Proner Impediment Tactic

[sailwave]

Firstly, I am a conscientious and polite SUP surfer for about 8 years now and I have been noticing a consistent proner tactic lately. When I am beginning to gain speed way before a drop, proners are paddling toward a collision intersection point such that I have to break/turn to avoid them and I am usually forced to miss the wave. Now this can be unavoidable at a point break with a tight peak, but even at long wide open beach breaks I am seeing more of it. Yesterday a rather cute woman did it without even attempting to catch the wave and just sat there smiling afterward! The only strategy I can think of is to keep moving and basically trace ovals around proner lineup such that half the time I am inside of them.

Any other ideas out there that won't create conflict?

[Subber]

I think you let them do that once.....sometimes they will get in front of you and turn their board
parallel to the beach...perpendicular to your takeoff, blocking you....anyway, you let them do it to you once.  --  If they do it again, you ride right over their board.  Hopefully, you have a tough epoxy board and they have a soft polyurethane board.  This is when it pays to have a gnarly looking board.
Just Charge the second time.
 

Of course, that might create conflict.
You could go over to them and tell them to not block your take off.
 

A few times, I've seen people block not just SUPers but other proners.
I saw a couple of guys at two different spots do that.  They would block people from taking off
and when they stopped paddling, they'd quickly turn and catch the wave - real asses.

[SlatchJim]

I had a gal on a sup do nearly the same thing to me, but she'd just caught a wave, and while paddling out right below me, she slides past and then spun further out and charged directly toward me.  She could see I had position and was set up to take the wave with nobody else even close to position.  She thought that she could just paddle around and steamroll me.  I didn't stop and she had to break off and bail.  I felt nothing, no remorse, no pity, just a sense of this is how the universe is.  You can force your way into the flow but the flow doesn't have to let you in without regard to physics. 

She was clearly pissed and went and told her man.  He never said a word.  Life went on and everyone caught their share.

[SUPcheat]

Welcome to Santa Cruz.   Life is too short, and there are a lot of waves.  Proners do this on a pretty regular, though not frequent, basis to me.  I just let them go and thank the wave gods for what they see fit to grant me.

Enough interpersonal stuff happens without trying to provoke or wade into anything, I'll just leave if that's what it comes to.

I am surprised how many waves I can get when it is really crowded, now, mainly because I am familiar with my breaks, and the proners and SUP tend to cluster like grapes in spots that aren't always productive, or waves are already occupied.

One old guy on SUP, who is never very friendly and seems to view the world as a grab as grab can place, did this to me, and I reflexively said "effing turd" and I think he heard me.

SUPs aren't always that courteous, either. The greedy ones have a tendency to sit outside to get everything they can.

[PonoBill]

Doesn't happen often, I think I look like a cement truck coming towards people. Only a fool steps off the curb and asserts "pedestrian right of way". But when I do have a close call, I apologize profusely--sort of--and go about my business. Most people seem to realize after a near miss that they're the ones that are going to get hurt.

I tend to give surfers a lot of slack. I turn into the foam if they drop in on me, or go up and over if they're going straight. I don't know why, but on the mainland there are a lot of crap surfers, especially longboarders. Doesn't really happen much here in Maui. In the tourist-heavy places, yeah. But I only go there if I'm desperate.

Hookipa looked good today, almost the only place on the island that did. I was tempted, but it was so thick it would have been more frustrating than fun.

[supthecreek]

All manners of wonderful people.... and dicks in the water.
I tend to move closer to a dick. Quietly. Just hover and ignore. They usually paddle away.

I don't accept anti-SUP..... but I never get bothered by mistakes..... they happen to everyone, and I have no desire to yell at people.

Aggressive anti-SUP gets dealt with in a wide variety of ways.... but always gets dealt with. I made a video of one of them, but never posted it... not big into negativity ;-)

[Zooport]

All manners of wonderful people.... and dicks in the water.
I tend to move closer to a dick. Quietly. Just hover and ignore. They usually paddle away.

I don't accept anti-SUP..... but I never get bothered by mistakes..... they happen to everyone, and I have no desire to yell at people.

Aggressive anti-SUP gets dealt with in a wide variety of ways.... but always gets dealt with. I made a video of one of them, but never posted it... not big into negativity ;-)

Creek, please post it.  I would love to see how you handled it. 

[OUTSIDEWAVE]

yeah I noticed it  too this  kid teenager did the same thing  paddle over into my line and started to take off underneath me  definitely a snake move  I paddle right up to the edge  his git big and I backed off at he last second he tried the take off but   wiped out so I paddled around him and said  "You saw  why did you try to take off underneath?  don't do it agin  you'll get hurt"  It worked well    but if it was grouchy middle age proner  it might  be different.  I am not sure the kid was doing much more than being aggressive in getting waves,  but  he needed to be told.

[SlatchJim]

We're always up for some Creekisms...you sage of the right coast.

In 5 years of sup, one or two incidents is hardly a pattern.  I'm far more likely to make a friend of the proner next to me than to have issues.  I'm always the one to paddle to the uncrowded spot and to drag my wife with me to experience the joy of no competition for the next wave...except for me.  (that's a whole different story)

[PonoBill]

I assume most stuff is just an accident, even when it seems like it might not be. Lord knows I've gotten in people's way a lot myself. Last year I almost dropped in on Randy Royce in a really big critical wave. I bailed back and he went underneath me on his chop nose Tomo style board, right under my feet, like an F15 on afterburners. I had the best seat in the house to watch a fine surfer rip up a wave--I was so right over the top of him it was like a drone angle. I can still see it in my mind's eye. Could have been a bumbling mistake and I could have tangled boards with Randy. He would have laughed it off. but we both would have got our asses handed to us by the wave. Near miss and a mistake turned into a permanent picture in my mind. That's what I call a good result.

[Piros]

Gets pretty crowed where I live and the snake move is pretty rampant especially when proners start working together. The Brazilians or Brazo's as we call them are experts at pack domination . I generally just move away but when you pick off a couple they just paddle over. All you can do is just sit out wider and paddle your guts out to get in that bit earlier. Makes them think twice when you are already doing a bottom turn.

[JimK]

In my world New Jersey "Shit happens" and "I know people..." if you know what i mean but I think I am more of that "Cement truck Pono Bill refers to. But I have video on my website (extremewindsurfing.com) of a kid trying that on me and the aftermath...wasn't a problem I can't access here from school but you could check it out there

JimK
Extreme Windsurfing.com

[stoneaxe]

No question the cement truck analogy comes into play. Almost nobody gets in my way on purpose. I also try and head off any animosity. If I see a proner going for it I usually pull out or go in the opposite direction and I let them know that. Complimenting a ride or two helps also. If I do get an asshole that tries to block me I go for it anyway...one close call is all it takes to stop the BS. Intimidation goes two ways.

[SlatchJim]

You can always paddle up next to them, hand them a laminated ace of spades and say "I'm sure we'll be seeing more of you in the future" and paddle away silently. 

[supsurf-tw]

I surf mostly in a SUP only spot, however when I do surf at mixed spots I find that going for a wave full force with total authority and that  "Stay the Fuc# out of my way" look going on will generally keep proners thinking twice. Paddling for waves timidly and you may as well not even be out there.