Standup Zone Forum
Stand Up Paddle => SUP General => Topic started by: Tom on April 13, 2019, 07:42:35 AM
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‘Bully on the beach’ trial begins
Paddleboarder charged with assault off Sunset Cliffs
By Pauline Repard
SAN DIEGO
An Ocean Beach paddleboarder charged with assaulting a surfer in a dispute over waves off Sunset Cliffs was the “bully on the beach” last summer, a prosecutor said in San Diego Superior Court on Friday.
But Paul Taylor Konen’s defense lawyer told a jury it was the other way around.
Surfer Kevin Eslinger was paddling after Konen, scolding him, when Konen — the paddleboarder — tried to swing away, attorney Brian McCarthy said.
“My client was trying to get away,” McCarthy said. “A wave comes, (Eslinger) doesn’t know what happens. The next thing he knows, he comes to.”
The two points of view were offered in opening statements in a trial before a jury of seven men and five women. Konen, 34, is charged with assault with a deadly weapon on Eslinger, with an allegation of causing great bodily injury.
He is suspected of using his paddle to whack Eslinger in the head, splitting open his scalp and causing brain damage that has left the popular East County swim coach with a slight speech impediment.
“The question in this case, is: Did my client deliberately assault Mr. Eslinger? Or was there a collision as a wave was coming, and he got hurt?” McCarthy told jurors. “I will ask you — who was the bully on the beach that day?”
Eslinger, a 56-year-old Point Loma resident, has been a swimming coach for El Cajon Valley High School for 32 years and with Heartland Swimming Association for 28 years. He testified that he grew up swimming and surfing off San Diego, mainly at Sunset Cliffs.
He made news in 2005 when he paddled a 19-foot board 120 miles nonstop from Santa Barbara to Ocean Beach in 29 hours, 31 minutes. Three years earlier, he had paddled 73 miles from San Clemente Island to Ocean Beach.
Eslinger testified that he and his wife, Janae Kelley-Eslinger, went surfing on June 26 at a popular spot known as The Boil, near the foot of Ladera Street. Three-foot waves were breaking and several other surfers were there.
He said he caught one wave and found himself blocked by a large paddleboard coming at him from one side.
“It surprised me,” Eslinger said. “I asked him what he was doing. Surfing relies a lot on etiquette. If a surfer is riding a wave, you don’t interfere with that. (For Konen) to come from that side had a sense of blatant interference.”
He said he had to duck out of the way as one end of the paddleboard swung over his head. Then, he said, he saw the same paddleboarder cut off his wife’s ride, and she fell off her surfboard.
Eslinger said he used his hands to paddle his board toward the offender, to “have a conversation” about his behavior. While Eslinger was lying flat on his board, the paddleboard cut across his path and the back end of the larger board came toward his head, he said.
“The last thing I remember is my hands in front of me, and blackness,” Eslinger said. He came to several seconds later.
His wife got him to an emergency room, where eight staples closed a long gash from the top of his head toward his left ear.
“I wasn’t sure what hit me — not until I saw the shape of the wound,” Eslinger said.
Deputy District Attorney Matthew Greco told jurors that hair was found clinging to a dent in the paddle, but no DNA could be extracted to prove whether the hair was Eslinger’s.
pauline.repard@sduniontribune.com
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This will be interesting to say the least.
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Hey Tom
Do you know any of these guys ?
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Here is another article.
https://timesofsandiego.com/crime/2019/04/12/trial-begins-for-man-accused-of-assaulting-popular-local-surfer/?fbclid=IwAR0H9KgCM9_3FINDLUoSKaXBGPvVude_7Whvsu9YJYDYRQIxnzfL9XqeLQQ
SUP-position, Kevin is a friend and hero of mine that I have know for 20 years. I do not know Paul but have seen him surfing long boards, fish, and occasionally SUPs at the same breaks I usually surf. Some of the surfers from the area know him but few seem to be friends of him.
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''His wife got him to an emergency room, where eight staples closed a long gash from the top of his head toward his left ear.''
That made me empathy cringe big time! :o :'( Glad I wasn't out there that day!
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Surfers are so obnoxious to paddlers, and sometimes to each other.
Rarely hear of sup'ers bashing each other.
Without being there, would assume the surfer was quite threatening.
And whether or not the whole thing was simply a collision rather than a strike?
He1 said, He2 said with no video.
Pick a friend and vote innocent, and vice versa.
It all depends on the lawyer quality.
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Surfers are so obnoxious to paddlers, and sometimes to each other.
Rarely hear of sup'ers bashing each other.
Without being there, would assume the surfer was quite threatening.
And whether or not the whole thing was simply a collision rather than a strike?
He1 said, He2 said with no video.
Pick a friend and vote innocent, and vice versa.
It all depends on the lawyer quality.
I wasn't there either, but the surfer IS a pretty well known guy around San Diego, or at least where he normally surfs. From all the articles I've read and other threads about this case here on the zone, it looks like the paddler was the agitator. We'll all find out more at the case unfolds. And BTW, I have seen some pretty dick head SUP surfers. Most (in the surf anyway) come from a traditional surfing background so they run the full gamut from mellow yellow to Lunada style local and any variation in between.
