Surfers Threatening Violence

[Sloop John B.]

I had my first encounter with a really aggro punk out in the lineup today. I was wondering if any of you guys had any similar stories.

Also, just a heads up that if you see a sort of mid-sized dude of about 20 with medium-long black hair on a shortboard with a blue-trimmed deck, a red bottom, and a camera mount surfing at Lincoln or thereabouts, that dude's a prick and you should totally drop in on him and close out his waves if you see him.

I was surfing at Lincoln today. I got up at 6 to get everything packed and catch dead low. Some nice surfable-but-choppy waist and occasional stomach and chest swell. I was on my longboard, like I almost always am, and I found myself at the peak of a wave I wanted to take, paddled, took off, made my bottom turn and settled myself into trim. I don't really know what happened from then, because I didn't even see anybody in front of me. I'm assuming some people had a collision in front of me (which means they probably dropped in on me) and their boards were floundering around. I felt a tug and got pulled out of my wave, so I imagine my skeg must have snagged one of their leashes.

So I get thrown from my board and when I come up I'm stuck in the middle of this one dude on the aforementioned board screaming at this other dude on some sort of funboard, yelling at him for accidentally colliding with him or whatever "you should have seen me! What the ****! I'm going to beat your ass! **** this **** that blah blah blah." So as I untangle my board I ask him calmly as he's screaming at this poor dude "Come on dude, chill. Is this what surfing's supposed to be about?"

So then the dude comes after me. He responds "No. It ain't bro. Why don't you get your kook ass off the beach? You better not let me find you on shore, I'll beat your ass down."

I just paddled away, while he started mocking me for paddling away. I didn't want any violence, and I didn't want to ruin my session arguing with some aggro douchebag. Besides, it's not like I was afraid of anything. If he had tried to attack me he wold have gotten in way over his head.

So, have you guys ever had any encounters with aggro pricks who threatened violence against you in the water? I'd like to know your stories. How did you respond?

Do you think I handled this situation correctly? I'd like to know if I did anything wrong.

[somuchsurf]

Sounds like you did the right thing, the guy sounds like a total Dbag and I hope he backed over his board or something when he got out of the water.
As for the fighting, I have found that the louder they are in the water the bigger the p*ssies they are out of the water.
And props for standing up for the guy getting screamed at. Even if he was a kook and dropped in on that guy, there are ways of going about letting someone know they are in the wrong without screaming like a little kid looking to be breastfed.

[drawstreet]

you absolutely did the right thing. Guys like him really don't belong in the water because they ruin the vibe more than any "kook" ever could. I would much rather get dropped in on (so what) then have violence threatened towards me for making a mistake (which everyone is capable of). If you're so good at surfing, chances are you're catching waves further back, and at a higher frequency than the "kooks" so what does it matter.

Once back on sand, we're all just people so give it a rest.

[Kaptman]

As a martial artist and a surfer I do laugh at the spats on the waves. As a guy you realize it is the best to walk or paddle away. Yet it eats at you that you didn't do more. This has happened to me many times over the years where I could have teached someone a lesson. But the repercutions of that could have been drastic. So take it in stride and realize you did the right thing.

[Kahuna Kai]

I had an encounter with a fisherman at the Jacksonville pier one day. It was a small clean 2ft swell and I was out surfing with a buddy and about 15 others. We were surfing on the main peak about 100 ft off of the pier.

The fisherman started casting his line in to the middle of the line up, almost hitting a little grom, and finally plunking one about 5 feet from the long I was sitting on. Me, my buddy and a couple of other surfers started shouting up at the guy to knock it the f*** off and he got raging mad.

Dude started walking down the pier and on to the beach. He's targeting me and I know this because he's yelling, "hey you bald mf'er on the green board, c'mon back to the beach, I'm gonna kick your a$$." Turns out that I'm the only one in the line up who meets this description.

I am 6-6 265 pounds and a pretty agile fella, especially for my size, and this dude is much smaller than me. I responded by ignoring him, paddling out of his casting range, and surfing for another hour and a half.

I didn't see the guy when I left, but it did put a little damper on the session. In some respects, I wish I would have pounded the guy and taught him a lesson. But in the end, what would I have accomplished by letting my own aggression go unchecked.

