Do you yell at people so they don't run you over?

Definitely necessary if you're paddling back out and you suspect you might be invisible in the afternoon glare (east coast).

Yeah I’ll let rip if someone comes too close.

Recently heard the story of a local kook on a mal running someone over, 3 broken ribs, lots of yelling afterwards.

Never Stok. Death before dishonour

Yeah definitely wise to call out loud for sure if your anticipating danger. But I know what you mean by the “aggressive” tone. I think you’ll find that’s the entitled local stating his claim.......

@guy smiley .. from my experience it's not easy to yell with 3 broken ribs,, ;)

Once as a young fella in the arvo east coast light I didn't call out and got speared in the side. Spent five days pissing blood from bruised kidney. Lesson learnt.
I usually just say "yep" rather loudly if I think someone hasn't seen me. Same call for the shoulder hoppers if I'm taking off.
Some of those guys out west though. The ones that get in the way on purpose. They deserve to be run over.

Ha! "Yep" is my go to word too.
A quick assessment of the potential danger will vary volume and emphasis.
Also varies if I haven't been getting any...

Concur with the folk above, a short "yep" signals your position and even if you've overstated the danger it makes you appear like an agreeable fellow.

Also like others, I've got a scar from a time I stayed silent and thought the situation was under control. Sharp nose to the side of the knee, looked like a bullet wound, and ended up with ten stitches inside and ten out.

Geez Stu, where haven't you been injured? (Ha)

My go-to phrase is "Oi", progressing louder and faster as danger gets nearer...

as Andy said, east coast point breaks, especially in winter with the north angled sun and you're flying blind with the sun right in your eyes.

I almost took out a gal here, who is most likely a future world champ.

She'd caught a wave and fell off, I didn't see her, at all, and ended up a bees dick from taking her head off.

Don't hurt to give a little hoot or verbal to let someone know you are there.

Although technically its the paddler who should get out of the way, its not always possible. I've had a guy refuse to avoid me while I was paddling back out and ended up dinging my board. The surfer must take some responsibility in avioding people paddling out. I usually stick my hand up and call out if I feel in danger.

Reckon you might want to give a yell if this bloke was coming down the line...

i usually give them a "yeew", less likely to scare them, and fills them with confidence that they are ripping. so long as they dont run me over i am happy to think they are ripping. it doesnt hurt to start a very early duck-dive though just in case....

yeah, you should paddle out wide.

stay out the way.

it's more if someone falls in the impact zone and can't get out of the way of the next rider.

Ha ha- I'm a 'Yep!' guy. Or occasionally a 'Yew!'.

AIM for them,if they are in your way!There for a reason.
.......they are,on the path that YOU need to travel!
Nmbr 1 rule of surfing:stay out of the way of the wave rider.
Nmbr 2 rule of surfing:we all get in the way some time's,
Nmbr 3 rule of surfing:wave riders try not to hit flotsam jetsam.
Aim for the exit and if anyone gets hurt call Dr. Phil or Judge Judy?

@tubeshooter, agreed.

yelling ....

I don't really like much chatter in the lineup, if surfing with people I know I don't really engage in much talking.

pretty much always give a low yep yep if I'm the inside and someone is shoulder hoping just to left them know I'm on.

likewise I call people onto waves if I'm way too deep to have a remote chance of making it.

I really hate people asking me if I'm going when a set is approaching, if its my call I don't need people helping me make the decision and I tell them so very quickly.

the only real time I yell if I'm in someone's crosshairs and pretty much that the always happens when the other surfer has no spatial awareness.

Injuries .... My calf was ripped open after being deliberately ran over at Byron by a guy on a mal, ruined an otherwise great trip. Out of the water for 6 weeks.

I guy totally out of his skill range let go of his mal and it landed in the small of my back at full force. Two weeks immobile in bed followed by a year of regular physiotherapist appointments and a lifelong requirement to stretch ...... yeah so I yell and hard and avoid crowds.