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The thing that bugs me is that the violent dude surfs prone and standup, but the media latches on to stand up and perpetuates SUP v surfer for the sensational aspect.
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Kevin was riding a small board that barely floats him. Paul was standing on a very large old school SUP. There is no way that Kevin could be threatening to Paul.
The closing arguments were today (Tuesday) it it is now in the hands of the jury.
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I’m referring to the paddle swinger as the violent one, who surfs prone and SUP, but is focused on by the media as a SUP guy.
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i hear you dusk--and i know well the bias against sup, and how the media, witting or not, reinforces all this---but this guy was on a huge sup, and alleged to have actually assaulted/injured the proner with a paddle/weapon--so the guy being on a sup is actually important to the story
and i dont buy that a wave came along and mixed these guys up, causing the injury
seems to me the perp thought he had a "stand your ground" defense teed up, and then realized he needed a better story, given he injured an unarmed guy---so he went with "the wave did it"
im just guessing and, hopefully, the jury has good knowledge of reality---which we'll all have to accept
if this guy did this he shd spend some time in a cage--effing brain-damaged a healthy human--im a progressive, but ive got no patience with people who do violence/damage to others
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No "stand your ground" defense in Cali (only if you are in your home).
I'm aftraid we will all feel the ill effect of this regardless of the outcome. More important than ever to paddle with Aloha...
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Years of good aloha down the tube because of one idiot. I dont know all the facts. But it seems the dude who was on a SUP at the time is very guilty.
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Jackasses come in all varieties and riding all manner of mounts. Too bad this couldn't be settled by a dance-off :-\
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Would really suck if the guy in the SUP was railroaded...
Just some observations from the bench... The article is severely biased, painting the surfer as a local sweetheart, and not a word about the guy on the SUP. At several points it also goes out of the way to make a distinction between SUP and prone... e.g. "used his hands to paddle his board towards the offender." Also note the use of the word "offender." Hyperbole abounds: "While Eslinger was lying flat on his board, the paddleboard cut across his path and the back end of the larger board came toward his head, he said." Please... It goes on and on; utter trash that casts doubt on the whole thing.
An entire article written from the words of only one of the two parties. Once we remove the obvious bias, the he-said, she-said, and land on the facts, only one person was injured, and only after admittedly seeking confrontation.
In my experience, confrontation that escalates to violence (and I've seen my share) is almost never one sided. There's a very good chance that the guy on the SUP was being an ass, but don't ask me to believe that the surfer paddled towards the SUP to have a calm, polite discussion about manners in the line up. Even in well mannered, polite Japan, that's a laugh.
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Yes. We simply don’t know what happened here. Even if the SUPer is an ass normally, and the surfer a saint, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t an accident on this occasion. Let’s not add to the general baying of the media, and wait and see how this turns out.
It’s a good lesson to us all to stay away from confrontation, and crowded spots, though.
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Would really suck if the guy in the SUP was railroaded...
Just some observations from the bench... The article is severely biased, painting the surfer as a local sweetheart, and not a word about the guy on the SUP. At several points it also goes out of the way to make a distinction between SUP and prone... e.g. "used his hands to paddle his board towards the offender." Also note the use of the word "offender." Hyperbole abounds: "While Eslinger was lying flat on his board, the paddleboard cut across his path and the back end of the larger board came toward his head, he said." Please... It goes on and on; utter trash that casts doubt on the whole thing.
An entire article written from the words of only one of the two parties. Once we remove the obvious bias, the he-said, she-said, and land on the facts, only one person was injured, and only after admittedly seeking confrontation.
In my experience, confrontation that escalates to violence (and I've seen my share) is almost never one sided. There's a very good chance that the guy on the SUP was being an ass, but don't ask me to believe that the surfer paddled towards the SUP to have a calm, polite discussion about manners in the line up. Even in well mannered, polite Japan, that's a laugh.
Considering he had the advantage and the damage he inflicted on Eslinger, I wouldn't lose too much sleep if he does get "railroaded". Even is Eslinger was the initial aggressor, that doesn't make it ok. A skull fracture and brain damage is a bit overkill.
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I can see how things can get out of hand. There was a proner just hassling the hell out of my wife on her SUP one day IN THE DESIGNATED SUP ZONE for no reason except her calling him on his BS tactics in the water. I was just so EXTREMELY close to feeding him my paddle it isn't even funny and it was all I could do to refrain. I'm surprised this isn't a more common occurrence, actually.
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Also, Kevin Eslinger is an occasional SUP surfer himself so I really doubt he just approached Konen to get into some anti SUP rage conflict with him.
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I just got this news, not sure of any details
Jury Reaches Verdict in Paddleboarder's Assault on Surfer at Sunset Cliffs. Guilty on all counts!! Could serve 7 years.
