San O Saturday - and why longboarders hate us

[surfcowboy]

Stopped in at BOP and saw some friends on Saturday but by 2:30 I was ready to cool off and get in the water. (You can only watch good waves go by for so long before it gets to you.) Grabbed tacos and after a 5-10 min wait, got into San O and cruised to a nice spot at Dogpatch.

Paddled out, there were maybe 6 people spread out over 200 yards. Really cool. Warm air (I was sweating in the lineup, that never happens) no wind and really clear warm water, picture perfect SoCal.

Now the only gripe, and I only mention it here so that a newbie might learn a bit. After maybe 45 min a guy on an 8'0" Riviera blue soft top SUP wearing a hot pink t-shirt paddles over to where I'm standing waiting for a wave. He paddles around me into position for the set I'm watching for. (Weird, I thought.) Then for the next several sets, he paddles for, and misses several waves, causing me to either go and deal with him or just to pull out.

Finally, as he paddles for a wave, misses it (he's on an 8' er) and then immediately paddles for the next wave, I say, "yo man, you just paddled for that last wave" and he backs off slightly as I paddle into the wave intending to stuff him if he goes. Whatever, let it go.

But the entire time I sat waiting for sets, he paddled back and forth about 20 feet outside of me. I know he was just trying to stay balanced but to anyone who doesn't paddle it would have looked like he was taunting me and or just looking to jump on the next wave (which he was.)

If I was a surfer, who never SUS'd, it would have cemented what most already think about SUP surfers. So let's all be clear, it's not entirely unfair that other surfers think we're hogs. We can be, unregulated.

This is the important part, and what I have control over as an independent grown human. I didn't let him vibe me, I just paddled further down toward Nukes and let him have some space and yes, I politely addressed him one time when it was clear he didn't see or "get" what he was doing to me and the other three guys sharing waves on that peak but that's all that happened.

I continued to be insanely stoked on the waves, the weather and to reflect on how lucky I was to be there, in that moment sharing the ocean. I am jealous of you OC guys getting to ride that wave consistently. I need to make some weekday trips down to sneak in a session or two more often.

I'm sure the BOP final was amazing but I wouldn't trade you for the dozen waves I got or the sunset that I shared with less than a dozen people on the beach.

[madmax]

Line up politics and courtesy isn't a big secret.  It's just that not that hard to figure it out.  I imagine that guy is clueless in the rest of his life too.

[surfcowboy]

Totally, but also note that the one negative should not take away from the 5 other folks who were respectful and the fact that it was by favorite session of the year.

It's been pretty negative on here lately and I don't want to seem like I'm adding to that. Just pointing out that we have a way to go on education/self-regulation of our ranks.

It was an all-time day for me.

[AJR]

Definitely sounds like this guy didn't get it. Also I've surfed San O a few times for dawn patrols and it seems like it's accepted that it's more of a party wave spot - I've seen experienced SUP surfers and butt boarders all taking off simultaneously and not backing out to the one(s) with rights to the wave...

[anonsurfer]

I see more issues with poor etiquette from SUPs than with proners.  The worst is when the guys with race boards and no leash paddle in from way outside, drop in on a crowd that has been waiting for the set, then proceed to loose their board.   

[madmax]

Said it before, say it again.  I paddle big boards so I don't have to deal with the pack.  No way would I ever surf a race board into Sebastian's first peak, or second, or third. I wouldn't do it down the beach at Spanish House.

It's just not brain surgery staying out of the buttwigglers way and not get some tatted bad boy in your face.  At least not in FL on a SUP.

[SUPcheat]

I have seen a few of the SUP hogs, and even I don't really like their appearance at the break.  They seem to be guys who regard EVERYTHING as some kind of life or death competition to get every last thing for themselves.  They must be charming to those who have to deal with them on a daily basis.

At Sharks Santa Cruz yesterday, there was a SUP guy on an L41 board who seemed to be very well known by some of the surfers for his antics.  He was expert, but crazy ass, talked the whole time, did hand stands and head stands on his board etc. He was medium height and middle aged.  He also was skilled enough that he could pretty much just go around anybody he wanted, so he wasn't so much a hog as his own presence just weaving around the obstacles.

He lost his paddle near me, I went over to fetch it for him and he screamed "Don't touch my paddle!" a couple of times, so I didn't, and he went on talking about stuff I couldn't understand as he went back to the break. He seemed to be doing it somewhat right, though, he did the SUP thing where he could catch everything that wasn't nailed down without necessarily obstructing anybody else's access. 

I am glad Sharks has a secondary inside break where the wave re-forms and where the proners typically roll off their main ride.  I am too conservative to hang out at the main outside break and don't like the thought of wasting someone else's potential waves on my learning curve.

[trailertrashed]

Sounds a bit critical considering his gear and lack of skill. Probably just trying to figure out how everything works, and picking up some manners along the way. I'm sure if he was on a log, it would have been the same criticism in a different forum somewhere else on the internet.
 Maybe at times like these we should all take ourselves a little less serious and remember the core reason why we do what we do. IT'S FUN! Just because someone's not 10 years old, shouldn't negate the fact that they're obviously still learning. You could've just made a new friend and turned them onto the Zone, but you just let them flail around and left them to their own ignorance. Come on man! We're better than that!

[madmax]

Trailertrash.  That's funny.  Yeah, we need to expand our bounds...

