Hi All.
Have had my sup for about 18 months and I surf it 3 - 4 times a week, usually before work. I started on the sup, when I couldn't surf anymore, due to the need for a hip replacement. Pure mechanics, couldn't get up from a prone position.
Anyway, 6 months after my new hip all is good. I still surf the sup before work and usually on the weekends, but I now take the mal out as well.
Now to my point.
I do worry about the attitude of a lot of sup surfers, when they are surfing with board riders. I was sitting on a small left beach break at our local, with my son and 2 other mates. Plenty of waves, having a ball. A few guys on sups joined us and were fine, but 1 nucklehead completely ruined it for everyone. I don't think he knew what snaking is, but he proceeded to do it on every set. He would sit on the shoulder and as the set approached he would paddle around us to the inside and take off. After the second time, I had a go at him (which is unusual for me) and he shrugged his shoulders and paddled passed me again and took the next wave. At that point I wanted to shove his paddle where the sun doesn't shine and as he took of, I dropped in and faded him so that he had to straighten up. He left and went further up the beach, but he completely ruined the whole session.
It's idiots like this that gives us all a bad name. I wasn't over reacting, as my mates who had come out on their sup's were also p*ssed off. Please all, be aware of sharing, just because you can, doesn't mean you need to catch every wave.

Having surfed for many years I am very aware of the advantage i have on a sup . If there is a bit of a crowd I have started to take a 10 minute break after each wave I catch, just sit inside and wide for 10 minutes before paddling back out. It would be easy to catch a wave from every set and if a few suppers do that it makes it pretty difficult for anyone else,

Totally agreed Sandsy, having just come over to SUP I now fully realise the advantage we have, letting people know that there is a etiquette and like tomooh stay wide and on the inside and wait your turn, I do all the time, others in the line up see this and everything's pretty chilled and mellow...as for "that guy" I think he knew what he was doing bro which probably mirrors his attitude on land, I would of done what you did too...I don't know what it is bro, but very often when I am sitting wide or on the inside a set usually comes through and presents itself right in front of me while others are to far inside or have fallen off...maybe it's karma rewarding those that are respectful of others, smiling and saying hello and calling others onto waves always help, spreading aloha / arohanui ...just a thought.

This was written back in 2008 by Blane Chambers of Paddlesurf Hawaii and hopefully has inspired many SUP surfers to surf KOOL!

www.paddlesurfing.com.au/sup-info/sup-surfing/

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Greystoke said..

Totally agreed Sandsy, having just come over to SUP I now fully realise the advantage we have, letting people know that there is a etiquette and like tomooh stay wide and on the inside and wait your turn, I do all the time, others in the line up see this and everything's pretty chilled and mellow...as for "that guy" I think he knew what he was doing bro which probably mirrors his attitude on land, I would of done what you did too...I don't know what it is bro, but very often when I am sitting wide or on the inside a set usually comes through and presents itself right in front of me while others are to far inside or have fallen off...maybe it's karma rewarding those that are respectful of others, smiling and saying hello and calling others onto waves always help, spreading aloha / arohanui ...just a thought.

I hope Karma has it's way and I agree, It seems whenever I call people on and share, there always seems to be a nice one comes right to me.

Yes, you get them and some are utterly oblivious to their own behaviour. There was one out at Manly at Easter burning man woman and child. I was ridding a custom Almond prone logger. The guy paddled straight back out from the last wave he had hogged, turned straight around and burnt me. So I joked around doing a stretch five through the foam behind him. I was about to flick off when he cuts back and gets T-boned.

Next minute he wants to bash me if his SUP is dinged. Guessing he had no idea of the value and pedigree of my board either. His argument was he was on the wave first, which was utter crap, especially considering he was using his paddle power to hassle everyone.

My ultimate response was,."I ride a SUP too. It's idiots like you who give us a bad name". Apparently, he later tried to buddy up to another prone rider I know. His response was basically, "Piss off,.you just burnt five of my mates!".

Either people like this are utterly ignorant or there is a clinical explanation such as Asperger (No offence whatsoever to those who suffer this illness)?

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Sandsy1 said..

