The past 6 months I feel like I’m completely losing my stoke. This past winter was a long one for me. Had the most fun ever on a trip to SanClemente last fall. Surfed my azz off and got great surf for 8 days in a row. Came home to a lengthy flat spell followed by a bad spill on some ice in January that messed my back up for two months. Missed a good run of late winter and spring surf due to the back and found that lately when I do paddle out my frustration level with other surfers reaching a boiling point. Its just always super crowded here…and not with quality surfers…no matter how big or small or how cold the weather. Paddled out yesterday and just when I was starting to have fun a clueless donkey on a popout longboard failed to make the takeoff and mowed me over with his lost board nearly ripping off my left thumb trying to protect myself and ending my session. Today there were decent waves and I had ZERO desire to surf. Just feel over it right now.
I’ve got boards to build and zero desire there too. Just over it for now. Felt like ranting. Summer can’t end soon enough. Over and out.
The bizarre thing in my town is it is more crowded than Lower Trestles. This may sound like a bizarre claim but I enjoy surfing Lowers. Lowers is like a breath of fresh air to me. The place while crowded has order. If you are patient you will get waves. Also bad behavior is not tollerated and good surfing is respected. Here its stupid crowded with beginners and aggro azzholes and way too many people on over floaty wave hog boards. It didn’t use to be so bad but a combination of numerous surf cams within a mile of my house draws people in like flies. Just have to put my head down and hold out for September.
The great irony is that the better the surf, the less likely it is to get a wave to yourself and the more likely an injury can happen. Crowds. I’m going to start surfing a spot a little north that has difficult access, and thereby fewer people out. I am also becoming a fan of marginal conditions (for the west coast) that can leave me alone on the beach.
I feel your pain. If you’ve been around for while, the crowds these days are really depressing. I hit upon something that will seem completely idiotic, but it works for me (maybe that’s why…):
Ever see how a dog just walking along will wag it’s tail an unconscious expression of a sort of sheer baseline level of joy?
When I’m paddling out, or back after a ride, I picture I have a tail and it’s wagging. And I feel happier. Some pud gets in your way? Paddles past you? Is just there, stinkin’ up the place with his soft top or SUP? Picture you have a wagging tail. Picture you’re as simple as a dog, happy for no reason but that the sun is shining and you’re alive.
Swear to god I’m not Kidding. I’ve been getting as bitter as it comes, and it’s been working for me.
I was surfing La Jolla Shores a month ago and it was crowded (as usual). But I scored a set wave over on the south side of the pier; lucked into it is s better description. I’m going left toward the pier and some guy is growling paddling for the wave and misses it. If he had made it, he would have dropped in. Then an asian chick on a sparkly white new board drops in on me and begins bunny hopping going straight. A kind of WTF moment. There was a wall stretching out in front and she goes straight. It was so amusing, between the growler and the asian chick that I could only laugh and that truncated ride still brings a smile to my face.
And on Father’s Day, yesterday, I was surfing Sea Girt NJ with my son in a nice SE swell and glassy conditions and no one on our peak. That was fun.
mako, sounds like NJ even though you have a Cape Hatteras lighthouse as your icon. I find amusement in the overcrowded conditions. Sometimes I pickout the biggest dickweed in the crowd and ruin their session just because I’m a bit of a sicko. However, people have approached me either after the sessions or even during the session thanking me for my public service. And I do nothing overt; just act like a kook in their space. They usually go away after 20 minutes of my Wilbur impersonation.
Loss of stoke and the fury incurred at the ignorance, self importance, and oblivious selfishness of one’s fellow human is not to be underestimated.
I’ve left the water in full fury mode one too many times and it was not just the numbers, but the self important greedy attitude of those numbers which turned my eyes red with fury.
Sometimes it is best to take out the swim fins and just drop into closeout barrels well away from the summertime masses of tourons.
But once anybody sees you having fun well away from the crowd, they seem to want to ruin it for you. Those that grew up surfing crowded conditions seem to require crowded conditions to let them know when the waves are good.
I love a good longshore current. 90% of people seem to line up off the crowd rather than landmarks and these sheep can be fooled once they establish who has the wave magnet and attempt to follow them around.
I love giving the Nelson " ha Haww’ to those whom as I glide past those I tricked out of position. But then some nimrod usually will get in the way. Scaring them can be fun. Pretending to be completely out of control headed right at them.
The crowds and the attitude of those crowds will not improve as the current cell phone generation makes up a larger percentage of the line up.
We need more shark sightings and implant a larger fear of them into the masses.
Another recent story that is part of my displeasure: Cold late February day. Chest high lully ground swell. Really fun sets coming in and peeling for a long ways. My first time back in the water after my back injury. Only five of us on a peak near my house exchanging waves and everyone stoked and haviong a good time. Hipster dude and hippy chick paddle out. Both are on longboards. Hipster dude is very fit yet is on some sort of over-foamed glider shape. They paddle directly to the top of the peak. They systematically start taking every good set wave that comes and paddle past the rest of us in the water back to the top of the peak in time to get the next set. This went on for half an hour or more ruining the session for everyone else. Eventually I’d had enough. I paddled directly into the path of the hippy chick twice blocking her path before she got the hint and moved down the beach. Did the same thing to hipster dude and on the second time he went anyway so I took off behind him, flipped him the bird and ditched my board in the path of his tanker. I don’t give a shit…I can shape another and fix anything. After that he knew he’d pissed people off and moved waaay down the beach.
