Do Crowds Keep You From Surfing?

Paddle out at first light & you can usually score an hour or two before the rest of the world wakes up. + it's usually glassier in the AM

 

Good, because moms everywhere think you are a useless impotent asshole.....

 

This happens. Luckily not EVERYbody knows how to surf, and if you're always ready to go you can gereally snag a couple even in the most crowded line up.

That part being said...i avoid crowds like the plague. Mainly cause i hate the jockeying for position, pushing the take off spot deeper and deeper so nobody can even make the wave. You have to have a different, way more aggressive mindset when surfing a crowded lineup. One i usually have a problem getting to. So, yeah ill drive around searching for the mellow crowd

 

Still no excuse to not call her back, deadbeat.

 

Is this before or after mumbling your morning babel speak prayers to the bronze age graven idols, wayne....?

 

"mr lahey, is that you or the liquor talking?"

"Randy, I am the liquor."

If I only surfed when there was no crowd, I'd never surf

 

Holy f'ing hells.

 

Avoiding crowds is somewhat of skill. Well not really. Its not rocket science. But i like to surf early so yne crowd can eventually show up. And depending on conditions i might call it once they do. But iv NEVER passed on surfing due to a crowd.

Allot depends on conditions. If its big and really good, I'll sit right on the peak in the middle of the crowd. That is if its a knowledgeable friendly crowd. Or if its a bunch of floaters. Because they might as well not even exist of there just floating. If the crowd starts looking dangerous, even though i deserve to be on the peak more so than the dangerous kooks, ill sit off to the side and get the guys that swing wide.

Most of the time though, waist high waves, i can usually find a empty peak. Iv said it before, i live when there's a drift/sweep. The only guys who know or can stay in position are guys i don't mind surfing with. The rest who don't have a clue just drift on down the beach

 

After your mom, before bible study. Chooo chooo

 

I agree. I can't get into it with a crowd. Some guys I know will not care and will sit with a crowd and paddle battle. The mentality is to catch the wave and figure things out once you're up and going. I just can't do that, waste of my time

 

don't really have that problem here.

only thing that will keep me from surfing is summer traffic,and the waves are Shiite anyway so I'm not really missing out lol.

fall/winter/spring takes 8 minutes to get to da beach.that same trip takes an hour sometimes longer this time of year

 

honestly if its a day worth a crowd I'm usually one of the first guys on the wave and the crowd follows.. when the crowd follows I move down the beach. I personally hate fighting crowds, I will find my own peak. The east coast and most breaks people have so much stank to give its not even worth fighting... If I have a group of friends surfing I will sit on a peak and paddle battle all of the guys in the line up but by myself ill drift or try to make some single serving wave buds... I just hoot people into waves and try to give good vibes. a lot of the time once people see me catch a couple waves they call me in so its just getting into the line up... but i still hate crowds... kinda like leftist politics...

 

I love when it's crowded, unfortunately where I surf there is never a crowd only like 2-5 people I know. Maybe when my spot finally gets crowded ill learn to hate it. The worst is tourist clogging the road to said beach break. That I don't like.

 

I think we are narrowing it down to two maybe three types of surfers. Beyond crowd #1, the guys who surf a few times a year, don't travel, enjoy the sun and fun, and maybe aren't super confident, you aren't going to paddle out to a peak and press to the point that your having fun and catching waves...result is misery b/c you are not catching waves.

The others are somewhere between 2-3. Either veteran at your home break for years with some travel- to the guys who are absolutely frothing to get in the pit and try to love someone. Battle battle is second nature...but really I can't remember surfing a quality break with a crowd and paddle battling, more like who is in position go go, going going! Occasionally a burn or miscommunication.

Again, we all love epic sessions and we all will define it based on what makes us happy. Uncrowded waves are great but if it's firing...sometimes it comes with the territory.

Everyone approaches it differently. Of course if you wake up at 4:30 am and live in NH, none of this matters

Btw, Not to say that good surfers who charge their uncrowded home break aren't just as stoked

 

Curious if you've ever surfed a decent smallish day at Lower Trestles. I sort of feel like it was the epitome of paddle battling (because the peak kind of shifts from north to south but is obvious as it comes in from outside - you have to chase it down a bit and get right on the peak to have any shot at priority - and then play the left/right, split-the-peak game). On the clean smallish but perfect waist-chest days at lowers on a few occasions i have seen about 20-25 surfers on the peak and have gotten a few gems pretty easily. I assume (but have never been) that head high + it just gets insane aggro.

 

I have not. But, you are hitting the nail on the head. Play the ocean and not the crowd and generally you will get "yours". Curious, were those gems rights?

 

So, to answer the OP's question, Yes, there are days when I've not paddled out due to crowds. Heck, even anticipated crowds.

Second Beach here in RI, where I typically surf, is an absolute zoo on a summer weekend, especially if there are waves forecasted. If you can get there very, very early, it's only "crowded." By noon, it's just a complete and utter zoo. There have been days, this summer, when the forecast was for thigh-waist and I did the math and decided it just wasn't worth it by 9am.

I spent a few years in VB, and never surfed 1st street. In that situation you described, I would have been right there with your buddy grabbing a donut and covfefe and heading into work dry.

Now then, there were days at Ehukai on Oahu where it was so thick with surfers I thought for sure I'd never get a wave. But time and again, I always managed to get my share without too much trouble. Not stress-free, but there always seemed to be a peak that shifted enough I could get it.

My company recently let me know I'll be heading to San Diego next year. I have mixed feelings. It will be nice to get waves with some juice again, but I have this mental image of San Diego that looks like Gaffer's pictures. If that's how it looks, I'll just find another sport, take up windsurfing or something. I simply cannot surf in conditions like that.

I sincerely hope there is somewhere that's the Second Beach of California, where I can find a little space to myself.

 

+1

 

As much as I hate winters here in RI, I will say that it thins things out. I frequent a couple of less-known reefs so I can't speak for Ruggles, but I've had plenty of very good reef sessions in the winter here.

It's like this love/hate thing. I hate the cold. But I love knowing that there will always be a good, uncrowded reef wave for me in January.

 

San Diego is probably the absolute best section of southern california. Another area where you can find plenty of options to be in minimal crowds with proper fun conditions. In fact this summer so far the only real fun surfs i've had were on my little week trip to san diego.