Surfers are meatheads now?

Waves are breaking all up and down the beach. Paddle to another sandbar. Is it really worth the aggravation of a confrontation in which many things can happen to you and most of them are bad?

 

F&Ck that! I'm not leaving a spot because some a$$hole doesn't know the rules. I'd rather educate that person to prevent that from happening again. i have a lot of confidence in my training that I seriously doubt anything bad will happen to me physically. As far as the law, well I'd be willing to take my chances if it ever comes to violence.

 

Different strokes I guess. Pummel away.

 

Amen!
Ignoring irresponsible behaviour in the water that ruins sessions, and might put you or someone else at risk, just to avoid a confrontation is a big part of the problem. Educating someone who does it unintentionally or confronting someone who does it intentionally is YOUR responsibility if you know better. Paddling down the beach just makes it someone elses problem.

 

Educating someone and bashing them in the face are two entirely different things. I'm not advocating that you ignore the problem. Make mention of it. Discuss the issue with the other surfer. If the are just a newb and they didn't know, then maybe you can help them. If they are just an aggro asshole that doesn't care what you have to say or care about proper etiquette, paddle down the beach and enjoy your session. If you bash them in the head, you lower yourself to their level.

ETA: I see that I didn't make that clear in my original post.

 

It's like anything else in life. If you let someone push you around, you become a victim your whole life. Violence sucks in the water but there are very limited times when its needed as a last resort.

 

I'll agree to disagree with you. I don't think that violence is every warranted. Walking away from a confrontation does not equate to being pushed around. The victim mentality is a result of how a person perceives themselves, not by how they have been treated by others. The only thing we can control in life is our reactions to the situations that present themselves. No person or situation can control how you feel unless you allow them to.

 

that's fine if you want to think that way. hope you never have to use violence. I haven't been so lucky.

 

I'd rather just paddle to a different empty spot than to lecture some moron who'll argue back and cause me to miss all the waves that caused the arguments to begin with.

 

Wow, how did I miss this thread? This is awesome!

I dont even know where to begin. First of all, props to all my brother's back in OC MD!

What I will say about OC MD and pretty much every major city in MD. Smack talk and fighting reins surpreme. I sh** you not. 75% of the reason I left the state of MD is because I had been living in DC and then Baltimore. I heard gunshots outside of my rowhouse every night, and I lived on a really nice street in East Bmore. My friends owned guns. I coulndt even go to fells point without getting into some sh** with people. I've been involved in beating the sh** outta someone before, but sometime in the late 1990s, sh** got really serious. People dont jsut fight anymore. If you are in DC, Baltimore or even frederick and say the wrong sh** to someone, they arent gonna fight you. You are dead. Litterally. Dead.

So, even in OC, its a mix of people from all over a very violent, opressed area. Look on the boardwalk. Half the people there are from Bmore and sh**.

So, half the guys surfing in OC are not locals. They are from some other city in MD, which makes a dangerous mix. You can't have guys from inland going out there and taking sh** from some OC local. It doesn't work that way.People from MD generally dont give two sh**s about you. If they drove an hour to surf. They are gonna not only surf, but drop in on you. Then when you say something to them, they will punch you in your face.

Im not saying everyone is like that, but the rule I learned growing up in MD, in any city, is that if you have something slick to say to someone, expect to get punched in your mouth 9 out of 10 times. I grew up that way. My close friends never let sh** go. I mean, they will smash a bottle over your head for looking at them funny....

Its childish and scary. But thats life. And dont get me wrong. Im peaceful as it gets now, and my whole family is in MD and they are all great people....

Go to the baltimoresun.com. Last night, 16 people were gunned down 8 blocks from my old house in baltimore. Yes, 16 people.... 12 got shot at a BBQ, then that group retaliated and shot basically everyone else in a 2 mile radius that they didn't know....

And I know, we are surfers. We dont tote guns and live in "the hood"... But my point is, you never know who you are talking to. You don't know somebodies M.O. so if you paddle out and want to give them a lesson on the rules of surfing, you may wind up getting fuc*ed up, even though you are in the right....

So, In Cali... ALL I HEAR is sh** talk in the water... People talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk... Then they bi*ch and whine and yell and make a scene. They threaten, they whine again... and when its all said and done. No fists thrown... Its like people out here dont know what its like to catch an as$ whippin. They have never been in a fight, period... But they talk sh** all day long... Its great to watch...

But to answer the question, JUST PADDLE AWAY.... Or surf better than these people. I have had thousands of kooks drop in on me. 99% of the time I either grab their board and ride away with it, or surf around them because im faster, or approach them from behind and take a huge gash out of the wave and slam water all over their face... There are plenty of ways to avoid kooks. Fighting and sh** talking is not one of them. Just paddle away...