I’m sure Kevin is relieved this is behind him!
p.s. not sure about him being a SUPer. Kevin is a world class paddleboarder but that is as a laydown paddle with your hands paddleboarder. He did paddle one of my SUPs on a dare, caught a wave, but I think that is the only time he has SUPed.
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smells like the right verdict
damage another human? cage time
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East, if there's anything good to be found in this it could be that. This guy thought he was living in a world where beefing with others in the water is normal and somehow accepted. Being a dick is OK because that's what surfers do. Now society steps in with a big reminder and says NO, no matter what your little subculture thinks, assault is not ok... get in that cage. Maybe others will pay attention.
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,
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i hear you that this may improve attitudes about conflict in the water, which is a very good thing---but not so sure the law shd be involved but for where something really heinous goes on---like this, for example, where a guy brain damages another guy with a weapon---and no matter how challenging or confrontational the victim was, the perp took things to a whole new level--
two guys end up in a fistfight?? and both want in?? it's a bit buyer beware for me, if someone ends end hurt---now if one guy incapacitates the other, who basically gives up and goes submissive, and the other guy goes on to do serious damage?? that's problematic, but tough to enforce---if a guy simply does not want to fight, doesnt talk shit aggressively, tries to walk away, and the other guy beats the hell out of him?? that prolly cageable?? tough call, in many cases
but if two guys are having words, any words, and one guy takes a weapon to the other (unarmed) guy and whacks him in the head, inflicting serious injury incl brain damage?? cage
now i am lucky i have never seen anything vicious go on btwn surfers--only words, in fact--if places i surf had serious localism and violence, i might well think the law should be involved, in attempt to change the culture---and my reluctance to have the law involved would go away
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Problem with locking him up is, little or no chance for economic restitution, the judges know that, so on a maximum 7 year sentence, he might only see 18 mos. It will be interesting to see how the court rules.
I personally believe the crime warrants the full 7...
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It reminds of a similar issue in sports. Nobody wants lawyers handing out business cards on the sidelines after a hard hit at a football game, but on the other hand a hockey player badly injuring a ref by smashing him in the head with his stick seems reasonable to view as an assault, beyond the realm of sport. In between, things get murky.
I may be remembering this totally wrong, but didn't the assaulter leave the victim in the water to fend for himself after hitting him? That (if true) pushes it into different territory than if he'd even just hung around to make sure the guy got safely to shore.
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PDXMIKE,
Not entirely sure but I'm pretty sure he just paddled away. Kevin doesn't think he lost consciousness, but may have for a short time. He didn't know he'd been hit, but saw the blood coming from his head. His wife, Janae and another friend helped him get to shore and clime the 100+ stairs and then drove him to the emergency clinic.
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PDXMIKE,
Not entirely sure but I'm pretty sure he just paddled away. Kevin doesn't think he lost consciousness, but may have for a short time. He didn't know he'd been hit, but saw the blood coming from his head. His wife, Janae and another friend helped him get to shore and clime the 100+ stairs and then drove him to the emergency clinic.
Thanks, Tom. The article at the top of this thread was a bit confusing to me, but the way I read it the paddler's lawyer was claiming the surfer was coming at him, and he (paddler) was trying to get away, so I took that as meaning he was asserting that the paddle strike was unintentional, or at worst self defense.
But if it was either of those, it seems unlikely you could hit someone that hard in the face without realizing it was hard enough you should at least see if they're able to get to shore, and not doing that is irresponsible.
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Surfers are so obnoxious to paddlers, and sometimes to each other.
Rarely hear of sup'ers bashing each other.
Without being there, would assume the surfer was quite threatening.
And whether or not the whole thing was simply a collision rather than a strike?
He1 said, He2 said with no video.
Pick a friend and vote innocent, and vice versa.
It all depends on the lawyer quality.
I wasn't there either, but the surfer IS a pretty well known guy around San Diego, or at least where he normally surfs. From all the articles I've read and other threads about this case here on the zone, it looks like the paddler was the agitator. We'll all find out more at the case unfolds. And BTW, I have seen some pretty dick head SUP surfers. Most (in the surf anyway) come from a traditional surfing background so they run the full gamut from mellow yellow to Lunada style local and any variation in between.
Sorry, I do not paddle near a big city. The only obnox'ers I have seen have been surfers and the reports of surfers which indicate their etiquette includes a steady stream of aggressive heckling, ranging up to physical confrontation and property damage. Even leading to arrests. But I believe you.
Given this "etiquette" not so surprising that sparks might fly and someone gets hurt.
If I saw an angry surfer approach me, it would not surprise me, nor would I take it for granted they were not full of rage.
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https://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Paul-Konen-Verdict-Paddleboarder-Hits-Surfer-Kevin-Eslinger-Sunset-Cliffs-San-Diego-508771601.html
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Both men ramped up the confrontation. Both men lost.
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it was both men, until the guy with weapon wielded it, and seriously damaged the other unarmed guy---then it became one bad human who will, appropriately, be caged for some introspection time
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The sentencing should be happening any day now.