I look at that day like this. Me and a couple of the older guys stuck up for the grom, hopefully showed that young brother how to deal with an aggro situation like a civilized man, and I avoided a lot of potential trouble by showing discipline and letting cooler head prevail.

You are not alone in your experience brother. We are only human, but some people tend to forget that.

Keep Aloha alive

[MFitz73]

I agree with all of the "cooler heads prevail" mentality here. However, I am curious as to what preceeded the collision in the opening post of this thread.
Was that guys rage at all justified.... was he giving the initial victim sh#t just to be aggro or was there anything leading up to him blowing his stack that might have justified the anger?

[Sloop John B.]

I agree with all of the "cooler heads prevail" mentality here. However, I am curious as to what preceeded the collision in the opening post of this thread.
Was that guys rage at all justified.... was he giving the initial victim sh#t just to be aggro or was there anything leading up to him blowing his stack that might have justified the anger?

I don't think so. I mean, I was underwater for the beginning of the conflict so I couldn't really tell you for sure, but when I got up the first thing I heard was the dude on the funboard saying "Sorry. I didn't see you" and the other dude was having a ****fit like "You didn't see me? I was right in front of you!" and then started into threats of violence. I don't really know. I mean, maybe I'm stereotyping here, too (and I know not everyone who uses these is like this) but just the fact that he had a camera mounted to the front, combined with his attitude, made me feel like he was more concerned with being a showoff (not that he was really all that great, anyway) than soul surfing.

[scotty]

I don't really know what happened from then, because I didn't even see anybody in front of me. I'm assuming some people had a collision in front of me (which means they probably dropped in on me) and their boards were floundering around. I felt a tug and got pulled out of my wave, so I imagine my skeg must have snagged one of their leashes.

Do you think I handled this situation correctly? I'd like to know if I did anything wrong.

In part you didnt handle the situation correctly.
You apparently were surfing with no idea what was going on in front of you, so while you handled the aftermath very calmly and correctly, as you describe it, you put people at risk by surfing without realizing what is going on around you, and most importantly in your path. In a lineup that is part of your responsibility.

[Sloop John B.]

In part you didnt handle the situation correctly.
You apparently were surfing with no idea what was going on in front of you, so while you handled the aftermath very calmly and correctly, as you describe it, you put people at risk by surfing without realizing what is going on around you, and most importantly in your path. In a lineup that is part of your responsibility.

Dude, what I meant by that was that there was nothing to be seen in front of me. If there was something to be seen I would have seen it. I didn't collide with anyone anyway. I just got pulled out of the wave by someone's leash (presumably). I'm not oblivious. I would have noticed a bright red shortboard (it was deck-down) and a funboard ensnared with each other on the face of the wave. There's no way I would have missed that. I'm at a loss as to why I got caught up in it for that very reason. I have no idea why I didn't see anything. I was aware of what was going on. I really don't know where they came from.

Look, I'm not new to surfing. I'm an aware surfer, and I can (and do) weave in and out of surfers who are in the way on a daily basis. I have every reason not to want to get into a collision. My board's an old longboard shaped by a local shaper in the 60's in a classic cruiser style and it's in great condition (ie. probably worth quite a bit of money to the right person) and I intend to keep it that way. I'm very protective of my board and I surf very defensively. If I could have done something I would have.

[surfingwasteland]

I would have a huge issue if someone messed up my epic waist high go pro clip too.

I have gotten screamed at numerous times, usually by angry highschool kids on long boards and old heads that dont make their drop in. The younger kids always wanna fight, i just laugh in their face. The old heads usually realize their blame everyone else for their lack of skill. However, I have also been screamed at for things that are legit my fault, but its part of the fun, use it to your advantage and paddle around them and make them drop in on you. Not one of you is perfect and we have all been at fault more than once, just let it ride, kid will get his when he go pros himself getting the **** kicked out of him by some 16 year old.

If your taking it personal you are missing the fact that its surfing and when there is 3000 people out, many of them wont get the waves they want and the ones that only get to surf 4 times a year will get real pissed, the others will laugh about it knowing that come winter, its all ours.