I never used to tell till a couple of years ago.i had been surfing a peak by myself for about half an hour,when another two chaps paddled out.no buggy, plenty of waves for all.took off on one and got caught well behind the peak and ate it.one of the lads takes the next one .he is dead in front of me but he's got twenty metres to crank a bottom turn so I sit on the board so he can see me and prepare to duck dive.now thinking,good god is he going to turn and he just runs straight over me.fortunately for me I dived off the board but still waiting for the fins of his board to put me into the next world.as I surface,glad to be alive he starts screaming at me like it's my fault. he paddles back out and after collecting myself I paddle back out and get more lip from both of them. I'm not an aggressive person,but this was enough and I calmly informed him if it takes twenty metres to hit a bottom turn maybe he should be surfing by himself.the vibe went distinctively frosty and I asked him again if he had actually seen me, thinking maybe it was an honest mistake.the said yeah,he saw me but stiff shit.i always tell from now on

Oops,yell

When I’m on a wave and there’s someone potentially in may way paddling out I always try to make eye contact. That usually helps.

It's a must here in Manly. Paddling into waves to call people off down the line trying to get in on the shoulder, when paddling back out and someone is about to try and take a 4ft closeout right in front of you, with that arvo light and just when in general danger when someone who can't control their board is coming in hot..

I've had a few close calls in that arvo light when I was taking a late drop and bottom turning hard to then see a guy into vision cm's from my nose. He didn't say a word but wish he did as if I hit him it would have been ugly.

When in those arvo conditions ahead of a set I'm always looking back at the people inside and getting a mental map on where they might be when I takeoff.

Also when people aren't sitting on the outside takeoff but sitting inside and right where you're going to drop and hard bottom turn, hence being in the way I sometimes look hard back at them and signal them to go wider or be wary ha.

I think the problem is that you assume the person coming towards you has control and knows what they are doing. But often it’s just not the case.
I was paddling back out at a river mouth break when a guy on an ocean ski caught a flat wave with no shoulder from a long way out. He was miles away and I was just watching him as I paddled and he was looking straight at me. Then realised he was starting to veer towards me. The wave was finished and there was nothing for me to duck dive but he still had heaps of speed and next thing I was about to be T boned by 4m of fibreglass. Ditched the board but still got nailed by the keel.
Moral to the story, don’t trust ocean skis in the lineup and yell when in doubt.

Moral of the story - don't trust anyone.
Came within inches of getting speared in the head yesterday.
2ft peelers and I'd just ridden a wave and was starting to paddle back out. I saw a guy trimming along a section which was going to close out right where I was.

I thought he can't make it past the section so surely he'll straighten out to avoid me.

Nup.

He keeps going and then bails his board immediately in front of me when the wave closes out.
I curled up in a ball, arms in front of my face as best I could.
No harm done in the end but I gave him a serve and not surprisingly he seemed to have no idea that what he'd done was really stupid

Yep seen that many a time, people pushing the issue when they're behind a section and not going to make it but then fall off and the board flies out towards you. The amount of times I've avoided being hit by being fully aware and much like defensive driving.. actually the exact same, I could have cleaned up many a car in the wrong if I wasn't always taking note of their lack of care.

If you ride a motorbike you'll know about target fixation.

Reckon it's worth surfers also knowing about it, because sometimes people can't get out of the way, even when they're trying.

In short, target fixation is when riders - or surfers - focus too much on what they're trying to avoid and so they collide with it.

The defensive driving analogy is a great one Craig. Perfect for the same approach in the surf as you suggested.

Target fixation = don't look at what you're about to hit.

A defensive driving instructor told me decades ago to lift your eyes to the horizon if you think you're going to hit another car. Keep braking and steering, just don't look at the 'target'.

I've given up riding bikes on roads because a small percentage of car drivers just eye ball you and still drive through stop signs etc. When riding trails I do make silent but strong eye contact with any person that might be a hazard to me. Still doesn't work sometimes and that's when I yell bloody hard. There is no arguing with stupid and/or the laws of physics. I've given away the cleats on my mtb as well and that has saved my bacon several times.

When I first moved full time down to Yorkes around the turn of the millennium there was a changing of guard going down with an older cohort of surfers that were going through a middle aged crisis with a decline in their surfing ability. At the same time myself and a handful of younger guys were moving down or building shacks and starting to dominate the best waves on the biggest days.

One guy who was an ex-ASP judge had a bit of an issue with me being the new kid on the block, and a few times I noticed he perhaps felt it beneath him to paddle out of my way when I was on a wave. At that stage he was still padding out on big days at Chinaman’s but was not really charging like he used to.

One solid, perfect 6ft day I caught a set wave and was lining up a big backhand tube when I see this older guy right in my line as I set up the section. He was trying to beat the lip with a mid faced duck dive but I would of had to straighten out, blow the wave and potentially put myself in danger as there’s razor sharp pinnacles of dry reef sticking out only a few metres inside of the the takeoff bowl.

