Surf Etiquette

Written on December 18th, 2003 about an occurance at Upham Beach:

How many times has this happened to you? You're riding along on a wave, trimmed out perfect and in your peripheral vision you can see someone dropping in on your wave. As I whistled and made courteous sounds to get the attention of the person attempting to squash my last moments on the wave, they without looking, just dropped in and I was forced to kick my board up slightly to get it over the other persons board to minimize board as well as body damage.

When you're faced up against an 11' board (what I was riding on this particular day) you better have some insurance. That thing doesn't stop or turn very quickly. After the collision I came up thinking, great there goes the cosmetics of the Blue Beast. To my delight my ship came up unscathed, well I picked up a little wax on my bottom deck. The other persons board didn't fare so well needing ding repair and causing them to have to exit the water and end their session prematurely. Another local surfer was right there and saw the entire happening and provided the inattentive individual with a little bit of surf schooling and etiquette.

The basics of surf etiquette:

1. If someone is already up and riding on a wave, don't go for it, let the committed rider have the wave all to themselves.
2. The person sitting farthest outside has the right to the first rideable wave.
3. If the wave is breaking right and left and there is a person sitting next to you, ask what direction they will be going before just taking off and possibly causing both you and the person next to you to miss a wave.
4. The person sitting closest to the breaking peak has the right to that wave.
5. It's o.k. to go for a wave that another person is paddling for, but as soon as they catch it, you must pull back. Sometimes a person going for a wave doesn't make it in or they wipe out, giving you at that moment the opportunity to get into that wave.

Be safe, respect others and your surf sessions will be long and happy.

- Arsen Brzostek