Localism
A short vignette about localism from the holidays:
A few days after Christmas, twenty guys out, three of whom are locals and the rest I'd never laid eyes on. It was small and inconsistent but when they came through surprisingly good shape - just real hard to split one from the pack.
Paddling back out I saw a guy who surfs the wave more than anyone I know commit a blatant drop in and continue along the wave. When he was paddling back out the victim approached him and said a few words. I was curious to hear the exchange 'cos the offender is a mellow guy and I'd never seen him do it before. How would he respond?
His retort, delivered in a concilliatory tone, was, "Yeah I know I was in the wrong, but I surf here all the time and I can't get a single wave."
Which I figured was brilliant. It was localism, but it wasn't heavy, just a matter-of-fact explanation that no sensible surfer could begrudge.
fair call,
I was surfing bells weekend before last , nice clean 4ft , fairly slow swell. Sitting wide of rincon just stayin away from the peak hoping to snavle a couple wide ones. Waited 40 minutes before my opportunity came, got blatently burned by some gent in his 50's. Ok fair enough im a blowin, its xmas im not going to let it ruin my surf, waited out the back for another 40 minutes, take off, and burned again by some other gent in his 50's.
Well after a near three hour surf and three waves caught three waves burnt I was left pondering the strategy I employed at a beach nowhere near my own turf.
Pack of cunts I thought, here i was trying to be well behaved and just got burnt every time.
Ill tell you what it made me think.
When Im back home in few weeks and surfing my local, should I be a complete cunt to travelling surfers who do show respect to locals. Because i am a cunt to ones who dont.
deep down i wanted to say yes fuckem all. But then remembered my time in a certain location in Vicco where I was welcomed by locals and called into waves and this spot dosnt break very often at all. So any travelling oz surfer who happens to come across my local be rest assured , if you show respect it will be acknowledged accordingly.
Inzider, chances are they didn't live there either, but probably thought you were easy pickings as you were sitting wide. if it's any consolation last time I surfed winki about 7 years ago I had 3 wave and got burned by 6 people. 1 on the first, 2 on the second and 3 on the third , I went in as it was getting a bit dangerous. :-)
Sitting wide on rincon kinda meant i was sitting deep for the bowl, sort of no mans land,
No excuse for the burns, they were just blatent carnts.
I surfed winki on sunday morning, was about 60 people squabling over pretty average 3-4ft fat shit winki, being a bit of west in the swell there was some wide ones which i picked off a couple, just reinforced how lucky we are in NZ for crowds.
Hey where did the story about greenbush in the off season go?
When I looked on here this morning it was getting a bit testy in the comments
..."His retort, delivered in a concilliatory tone, was, "Yeah I know I was in the wrong, but I surf here all the time and I can't get a single wave."
Which I figured was brilliant. It was localism, but it wasn't heavy, just a matter-of-fact explanation that no sensible surfer could begrudge."...
Agreed Stu but we assume that surfers these days are sensible.
Had a fun little peak at our local on New Year's Day with just five of us out...all locals and funnily enough all of us were Dads with young kids and wives on the beach. We were having a blast, sharing waves, talking shit and relishing the uncrowded moment. Then out paddles imbecile blow in Dad with two groms, one 12ish year old who surfed pretty good and a younger more beginner other son. Dad and young son sit right smack bang in the middle of us on the peak and the older son starts darting around like a ferret snaking and hassling grown local men. We all just looked at each other in pure disbelief. After about 5 mins we'd had enough and the next set I burned the grom as we had all decided to do. Paddling back out the old man looks at me and begins to start and my mate who's a born and bred local just cuts him off and says..."You're talking to the wrong person mate...go talk to your boy about respect and how to earn it and you should be setting a better example by not bringing them into the middle of a peak when you're on holiday. Learn some manners."
Again it was localism without aggression but these things never even used to be needed to be said.
Inzider , bells is a national surfing reserve . That means you ARE a local .
Tell those drop in carnts to piss off.
I've got to agree with Crg.....I'm constantly gobsmacked by the people who flock here from the city on holidays who just show zero respect, consideration or basic courtesy to the people who live in the areas they are visiting.
The attitude of entitlement - this is my holiday, my time to unwind, my time to get my wave count up- shows total contempt.
Then they wonder why they get bad vibes or worse.
I usually just bury myself in a hole for this month and come out when they are gone. Don't need the aggravation.
This year I've been going down to the flags and having a bodybash like every other schmuck and loving it.
In my honest assessment after travelling the world and seeing locals in many parts I put the "problem" of localism 80-90% to visiting surfers who have no idea how to show basic respect and 10-20% at a few hothead fcukheads who are easily avoided.
Seen many different versions of what @crg described over the years and now I just do what @freeride does for this month, swim or ride my bike. Agree that most localism issue stem from visitors showing no respect. Its an never ending story.
We bodysurfers always welcome new recruits to the stoked whompers club. No locals, only stoker's.
The main break at the town I live has been overrun. Never seen it so crowded. But I've been finding uncrowded to empty fun lineups elsewhere, sometimes very nearby. So I don't think you need to give up surfing for the Christmas to Oz Day period.
I'm a blowin myself FWIW.
I heard a good one the other day regarding my town.
You're not a true local until you've been married and divorced here.
Gender neutral too!
I took a an Irish mate out surfing a mellow reef near Torquay - he’d just reached the intermediate level. I just told him to be patient, once the set waves go by, I’ll call him into the right wave. This old codger, 45 plus, body like Clive Palmer was going for the wave - but he was too far on the inside. My mate gets up, does a bottom turn but missed the section - meanwhile old mate was stuck on this inside.
A few minutes pass, and ego shattered, old mate takes aim at the polite Irish man. He goes on and one, and my Irish mate was in shock, apologising profoundly - when he had done nothing wrong. 5 minutes later old mate Clive starts again, “to go to the beachie, f this and f that”.
I chime in. “Righto mate, you’ve had your fun, shut up, and stop ruining everyone’s surf”, set comes, off I go.
Old mate continues to whinge like a POM after loosing the ashes.
My patience was worn thin at this stage, and I aggressively interject for the first time and last time, “I’d hate to be your wife, you whinge and whinge, you must be a real Cbomb of a husband. Surely you aren’t married?”.
A few minutes pass and old mate paddles in with his tail between his legs and lips quivering.
Down at Torquay to win the battle of brawn versus brain, hit them we’re it hurts.
Unfortunate to have to do those things... Don’t ruin my zen, sunrise, feeling of freedom from or anyone else’s for that matter. Always make sure your response is proportional to the initial attack, so the ledger is square at the end of the day.
I've been road tripping around Australia seeking some good surf spots at lesser known places. I've come across some really great waves with no crowds, but my experience has been tarnished by a handful of territorial locals who seem to have a different set of rules for visiting surfers or just don't like us there at all. My experiences have been encountered in surf spots with plenty of good waves and very few riders out.
Now don't get me wrong, I'm not the type to show up at a surf spot and act like I own the place and disrespect general etiquette. But there seems to be an attitude from some locals that it's 'their wave' and locals get first preference of any wave and visitors just get the scraps.
To put things in perspective, if a group of tourist are passing through a town and queuing up to buy things at the local store, does a local have the right to push in line and get served ahead of the tourists? Disrespectful visitors/tourists is one thing, but it can also go hand in hand with local a-holes who think they own a public area of recreation.