I was at my local this arvo and had the most amazing experience with a shorty.
A guy was obviously upset at the number of waves I was getting and I do recall him paddling right in front of me on one. But then again, it really only suited a longboard anyway.
Quite late in the day I was the only longboard out and I went to take off and noticed this guy paddle almost straight into me and as I stood, he grabbed the legrope and yanked me off the board.
I think he had waited until all the other longboards had gone before he did it but what really shocked me was what came next.
I paddled back out and because he was with a kid of no more than about 11 and another guy, I simply said to him "don't do that again" because I didn't want to swear in front of the kid.
Well, you would not believe what came out of his gob, I think it started with "you can go and F yourself you F'ing old C" and then it just got worse.
I then pointed to the young boy and said, ""is he related to you?" (I actually think he may have been the son of the other guy) and that was met with a similar hail of F'ing & C'ing interspersed with the occasional "old C".
I then addressed the child directly and said to him "I'm sorry, I had no idea that was going to happen" meaning all the swearing in front of him.
I then just said to the guy, "It's okay you can calm down now, I'm getting out of the water and maybe you should see about getting yourself some help".
I could easily cope with him behaving that way if it was just a bunch of guys out there but to allow a child to witness that kind of behavior is just unacceptable.
It was as if he was attempting to impress the child, and if the other guy was his father or even his older brother, I could not understand why he remained silent.
It's typical of most surf sessions isn't it ?
You head out on a longboard, all the shortboarders give you the evil eye and you know one of them will mouth off or do their best to ruin your session.
I have spots down here that I don't even bother going to any more. Even when I'm on my shorty (Woonona for example).....but they stop at nothing coming to a primary longboard break and seem to bring the bahavior with them.
The rule seems to be Longboarders are only accepted at certain places at certain times but shortboarders can do what they want when they want cause they are 'shortboarders'.
Rise above it, get smart with where you surf and ignore them if you can't - the silence get's them everytime cause they want the fight and hate it when you are polite back to them.
BTW - I had some 12 year olds in the line up last summer and one was telling the other that he could 'root' his sister if he wanted and he'd line it up.....kids are not what they once where - that conversation shocked me !
As SA said this can happen during most sessions,I witnessed the same thing Saturday between a short and longboarder,the only difference was no kids around and the Longboarder did do the wrong thing.
Maybe obct he was frustrated on the wrong equipment and trying to be a hero infront
of his kid.
He probably watched all the Longboarders getting a heap of waves and just got p-ssed with himself and the world.
Really - wow - I've never seen that kind of action at Manly, I paddled out once and had guy say "ah another ****ing lognboard" odd thing was I was the only one out on a longboard.
I find it's best just to leave those guys alone take a break out the back for a little bit till they get one, and then jag a good one in and end it on a high note.
Kinda sucks when people act like that.
Just out of curiosity - surfing a Collaroy?
Pretty nasty story. You get the odd loudmouth anywhere. Theres one down here but he only starts when he's got a few mates around him. People like that often get sorted out in the end.