[supsurf-tw]

With all the surfing (sus) I've done in the last 2 weeks at Dogpatch the only 2 hassles I've had was with proners in the SUS zone. One totally went off on Sup Surf-Chick in the water over a positioning issue and I had to confront him on the beach. The other time was when a proner paddled behind me and I just looked at him and shook my head and went anyway. He wanted to make an issue out of it. To me, if you're proning in the SUS zone you have zero rights to waves unless you're a kid surfing with mom or dad or something. Both of those guys were di#ks and deserved the lashings they got.

[cnski]

There was a longboarder out at DP the other day giving SUPers crap. He told a lady she was like "a piece of trash floating on the inside". She gave him a real tongue lashing. He looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole after that. 50+ SUPs out today.

[supsurf-tw]

There was a longboarder out at DP the other day giving SUPers crap. He told a lady she was like "a piece of trash floating on the inside". She gave him a real tongue lashing. He looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole after that. 50+ SUPs out today.

That was Sup Surf Chick (wife).....
Lets just say I doubt he will do that again. After I got done with him she came over and continued on him. 

[SUPcheat]

There was a longboarder out at DP the other day giving SUPers crap. He told a lady she was like "a piece of trash floating on the inside". She gave him a real tongue lashing. He looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole after that. 50+ SUPs out today.

That was Sup Surf Chick (wife).....
Lets just say I doubt he will do that again. After I got done with him she came over and continued on him.

Heh, Heh.  I think I would have liked to have seen that.

[surfcowboy]

In the end, I had a great day.

I really didn't feel like regulating/discussing and it wasn't my local break. You OC guys will tend to that at. I said my piece, it took 3 seconds, and then I gave him space and he gave me mine. He learned something for sure.

If you come to my local break to learn, not only will I regulate, I'll be friendly, talk story and offer tips on the break. But I was a visitor so I stayed low key. I know my place when I travel.

The trolling bothered me most of all, and I realized how annoying that must be to other, less mobile, surf craft.

It's interesting, this thread went exactly as I thought it would. We're back to talking about how longboarders are just as bad. I'm sure that's right, but I was just pointing out that this guy was doing everything that we get bitched at about. We have work to do.

And again, I had a ball, loved the waves and don't even mind the armchair quarterbacking in this thread. We all need to soften our hearts and thicken our skin out there. 

[The Kernel]

There was a longboarder out at DP the other day giving SUPers crap. He told a lady she was like "a piece of trash floating on the inside". She gave him a real tongue lashing. He looked like he wanted to crawl into a hole after that. 50+ SUPs out today.

That was Sup Surf Chick (wife).....
Lets just say I doubt he will do that again. After I got done with him she came over and continued on him.

Heh, Heh.  I think I would have liked to have seen that.

Just out of curiousity, what did the confrontation eventually come down to in term of specifics.  You gave him an ass chewing and cited the known SUP section of Doheny...or basic surf etiquette?  Was he apologetic?

I was at Doheny a couple months ago with my neighbor who was also SUP surifing.  He went way out of the SUP zone (yes, he was at fault) and the prone crowd was actually issuing threats of violence against him.  The neighbor is like 63 years old, and while he was in the wrong, I thought their promises of serious bodily injury  against an AARP member had gone way too far.  So I paddled over and blew my gasket on about 12 of them.  Longboarder / former jailbird / self appointed enforcer dude then threatened me that I'd better paddle away IMMEDIATELY! because he was coming over RIGHT NOW!  He would do to me whatever he did to the last guy (presumably a 5th grade girl) he fought in the parking lot...blah, blah, blah.

So I stood on my board and calmly waited for him.  He stopped short and then I lit into him that I wasn't taking shi* from him or anyone else there and queried him on his thoughts about going back to jail.  More yelling ensued.  I guess he thought through his past of being someone's wife on the inside and eventually paddled in to complain to the guards (the appropriate means of redress in that situation) while I stayed in a shouting match with the pack, who I admittedly had called a bunch of whiners who had nothing better to do than harass an old man.
 
The guard found us in the lot and let's just call the whole situation a push.

And this was Doheny.....

Flipping it around, I was out there two weeks ago messing around on my prone shortboard (so now I'M THE PRONER) and almost got run over by a SUP surfer pulling a left (not a RIGHT like he SHOULD HAVE BEEN DOING) off the Hammer into the prone area.  Not a big deal if you don't NEARLY RUN SOMEONE OVER AS WAVES ARE BREAKING.  I was so surprised the guy came out of nowhere that I was at a loss for words for a minute as I thought through what had happened.  I got no apology, and apparently he and one other guy with him didn't seem concerned about SUP surfing and wiping out in the prone area as other prone surfers were paddling out.  I ran out of time to confront him because I had to leave to pick up a friend and this was thankfully before my blood started to boil over.  Jackass... 

We're not talking Lowers here; this was at DOHENY!  And I am usually one of the guys out on a SUP at the breaks I go to, so this situation also started to aggravate me.  SupSurfIsSurf will corroborate that I am usually above and beyond when it comes to yielding waves and staying out of the danger area of potentially hurting someone on a prone board, and I think I'd be considered a fairly competent SUP surfer.  It now irritates me even more when I see poor etiquette and unsafe handling of a SUP.  I am less and less likely to let these things slide, particularly when there is a safety issue and when it reflects poorly on SUP surfers in general.

I've just got to take some deep breaths and use some Dale Carnegie to give friendly corrections to our brethren....I don't want to be yet another A-hole in the lineup.