False rules
The article on the Surfsession website– entitled “Have you ever knowingly taxed someone’s wave?” – and especially the comments left by its readers, reveal some of these false rules. In billiards, this would characterize the behavior of a bad player, justifying his cheating by evoking spurious exceptions. Here are a few examples that speak for themselves:
– I tax because the wave is too beautiful:
“To be honest, yes… I sometimes “twister” when a wave is really too good and go for it! Then, on the other hand, I always apologize, and the “I didn’t see you” technique goes down well. But don’t overdo it. And needless to say, I’m not proud of it. Mea Culpa to the victims of my ardor and selfishness”.
– I tax my buddies because I risk fewer reprisals than with a stranger:
“the case where you can rob a guy: … the case where you’re with your buddies and you have nothing to fear from them”.
Other rules that some people invent spontaneously:
– There are too many people in the water, I don’t respect any rules anymore
Logically, it should be the other way around: impeccable behavior and respect for the rules will always result in better surfing conditions. We didn’t invent these codes of conduct for two people, but to manage the world!
However, when a spot is overcrowded and chaos already reigns with four surfers starting on the same wave, leading by example can prove ambitious if no one respects the slightest rule. The limit of a surfer’s irresponsible behavior is reached when he or she hurts someone.
Sometimes, there are so many people in the water that the act of surfing becomes almost impossible. At that point, the rules are no longer applicable, and behavior is a matter of survival.
– I ‘m local, I always have priority
In an area like Hossegor, where the number of surfing inhabitants is very high, this rule is going to be difficult to apply. Nine times out of ten, the hot local is going to assert his right as a local to another local, whom he certainly doesn’t know, but who is no less local than himself. As a result, if he’s really stupid, he’ll make a fool of himself by trying to find out whether the person he’s talking to lives 2 km or 5 km from the spot, or even worse, 30 km away, in the next village!
In fact, it’s a universal rule that the most virulent surfers are generally not locals, but rather individuals from diverse backgrounds who have settled on the coast many years ago, in search of an identity that they embody in the figure of the localist surfer (the micro-geolocalized equivalent of the nationalist).
Any stranger is a stranger they can tax. It’s best not to be too impressed by the local on the sand, who may be just as foreign as you are. After just a few weeks in a country, a surfing tourist may start to have pretensions of being the master of the spot. It’s happened before!
However, when a surfer travels, he or she must respect the elementary rules of good manners and show a minimum of respect for the local surfers he or she encounters on the spots. Other places, other customs: you don’t arrive in a conquered land, you try to adapt, to make yourself accepted, and that means respecting the unwritten rules of surfing.
In some countries, the locals apply this questionable rule of systematically giving priority to the local. Most of the time, however, when visitors are patient and humble, they let them catch a few waves and encourage them to get started. It’s a reminder that we come from a civilization where you have to be in a hurry, looking for profitability and efficiency at all times, and that this model is not universal.
The ocean lends itself to challenging this stressful lifestyle, and it is by bending to the will of this untamable nature that man, whether fisherman, sailor or surfer, finds that indefinable peace. One that seems to have no equivalent on dry land.
– I ‘m a beginner, I can afford to do anything
It’s certainly normal for a beginner to make mistakes when learning. We’ll forgive them a lot, but that shouldn’t stop them from respecting the rules, if not from knowing them, then at least from taking an interest in them.
His main concern is not to hurt anyone by accident. Needless to say, if he’s paddling while a surfer is in front of him, there’s a good chance he’ll hit and injure the surfer.
Of course, there are the rules, which are more or less easy to integrate, but there is also, and above all, common sense, which is within everyone’s reach.
Common sense
Saying hello, being friendly and positive would be a good start!
All the adjustments to the rules I’ve just listed seem to be a matter of common sense and good manners. However, experience has shown that this is not easy for everyone. Surfing is an individualistic sport in an individualistic society, and it goes without saying that this leads to individualistic behavior.
Nevertheless, with the number of riders increasing every year, surfers can’t behave as if they were the only ones in the world, or as if they were 5 and a half years old. You have to share the cake, even if there’s a bean in it ; )