So I adjusted and took a high line to backdoor the barrel forcing him to stop paddling as I was gonna take him out if he continued. I actually saw the lip land full force on his back as I pulled in and I think it fucked him up pretty bad as he didn’t really surf out there on bigger days after that from what I can remember.

Hate is a strong word but he definitely had built up some resentment towards me after that.

A few months later we were surfing this really nice reef break that’s in a sheltered bay, so it only gets to 3 foot or so when huge roaring forties swells are marching through the Bight. It’s probably the best shaped reef on the peninsula but rarely reaches its potential as it’s so protected. I’m on a nice hotdog type wave and who should appear paddling up the face as I’m on a fast down the line section. I keep racing and take a high line fully expecting him to duck dive underneath me.

But instead without saying a word he paddles up the face?

Admittedly I could of kicked off but with this little rivalry we’d developed I thought fuck him and as I sped past I sliced the top 6 inches of the nose of his board clean off. Someone said later that it was his first surf on a new board. Strangely my board didn’t have a scratch on it?

Another local said: “Well at least he knows now if he gets in your way you’ll just run him straight over”. He never got in my way again. Funny thing is over the years we developed a mutual respect for each other and ended up getting along pretty well but it was tense there for a while.

The world turns and 20 years later I’m going through the same thing, about to turn 50 with a gradual decline in my surfing fitness and ability. But I just ended up moving to the Gold Coast to join the legion of other middle aged surfers retiring to smaller, warmer sand bottomed barrels and growing old disgracefully :-)

Farken’ reply feature. Put my comment below the wrong comment. Apologies For any confusion caused. I just deleted the post. Only thing for it.

Yep, I'm a fan of when sitting at the top of the line-up and there's a bit of order re telling people waiting after me 'not mine' so they can go and catch it. Or asking the guy ahead of me if he's interested. Lets you focus purely on the wave and not wondering if someone is inside etc.

Works really well at plenty of the breaks I've been to but can see how it would annoy some.

I agree though Spuddups. Talk! Let everyone know what's going on.

If you don't talk then I assume you're not going.

Lineups work way better when people are communicating.

@ Yorkesurfer: Just out of question, was it just purely to surf warm, perfect but hideously crowded waves that you moved? Can't imagine ever wanting to leave the beautiful reef breaks down there unless it was for a non surfing reason. How are you finding the change?

@solitude: I’ve been suffering from a degenerative form of arthritis for several years and by my mid forties the cold was really starting to affect me and it’s easier to attend my rheumatology appointments up here. Plus I started a relationship on the Gold Coast so I was doing the long distance thing for a few years before I moved up. Plus I was bored. Living in isolation gets that way after a few decades.

I love the Gold Coast. I live across the road from a nice stretch of beach breaks with limited parking for non residents that I surf regularly without too many people. I have a love/hate relationship with the points. I surfed perfect little 3ft Greenmount today and got some seriously long tubes. Can be an extremely frustrating experience at other times.

I keep a 4wd and camper trailer in South Oz and do 3 or 4 trips a year down there in the warmer months to get my fix. It feels like at this point in my life I’ve got the balance right so I can’t complain.

Yeah fair enough Yorkie. Sounds like a good move and a nice balance that you lead. Certainly can still zig while others zag up here in warmer climes.

I was watching some raw footage of the surf coast today (from autumn) and it really did not seem compare to warm sand bottom points for a multitude of reasons......even with the crowds.

Living in Vicco I like to watch a lot of videos of the warm water sand points up north and the thing I notice is the number of guys that just float around in the faces of waves guys are riding. Especially Snapper and Noosa. I've even found myself saying to the screen "Get out of the fucking way". They just sit or lie there and guys have to turn around them, it must be super frustrating to have to fight and scratch for a set only for it to turn into an obstacle course. Also seems like a lot of guys just paddle up the face in front of riders rather than into the whitewater. Up there with snaking and dropping in I reckon.

It’s just a whole extra level of crowd up there. Where I’m from I start freaking out if there’s more than five out. I just can’t comprehend the madness that happens on at Coolangatta.

Me too Spuddups, wouldn't be able to handle Coolangatta. Can't do that jockeying competitive stuff anymore. I'll start looking for another peak around 5 or 6 people.