Hi All.
Have had my sup for about 18 months and I surf it 3 - 4 times a week, usually before work. I started on the sup, when I couldn't surf anymore, due to the need for a hip replacement. Pure mechanics, couldn't get up from a prone position.
Anyway, 6 months after my new hip all is good. I still surf the sup before work and usually on the weekends, but I now take the mal out as well.
Now to my point.
I do worry about the attitude of a lot of sup surfers, when they are surfing with board riders. I was sitting on a small left beach break at our local, with my son and 2 other mates. Plenty of waves, having a ball. A few guys on sups joined us and were fine, but 1 nucklehead completely ruined it for everyone. I don't think he knew what snaking is, but he proceeded to do it on every set. He would sit on the shoulder and as the set approached he would paddle around us to the inside and take off. After the second time, I had a go at him (which is unusual for me) and he shrugged his shoulders and paddled passed me again and took the next wave. At that point I wanted to shove his paddle where the sun doesn't shine and as he took of, I dropped in and faded him so that he had to straighten up. He left and went further up the beach, but he completely ruined the whole session.
It's idiots like this that gives us all a bad name. I wasn't over reacting, as my mates who had come out on their sup's were also p*ssed off. Please all, be aware of sharing, just because you can, doesn't mean you need to catch every wave.

Couldn't agree with you more Sandsy1. And it's not limited just to your local surf spots either. We've got one particular arrogant moron here in the west too that sounds just like your new best friend. He continually chooses to be a snaking & drop-in A-hole, "just because he can". 40 years of surfing taught me the old school way ( probably like you ;-) ), pre-legropes, when you had to develop ocean skills along with ocean knowledge and of course surfing etiquette. Many people are entering the line up and the open ocean for the first time ever and do not understand the vital importance being able to control your surf craft, without relying on the legrope or any knowledge of surf etiquette in general. This is a great website that graphically explains surf etiquette like we learned as kids, almost by osmosis, and is still as applicable today as it ever was. www.surfinghandbook.com/knowledge/surfing-etiquette/
Keep having fun and don't let them get into your head space. Laugh at them and you'll be surprised how much better you feel and it will drive them crazy. Greystoke's comments are right on the money.

It's amazing what ten minutes sitting down and watching the world go by out the back can chill the mood for everyone ;) keep smiling everyone

As with EVERYTHING in life, the few spoil it for the many....

That's the beauty of sup just paddle away from the crowd and find a wave to yourself.Went for a midweek surf last week at the Alley some nice waves , but where destroyed by everyone paddling for the shoulderSo I paddled round to Currumbin and had some fun beachies all to myself.

I think that having moved over to sup surfing, I can really appreciate sharing waves around. I still prone surf about 50% (or more) of the time. I live locally to Manly beach (which is usually very crowded), and surf there most of the time. I am mindful that with the sup, people perceive that I have a better capacity to catch a lot of waves (I find it is still easier to get on a wave earlier on my longboard [9ft] versus my sup [8ft2]), and because I want sups to be accepted I try not to hog all of the waves. When I have caught a few waves, I like to go out the back and sit on my board to make it clear that I'm not intending to take any waves for some time so the other people get their fair share.

I have noticed those riding longboards don't share the same sort of approach though. They generally like to take as many waves as they can and not share with shortboarders. Whilst I used to longboard myself (I have not done it since I started sup surfing), I think that longboaders (at least in Manly) have become far more selfish in their ways (they also seem to predominantly these long-bearded hipster types).

P.S. In response to SurferShaneA, I'm not that sup surfer because I was down the South Coast over Easter, hope to see you out there sometime!

I agree with Gus above. The Mal riders at my local in SA don't share ANYTHING. They ride as many as they can and it's bad luck to anyone with out a 10 foot Mal. When SUPing I am happy to leave some good ones for the short boards, but for the Mal crew, they get what they give.

World is not that cool but i totally agree with what precedent posts do mean, also i feel empathy with prone surfers such as short boarders.
What i want to say is this: Shortboarding can be frustrating too often because of wave qualities or crowd conditions, as well fitness condition 's surfer is not at rendez vous with the new swell coming , you know...
Sometimes prone surfer carry on their frustration onto SUP .
Also, the guy on his 40 years old who look at me with stink eyes who took most of good ones might not let me a single one if i was on a 6' foot shortboard.