as an example in surf behaviour

[parito]

Oh well. I did hit another surfer today. Totally my fault. My board hit his board, and my board broke. Looked like his board is fine after some examination..

It was the last wave before the sunset, and everyone was trying to get that one - including myself. Me, being a noob, dropped right in front of the guy who was already surfing. When I saw him, it was already too late to pull back, I was dropping down the wave.

I think the moral of the story is - get out of the tunnel vision - look along the waves rather than just in front. There is always another wave. I feel embarrassed because of this accident and I hope I will learn my lesson.

[BaNZ]

Finally had my lesson. The instructor said my popup is natural and fine. Apparently the main reason I can't do sharp turns is that I constantly look at my feet to check my position. He kept telling me to look at where I want to go and not at my feet. He said once I break that bad habit then I will be able to turn faster. He didn't accept any money for the lesson as he thinks there isn't much to teach me and the rest is based on experiences. It turned out better than I thought!

The surfing etiquette is totally different at that beach. One surfer per wave, my surfing instructor was very peed off when I tried to get on another surfer's wave. I said the other surfer is going the other direction but he said it doesn't matter!