If you think you are "teaching someone the rules of surfing". Your wrong. They arent going to listen. Your wasting your breath and your time. Either paddle over and punch the guy before you even exchange words, or just dont bother. Just shut up and paddle away...

Even if im the agressor, it ruins my session...

And people on the net are all nancies. We all know that. But hey, we are all bored. what are you gonna do. We all instigate a little bit on here just for sh*ts and giggles.

 

Its really not that bad, your probably more likely to get hurt on the drive home than in the surf in DE/MD. Just like anywhere else, if you have a modicum of common sense, don't act like a jackass and a little bit of luck you'll be fine 99% of the time.

 

Im with you. I have personally NEVER had an issue surfing there. But again, I was a "local" at the time.

Im just saying, OC MD is no baltimore, but everytime I go back home to visit, It seems like its crazier and crazier....

Im just saying, OC locals are pretty cool people for the most part.. They arent the problem... The problem is the guys that are from elsewhere throughout the state... maryland guys have always had chips on their shoulders (including my own). So, im just saying, i've seen sh** go down in OC MD, on the sand... with some locals, and the locals didn't win that battle. They were dealing with people from the cities that have no regard for morality much less human life...

So what should be a normal conversation about a conflict in the water can turn into a scuffle pretty quickly there. More so than anywhere i have been... Like i said, its more the people on the beach than in the water... But still... Ive seen it happen.

 

i've had the opposite experience.

On those rare occasions when i've piped up and said something at least 3/4 of the time the person seems embarrased or pissed that they screwed up and seem to fade off down the lineup.

I try not sound like i'm lecturing...be humble, but at the same time make sure the message is getting across.

 

meet me on 64th st in the parking lot next to the old slide an ride.... ill be the bro on the horse if you really about it. bra

 

this **** is hilarious! i just had 80 awsome waves while ya'll was *****ing! everyone on this thread should be considering a career as a writer for some hbo drama series. keep it going

 

Sorry Zach, but you are talking out of your ass on this one. There is sh*t that goes down in lovely, sunny San Diego. Even in the exotic burbs of La Jolla. The same goes for this OC. Local vs. Not OC Local in usually a lot of oral dysentery. Ass holes are everywhere. And so are good people. I believe Mitchell was more on-target.

Had a good surf this past Friday. There was a fair crowd on it but most of the people around me were good, competent wave riders and we all seemed to understand the rules and nobody was short for waves. The reason I rode one last one in before the 10 o'clock bell was the increasing numbers of newbies paddling out into the line-up that were too clueless to educate all at once. Better to save my skin than for "one more."

 

here in vb people have the worst attitude when you try to say something, they give you that f*** off face. I mean I deal with enough **** out of the water, but when its your wave and you're practically up and some MF looks at you and keeps paddling and still tries to get up. that's when shoving is called for.....

 

rod: well, we dissagree then. Yeah, mitchell is right that people there are generally awesome, but if you think La Jolla is like OC, your way off. I surf blacks and windansea and all the usual spots up there. I have done so for 8 straight years, and guess what, with everyone shi* talking, i NEVER have seen a physical altercation....

There is a huge difference between talking sh** to each other and throwing hands on the beach,,,,

I see the other locals at my break in OB starting sh** ALL day. They talk and talk and talk... and yeah, they are assholes, but they aint gonna do sh** but talk....

And if you are telling me that things have changed in OC MD in the past 10 years, then so be it. But my crazy, ghetto friends still go out to OC every summer. They surf, and they will get on the sand and fight you for tell them not to snake you... Im not like that, but a tone of the guys I know are...

Thats all im saying... You can walk up and down the boardwalk in mission and NEVER get into a fight... Try walking down the OC boardwalk this friday night and stare at the wrong crowd of guys.... The place is a zoo.... If its not like that anymore, than cool... But whatever... say what you want.

 

Its not even the "locals vs non-locals" from MD - There is always a bunch of dummies coming down from PA that don't see waves or water for more than a few days a year. Those are the idiots in your way, paddling right up next to you, crowding out.

Zach - You are also a lot older than the crowds on the BW in OC. Most are just punk little teenagers and they don't usually mess with people in their mid to late twenties. But I know what you mean about people just come down here to get away from their sh*tty lifes in bumfvck PA, they wanna just rage, think they're all hard and cool and tough, and they just don't Respect.

 

Maybe we just hang out in different places. The water-time violent experiences you describe I have not encountered in the DelMarVa. There was was rather bad stuff going down in Big Rock a few years back. Then there was the La Jolla HS Football Drop-Out gang in sparkling LJ - and those were local reaming on each other. Crowds draw aggressiveness and in other instances a gang mentality is created out in the water due to a sense of entitlement.