Inappropriate Longboard Sizes . . .

[Sloop John B.]

Dear fellow surfers,

Please use a longboard that is an appropriate size for you, maybe slightly bigger or slightly smaller but nothing extreme. If you're some tiny thing of about 110 pounds, there is no reason for you to be on a 10'+ longboard. It's unnecessary.

I know that the beauty of a longboard is getting on the wave early. I hear that—I ride longboard primarily, too. But it's ****ing irritating when every other surfer is in a normal lineup and when I start paddling for a wave that I'm really in the better position (closer to the peak) for, you just paddle in from yards and yards behind the lineup and effectively snake me.

I'm sorry, but in situations like this I don't really like that "first one up gets the wave" thing. If you paddle a big enough board, of course you're going to get up before anybody else. I know you might be up on the wave before me but when you're only there because you're riding what is, in proportion to you, a floating dock, I don't think that makes it your wave. If you're going to shoot in from behind at an angle to get on the wave first and then ride in front of me, I just think that's snaking, even if you did get up first.

Sorry for the rant. Today I was surfing and it was some knee-high stuff—mostly I just wanted to get in the water—and some surfer did this to me. It pissed me off, and I'm usually pretty cool about things in the water.

It was also 4th of July and I was there since the early morning just watching the waves until the bar started working, and I wasn't too thrilled when the independence day Long Beach crowd rolled in and started crowding me out.

[MFitz73]

dude you got to use the right board for the conditions. I bet if you ask the longboarder how his/her surf was today... it would be a good report. I pulled out a 9footer sunday afternoon and an 8footer today.

[Sloop John B.]

dude you got to use the right board for the conditions. I bet if you ask the longboarder how his/her surf was today... it would be a good report. I pulled out a 9footer sunday afternoon and an 8footer today.

Dude I know. I was on a longboard . . .

I just thing that if you want to surf a damned boat, I don't have to give you right of way on the wave because you caught it earlier.

She was way outside all the longboarders because she was probably like 110 pounds and on a 10'+ longboard. That's complete overkill. I feel like it's cheap to ride a board that you could probably stand on while completely still in the water and then be like "this is my wave" because you stood up before everyone else using a board that's reasonable for his or her body size.

Granted, the same could be said for the longboarder-shortboarder relationship. But when I'm on a longboard, if I see someone on a shortboard who will be closer to the peak when the wave gets to him, and he paddles for it, then I'm going to let him have the wave (within reason—that is, unless he abuses this). And there's a reason for someone to have a longboard or a shortboard—they have different characteristics. Having a grossly oversized board does nothing except let you be lazy . . .

[MFitz73]

you should have snaked her then a few times. from what I understand Long Beach is not a pleasant place to surf during the summer. they really aught to open up at least 2 more beaches to thin the crowds a bit.

was this girl at least cute?

[travy]

someone snaked me monday and i shot my board at his head. didn't do it again.. i have to say this is my biggest pet peeve in the water. drop in on me? fine. ditch your board in my path? it happens. but snake me and i see red. and it's almost always a longboarder taking off from the outside jumping their place in line.

anyway, life's too short to fight over surfing but that sh!t makes my blood boil.

/rantoff/

[Sloop John B.]

you should have snaked her then a few times. from what I understand Long Beach is not a pleasant place to surf during the summer. they really aught to open up at least 2 more beaches to thin the crowds a bit.

was this girl at least cute?

Haha no. She was actually a woman, not a girl, and she looked sort of like Linda Greenlaw in a wetsuit.

It's alright though. It annoyed me a bit but eventually I just moved to a different area and tried to catch some peaks there, an after that it was all pretty decent.

You're right about it being unpleasant—at least on the level that it's insanely crowded. I find that the jetties on the beaches work quite well and make somewhat small and/or mushy stuff quite rideable. Also, there's almost no localism there (the locals are friendly), which is nice.

Unfortunately I can really only ride summer, since I'm a college student. I really wish I could ride fall and spring like I used to in high school, but I'm in Pennsylvania most of that time. I half-want to ride winter, but I probably wouldn't because my dad used to ride winter back in the '60s and '70s and he ended up with some pretty bad surfers ear that kind of screwed his hearing in one ear. That kind of keeps me from going in the really cold stuff (which I could probably otherwise do between semesters).

I wish Long Beach was less crowded but it's also one of my favorite local surfing spots for the way it breaks waves. So, I've got to deal with it.

[DankSerpico]

I'm just learning so I ride an 8ft but I'm like 6ft so it seems to make sense. I know what you're saying about people riding some massive boards, I saw a guy with the biggest board I've ever seen but then I realized it was a paddle board, not sure if that made it OK. He never did catch a wave if I recall.

I was out on Friday and the waves were small but fun and easy enough to catch. Early on it wasn't too crowded but it started to fill in later in the day. I accidently dropped in on a wave someone was already riding, it didn't really cramp his style though as he had a pretty long ride already just to get where I was (I like to call it poseur alley), we both rode a little too close for comfort for the rest of the wave. He looked pretty annoyed so I apologized for freshman error but he was kinda prima-donna about the whole thing.

But then I got crowded out of my far out of the line spot (poseur alley) by some surf school guys who saw I was getting rides. I'll chalk that up to karma.

LB on a holiday weekend sounds like something best avoided, although I'm sure Rockaway was like grand friggen central in comparison.

[Kaptman]

I totally agree with you. The SUPers do the same thing. Have a little respect and everyone enjoy a ride. Or at least go to the opposite side so others can use the wave too. Besides, if someone keeps snaking me I pull out the surftech and just drop in on them. Let the chips fall. LOL.

[surfsolo]

Everyone needs to chill out. They are just waves and you will be rewarded for being patient. If you are not patient I suggest moving to an isolated island reefpass...otherwise on LI, you MUST be patient for the waves, and in the summer, for the people. Many newer surfers don't know the code of conduct, and that being said neither did I when I first started surfing. After a couple of years I learned all the conduct ropes, but it is frustrating when people snake you. All I have to say is this guy snaked me a few weeks ago on a waist high day and after that wave I caught a few good ones while he was paddling back out. I was so stoked to get those waves I couldn't care less about the guy snaking, and if fact many time it works out to my favor anyway. Keep the stoke and good vibes in the water, keep the aggro out.

[travy]

Everyone needs to chill out. They are just waves and you will be rewarded for being patient. If you are not patient I suggest moving to an isolated island reefpass...otherwise on LI, you MUST be patient for the waves, and in the summer, for the people. Many newer surfers don't know the code of conduct, and that being said neither did I when I first started surfing. After a couple of years I learned all the conduct ropes, but it is frustrating when people snake you. All I have to say is this guy snaked me a few weeks ago on a waist high day and after that wave I caught a few good ones while he was paddling back out. I was so stoked to get those waves I couldn't care less about the guy snaking, and if fact many time it works out to my favor anyway. Keep the stoke and good vibes in the water, keep the aggro out.

so those of us getting snaked should be more patient? sorry, i'm not buying the beginners argument. if you know enough to paddle out on the peak and how to paddle inside of someone you know 'the code'. 99 percent of the time the person who needs to be 'more patient' is the one doing the snaking as it is often the locals who are the main offenders.