"Back Paddling, Hazy Etiquette and “The Enforcer”

Thought I check forum consensus on this incident involving questions of etiquette and “enforcement.” It’s a long one but you all should have a good time with this little incident.

Last week I was surfing a left point break in Mexico. The place is known for longboarding but I was on a HPSB. This being the case I was sitting outside at a steeper section of the wave. This section of the wave closes out about 50% of the time but when it doesn’t you are rewarded with the largest wave, longest ride, best face to carve, etc. Just three of us were sitting outside that day. Most of the large pack of longboarders were inside of this as usual to catch the waves midpoint on the shoulder and avoid the closeouts. Anyway, having just caught a killer set wave all the way to the beach I was paddling back out along the pack to my previous spot as a decent little wave was coming in. To my amazement no one was on the wave so I accelerated out toward the breaking portion and passed a guy on a fish who also turned and started paddling rapidly out towards the shoulder. Because he was paddling for the shoulder I assumed he was just trying to get over the wave. I got to the sweet spot, turned, and paddled in with two strokes, made a small bottom turn and headed down the line when I see the guy on the fish paddling like a madman to catch the wave on the shoulder so I hoot and yell (politely) to let him know I’m on the wave but, to my amazement he paddles right in front of me and drops in screaming “don’t you hit me mother****er!” Fortunately, with less than a foot to spare I was able to pull straight and avoid hitting him. Chalking it up to extreme douchbaggery and/or mental illness on his part, I let it go and paddled on out to the outside and waited for another wave. Eventually my turn came, I got a good one and, again, paddled back out, this time on the outside of the pack hoping to avoid Mr. Bag. Unfortunately I was not so lucky. He sees me and starts screaming across the line up “do you know why I did that, do you know?.. you back paddled me!” So I say calmly that, in retrospect, I realize that his impression was that I willfully back paddled him but that this was not the case as I was under the impression that he was paddling for the shoulder to get over the wave and I was closer to the breaking section and perfectly in position so I decided to take it. I apologized for back paddling, even though it was inadvertent but followed that with “however, it is never cool to drop in on someone, you endangered both of us and our boards to prove your point, you can just paddle over and talk to me about it if you have a problem.” He starts screaming “**** you, **** you, **** you LA (probably because I was on a clear HPSB and surfing top to bottom, I found this amusing) there’s no "however", do it again and I’ll hit you I swear I will mother****er, I see you sitting outside and you ain’t catching ****, this is where the waving are breaking right here!” The fact that I was paddling back from some of bigger set waves of the day was lost on him, also pretty funny. Anyway, there was no reasoning with the guy so I paddled away and continued to avoid him for the rest of the session and the following day as well. After enquiring about him I was told he fancies himself the local “enforcer,” that he has "enforcement issues," and that he takes great pride in schooling the lineup. He’s a decent surfer and was catching plenty of waves, some of them ironically by “back paddling” lesser surfers near him in the lineup. Apparently he has nearly had his ass kicked by at least one of the real Mexican locals for dropping in - probably the same situation. It was just one wave out of many so I just can’t conceive of someone getting so worked up about it. Fortunately for him I am a non-violent individual with some perspective but if he keeps his “enforcer” role up in that fashion one day he is going to piss of the wrong guy and someone is going to send him to the hospital! One can hope!

What say you Forum?

 

If we'd been in Belmar mos def!

 

He thought I was snaking him which I think is the same as back paddling though I'm not entirely sure. He's not a Mexican, just an angry white bald dude who supposedly owns a surf shop in Seattle of all places. My sincere hope is that he pulls the same **** with a Mexican who also happens to be a Cartel heavy that he did with me. Lots of them do hang in this particular area...

 

I assumed it would from the beginning but it's been pretty tame so far.

 

It's not a term it's an abbreviation meant to abbreviate an already too long post and one I don't normally use, but, if you drop in on me... F... you, F... you LA etc. etc..... I'll hit you blah blah blah and all of that...