VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

Marty, was this your guy? (I hope not).

Nope. He had a big white bushy stash, short white hair and no beard. Shirtless, riding Cabrinha, strapped surfboard and never gybed. Goofy foot. Deano knew him from years past and told me to avoid him.
He blatantly took every wave. Didn't matter if someone was on it or not.

Marty: Glad to hear that you didn’t have a run in with Jim Bones (local legend). I was a little worried that something had gone awry. Jim is a great guy. Sounds like you had a slight hit of Maui dickism. Good advice from your friend. The ocean will take care of the drop in twit, it always does. Glad to see you are nailing some soul sessions, although it is tough to not be a little envious. Enjoy. Aloha.

sounds like a typical day at JR.

I see this kind of thing based on one of two things: 1) ignorance, don't know the etiquette, no idea how obnoxious they are being; 2) entitlement, that local attitude "I don't worry about crowds, they are all kooks, I just go on anything I want".

If it is ignorance, giving him stinkeye won't help eliminate the cluelessness. Has to be talked to ... but in my experience that won't help either, just gets a defensive reaction. "you can't tell me what to do, no one owns the ocean, man".

For localism, not much you can do other than be humble and pick your spots, put in your time, if you earn the respect of the rest of the lineup, eventually the others will put the one doofus in line.

In the end, a guy like that does it because it works....he gets all the waves he wants, with no consequence other than bad feelings from you, which he probably couldn't give a crap about.

But a funny quirk of human behaviour: if you happened to be 6'5" 250lbs and had a mean looking presence, these problems seem to just magically go away.

In other words; go buy some platforms, and head to some fast food to start packing on the pounds. You've got a ways to go to 6'5" and 250 lbs! Discipline equals success.

Sweet. 48 more pounds and I will OWN JR! Oh, and I should probably stop wearing my neon Hello Kitty SUP surfing suit and just go to a matte black one. And stop smiling. And giggling when I snake a wave from Nanmoo. Then I'll be taken seriously.

I pick my line, take my number on the wave and stick with it....local legends won't have an issue with that I am thinking.....I give friends snaking for fun and obvious kooks a break or someone I don't know, once....if I happened to strike someone's gear or head after that, that would be really unfortunate. I have lots of spare gear and am handy when it comes to repairs and first aid...I have a mirror to do my own facial repairs.

If you keep giving up your wave, you will perpetuate this behavior. The other option is not great or friendly but in my view the better one

my friends and I were repeatedly dropped in on by a guy at pier 1 several years ago, it was clear the guy just did not care at all and was on every wave he could be.

maybe a year later he lost his kite and was paddling after it. He chased it through the break and eventually quite a ways out to sea. I think he may have even been picked up by the coast guard. nobody had bothered to stop his kite as it drifted through the break, although it was quite a light wind and off shore day so as a windsurfer you weren't super maneuverable and were trying to stay in the zone right where you could pump on to a wave but not catch one on the head.

when the kiter came back to the beach he had a fit and shouted that we were "obligated" to help him. it was ironic that it turned out to be the drop in guy from pier 1.

years later again I was at charlie's yappin with some guy who then claimed he was the most hated kiter on maui. I said no you're not, because I know that guy he has long brown hair. Turns out it was the same guy, again, and he hat cut his hair short and I think it had gone grey.

So end of story the guy was totally proud to act like a jerk on the water. I think he used to ride for ocean rodeo.

Agree with Kus on this one, maybe not to the extent of equipment damage though (hitting the soft body parts is key) If you give they keep taking and I learned that if you hold your line then dude figures out who you are pretty quick and snakes elsewhere. Ahh, the joys of Lowers memories flooding back. However a kiter snaking other kiters all day long down there - something off-water is going to happen sometime.

Now I must go figure out how to add that 6" (inversion table??) and 104 pounds (does wetsuit weight count?) and get respect!!

I was in Maui last February and I was surprised that it wasn't more crowded. Generally people were respectful and followed the rules. Lots of good kiters would make a quick turn onto my wave and then rip down the line ahead of me then flick off somewhere else. Cool as far as I was concerned. Most expert kiters were getting tons of waves and didn't have to be asses. Then some guy turns on my wave and parks his butt right in front of me as the wave builds. I barged him by coming right up to him ( no splinters or blood) and then he gives me the snake eye, like he owns Lowers. Hardly a locals only zone! So I'm with Kus and Geoffy. For some reason that attitude really gets to me. And Karma might take a couple lifetimes. These guys know exactly what they are doing and are not kooks.

We are probably all talking about the same douche. Sounds like he has been doing it for a while.

Here's rocdoc's contribution to the discussion (doesn't know how to post links/videos):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqUJoaagusc

Heavy localism on the Alaskan tidal bore, must be everywhere!

Juan, incredible video. I can't believe anyone fighting over surf like that! Phew!!

I was out at a break in oahu in 1982. Just me and one local, just the 2 of us. I was not allowed to take off on any wave period. They were all his, whether he was on one or not. He would sit there waiting for the best wave of the set. If I tried to take off on any wave discarded as inferior, he would start yellling, treatening me as well as trying to paddle over me to inflict harm. In fact, I took the third wave of the set and rode it to the beach. This was while he was riding a wave he got before me on the inside. When paddling out, he confronted me for taking a wave and was going to beat the shit out of me, he was one big enormous Hawaii'n Dude. Even at my size I wasn't about to tangle with him. He said "all the waves belonged to the hawaiian's and the waves were all his regardless if he was on them or not".
This may explain why some of these guys take every wave they want.

There, got that off my chest. So sometimes if you want to ride you will have to face the consequence regardless of being right or wrong Localism...it is everywhere


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqqS8lYYSdk

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKkBYq7ZrtU

I know, these are surfing related, but posted these videos and experience because the same attitudes can prevail when wave riding is involved, whether it be surfing, windsurfing, sup'ing, kiting or windsup'ing.