IT SHOULDN"T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY!!!
I don’t ever want to be the dick riding an over-foamed board just to increase wave count and paddle around people. That’s what its turned into in these parts. The entitled young hipsters that pull this stuff really piss me off. Honestly, I’d have been embarrassed to have so little skill in my 20s or early 30s that I had to ride a longboard in good waves…but I am a child of a different age and even now approaching 47 I’d feel like a dick sitting outside on a longboard stealing waves from good shortboarders just because I could do it thanks to the extra foam. Even if I were to ride a longboard I’d be sitting side by side with the guys on shortboards and taking off in two strokes not sitting way outside and paddling like a madman so others have to get out of the way. Everyone is entitled these days.
I just feel like its not fun anymore and I’m getting a little old to be getting into altercations over chest high waves with entitled hipsters who’d probably file a lawsuit if you touched them.
Crowds suck and always will and people today are more entitled and selfish than ever.
However I am going to choose the right tool for the job, and if that includes more foam than the job minimally requires, so be it. I am not putting myself at a disadvantage because 140Lb pros ride wafers and I just watched the newest surf flick.
But I impose rules on myself when my paddling advantage is so great, as while I could be a complete douchebag, I don’t like ruining it for others and usually feel guilty when my wave count is so much higher due only to my paddling advantage. If the crowd can’t figure out where the outside peak is on the set waves, then screw em.
If I see the same person on the shoulder twice as I ride by, when paddling back out, I tell them to just take the next one if I am on it, I’ll straighten out or just not even paddle for it. I like it when they thank me.
All it takes is one douchebag to ruin the vibe in the lineup for everybody. I don’t want to be that douche, though I can so easily be that douche.
I grew up surfing NJ in the 80’s, but have not surfed there since December of 2002. Seemed tourists in NJ even back then were the worst, extremely entitled and overwhelmingly self important. Effing Shoobies.
Not looking forward to seeing the current crop next time I visit.
Do you live on the shore? My best friend lives in ocean city and his family has a few houses right on the shore. Bummer to hear it’s crouded in the summers. I’ve only surfed there in dead of winter - Coursed it was not. Beyond freezing and so much fun. He tells me the small days in the summer and long flat spells can be brutal, never mentioned the amount of people in the water.
I think the longboarder taking all the waves is universal. When it gets bad, gotta do what ya gotta do…
Sometimes I find time away from something I enjoy is good and refreshing.
Yes I live in OC. Walking and biking distance to all the popular spots. The town has turned into the East Coast version of Huntington Beach. It all went down hill with the advent of surf cameras. There are literally no less than 10 surf cameras on the surf spots within a mile of my house. My favorite spot can be viewed on 3 different surf cams…surfline, thesurfersview and attheshore. One site touts that it has 66 beach cameras on the island. Inland surfers being lazy and tech connected only go to spots that have cameras on them these days. If a spot doesn’t have a camera on it it it may as well not exist. That means if there is a ridable wave anywhere near my house a camera is on it and so will be a bunch of inlanders who want to surf a sure thing and are too lazy to look around. I really miss the days before cell phones and surf cams when you really needed to live nearby and be on it to get it good. Back then there were a lot of mornings where the waves would be good and it was only a handful of locals and regulars who would be on it.
However I am going to choose the right tool for the job, and if that includes more foam than the job minimally requires, so be it. I am not putting myself at a disadvantage because 140Lb pros ride wafers and I just watched the newest surf flick.
I’ve got plenty of foam in my shortboards and have no trouble catching waves. If I was surfing among 140 pound pros on wafers there would be no problem. Biggest fallacy whenever the topic comes up is that shortboarders need more foam and shouldn’t complain about longboarders being dicks. That’s bullcrap…sorry if I come off salty. Shortboards require that you sit and take off close to the energy of the wave…foam or no foam There is no sitting 20 yards outside the break and gliding in before the lip even forms. Longboarders don’t have to sit 20 yards outside either. A competant and well mannered longboarder can sit right with the shortboard guys and catch waves with ease…sink the tail…two strokes and pop up. No need to sit way out the back other than to be a dick when its a crowd of mostly shortboarders. I rate the resurgence of longboarding as one of the worst things to ever happen to the sport…second only to SUPs. Mostly kooks that need the crutch.
Probably just offended half of everyone but just venting.
The problem isn’t the boards it’s the people. If you are determined to get every wave regardless of what board you are on you’ll cause trouble. Don’t judge people on board choice, allow them to be a dick before you get aggro, then by all means react accordingly. Sick of people being dicks in the line up because I’m on a longboard even though my surf etiquite is more generous than most.
In 1974, when I was 18, there were 19 million people in California. Now there are 39 million people in California. So now the population has doubled. Thats a lot people crammed into one place. So unforntately that means more people in the surf also. I tend to go out very early and pick my spots accordingly. Up here in NorCal it isn’t as bad. But it still can get crowded.
I remember back in the 70s population growth was one of the big issues. Now that seems to have gotten overshadowed by many other issues. I still think that it is probably one of the biggest issues that needs to be dealt with.