Forgive me Barry for I have sinned (and dropped in)

exactamundo

 

Black Sheep

 

I've never run into this fella, maybe this surfing season i'll get lucky

 

He surfs the top side of the OSV, mostly, from what I've seen; usually with a younger female in tow.

 

Dude that's such a minor infraction, you were absolved as soon as you got out of the water.

When I was a 16-year old grom surfing Imperial Beach one Fall morning, it was pretty uncrowded with just a handful of guys spread out on the peaks.

Well, in California it's pretty common to shoulder hop, and I did it a lot (except at places where you knew they would kick your arse). So naturally I shoulder hop some grumpy 40-something guy way down the line on a left, see that he's gonna make it, and cut out to let him pass.

Nah kid, you're not gonna get off that easy lol. Guy pulls out next to me and paddled up hot and starts trying to wrap his hands around my neck and in a calm but firm voice he's saying "there will be none of that".

I'm freaking out and flailing trying to keep this guy off me, and my buddy is about about 30 yards away freaking out. I managed to break away and I paddled like 3 peaks down the beach away from him lol. My buddy, who was even younger and smaller, paddled over to me and was like wtf dude.

So now whenever sh1t goes sideways, one of us will break in with "there will be none of that" and laugh our a$$es off.

 

One time during a decent sized swell i "dropped in" on a guy. Actually totally wasn't my fault but it's a pretty funny story. I was young and still coming up in the line up ranks. Wasn't recognized by anybody. I was just some random kid. I always was super respectful at that age.

So me and an older dude are sitting next to each other. Set rolls through. A frame. Hes right on the peak, has his choice of the left or the right. Im sitting a bit off the park but still in great position for the left. Guy paddles and yells the direction he's going. Right! Sweeeeeet i got this left. Blinders go up. No one else is in position. Only guy i have to worry about is going right. Well i dropped in on him. Literally. My board landed on the nose of his board. We both pop up. No one's hurt. He bailed when he realized what's going on, as did I. Me being the young guy and a bit in shock trying to process what just happened, i apologize. It was HIS wave. He looks at me and says "not your fault, that's on me. 45 years old and still don't know my left from my right" or somthing to that effect. I laughed. He laughed. All good.

 

You are going to fry in Hell, boy!!

 

This fall, head high and offshore, surfing with an OG who I really like. I’m on the left and a beauty comes in and we’re in the middle so it’s perfect - he yells “right! Right!” So I drop and go left ... and who shoots down under me going left? Best part is he was lower on the face so I stayed high and hung on while we both rode it for a bit before I turned out. He comes back and says I burned him! I was laughing and said “you called the right, so I went left! He says no, I was telling you to go right” didn’t make any sense because of our positioning but I let it go and played nice and let him have choice on the next few.

Old guys. Lol

 

I don't usually cut people off, but when I do, you have cut me off a couple of times and you usually deserve it...and don't even look at me with a stink eye, I will say something.

 

Back in olden times (lol) if you started dropping in on MFers you got your ass beat so learned quick not to do it. With that being said, sometimes you gotta drop in on waves hogs or other interlopers thus I have my fair share of burns. We have blackball during the summer so one time a stand up body boarder paddled out (this is in the 80s) after blackball and I blatantly burned him multiple times. I got over my transgression very quickly!

 

When I started surfing, there were NO OLDER guys surfing--we were it!! There were no older guys to beat us up. So it was us, my generation, that started beating you "young ones" up. And we are proud of it. Once we surfed and beat a few of you neanderthal morons up, we put our surfboards back on to our giant lizards and rode back home. That all changed with the asteroid though.......

 

They should erect a Cuda statue at the beach in NH...like the Duke in Waikiki.

#thegrandfatherofsurfing

I bet it was nice not having a bunch of others in the water. By the late 70s it was pretty popular.

I can remember surfing the lighthouse as a grom and catching some good days with a few guys out but that was an anomaly.

As I recall, There were plenty of older guys in the water as I was coming along...most seemed mellow though.

 

The surf line up is very similar to life. You learn lessons, learn how to behave amongst others. This is missing from most areas which may be why the snowflake generation cant handle anything. I learned at probably 8yrs old how to handle people, adversity etc. Now the kids skate through life not dealing with real people (face to face) so the skill is absent. Basically, you knew if u dropped in on someone you were probably going to get in a fight so most learn to play by some semblance of order. Thus the line up was mellower than today. Now, people drop in because there is a greatly reduced fear of repercussion. I heard a guy in MD threaten another with a lawsuit last year. Lawsuit over surfing. Bahahahaha.

Btw; Barry's last post is early entry for POTY.

 

Picture this....Marias, Rincon, PR. Early 1960s, no buildings anywhere at Marias except her home. Few paved roads, most were sand. Slept on beach, safely, with Marias permission. Surfed for a week, no other person surfing than those in our car; total solitude in the water. Maria provided rice and beans from her kitchen. We gave her $50 for the weekend.
The only noise was roosters at daybreak, kikiriqui! And the sound of waves booming on the reefs as we anxiously awaited sufficient first light to see as we paddled out. No bars, no loud music, solitude. Peace, surf, and beautiful girlfriends awaiting our return for breakfast.......
None of the above is fiction. It was nice being a teen in PR back then.

 

Threaten people now, and they instantly turn on their cell phone cameras and start ''clapping back'' lol

 

While I agree, this has nothing to do with any generation. These snowflakes.... it's there parents calling cops and threatening lawsuits. Im sure there are snowflakes out there doing this, but in my experience iv seen and heard of that behavior out of older people way more. Im all for bashing snowflakes, even though i think technically im part of that generation. But i got to call it like i see it. Alot of stuff gets blamed on that generation while older folks are doing the same thing. Truth is surfing and the ocean are widely accessible now. It's cool. I see way more new older guys and gals in the water then kids. Difference being, the kids get put in there place and taught. The older guys don't. Resulting in..... drop ins.

At least this is what im seeing at my local beaches

 

We have had very different experiences. With that being said I rarely surf crowded line ups anymore. I will opt for lesser quality surf for less people.

Now that I think about the newish, older longboarders can be quite the d-bags.

 

Yeah actually now that i think of it.....i surf with more old guys then young kids haha. Who knows

 

"Young" and "old" are relative and subjective terms.

What's young or old to Bmon is completely different to a guy like, say, Barry.

Plus, you're more likely to see a lot more young people in the 16-22 range in FL and CA than you will at my home breaks.