Surfing rules
There are several good reasons to follow these rules:
- Safety: with a board, you can break equipment or injure someone.
- The pleasure of surfing: the surfer’s goal is to ride the wave from start to finish. To hinder a priority surfer is to prevent him or her from enjoying the ride.
- Don’t do anything you don’t want done to you: common sense should be enough, but just like on the road, you realize that “one man’s common sense” is “another man’s every man’s fool”.
- Disregarding these rules can lead to accidents and aggressive behavior in the water.
I’ll try to explain these rules from the general to the special case and exceptions, from beginner to expert level.
As image support, I’m using photos I took at Hossegor on 06/05/2016 in pretty, well-formed wave conditions presenting no reading or technical difficulties. The waves are rather moley and feature surfers of varying levels.
Blue circles surround priority surfers, while red designates offending surfers. Blue tends to indicate strategic priority spots, while red gives an indication of less favorable areas.
Respecting priorities
The surfer with the highest peak has priority!
The wave rolls from the peak to the shoulder, so it has a breaking direction that every surfer needs to identify clearly. On this spot, most of the waves were left-handed (we’re referring to the surfer’s vision as he paddles over the wave, in this case to his left).
Beginners take care not to start on a wave they’ve already surfed!
Of course, beginners often find it hard to read the waves, to know which way they’re rolling, to distinguish the peak from the shoulder.
To put it simply, before paddling out to catch the wave, he should at least check that no surfer is already surfing it, let alone in his direction. There’s a risk of collision. If he’s closer to the edge than a surfer already on the wave, he’s likely to get in the way, or even crash into it. The image above is a good illustration.
Sometimes surfers do the same, deliberately blocking the path of the priority surfer, betting that he’ll stop to avoid a collision.
The surfer who starts the furthest offshore is legitimate, as he usually starts closest to the initial break, but we’ll see that there are nuances and exceptions.
Rowing is not enough to win priority!
The surfer is considered to have started from the moment he stands up.
So, in this photo, the surfer who was furthest from the peak marked his intention to catch the wave, but was unable to start. The other two surfers took off on opposite sides of the peak, in opposite directions, without getting in each other’s way.
Paddling marks the intention to catch the wave. Observation of the surfers in the water becomes important. A surfer who stands up on every wave paddled and is better placed than the other surfers will be annoyed that other surfers are paddling on the wave when he’s almost certain he’s going to start.
In the case of a surfer who paddles ten waves and only manages to catch one, other surfers will feel entitled to paddle his waves too, believing they have a better chance of getting started. So as not to “spoil the wave” (the wave no one has caught).
In an environment of seasoned surfers, a surfer who paddles all the waves without ever starting will no longer be taken into consideration and will run the risk of not being able to catch a single wave. Indeed, trying to find the best place to start at the peak and let all the waves go by tends to irritate other surfers. In surfing, the best place at the peak is something to be earned and deserved, and requires a minimum of technical skill.
The “first to stand” rule has been replaced by the “closest to the peak” rule!
It’s sometimes said that the first surfer up has priority. Given the same board size, the surfer with the highest peak will logically stand up first. But this “first to stand up” rule quickly reaches its limits, as the competition for the most buoyant board quickly becomes the norm. Compared to the shortboarder (who uses a small board), the longboarder manages to start further out and is dethroned by the stand-up paddler (who is already upright anyway), who manages to start out in a barely marked undulation, and is beaten on this score by the kayak, which is itself beaten to the punch by the trawler.
The “first to stand” rule is invalid in the case of stand-up paddlers, who are always on their feet.
This “first to stand” rule actually complements the “closest to the peak” rule: when a surfer has started and is already gliding towards the shoulder, it prevents a lower-positioned surfer from waiting in ambush to be overtaken and start behind the priority surfer, hoping to snatch the right of way.
Seeing the manoeuvre in progress, the priority surfer may then feel obliged to change his trajectory to turn around the interfering surfer from the inside, at the risk of losing the wave or colliding with him.
Some waves offer the possibility of starting further inland than the surfer standing first: the surfer standing first has already been riding the wave for some time, and the standing first rule is designed to dissuade another surfer from starting behind him to claim priority in turn.
In the photo above, where the surfers are standing almost simultaneously, it’s the peak rule that takes precedence. The surfer who started far inside the wave will have difficulty getting through the section because he was taxed, while the surfer at fault will collapse the critical section more quickly (section: the wave forms a vertical wall that must be passed quickly or risk being blocked by the foam).
By taxing someone, you’re putting them at risk and hindering their wave!
In this two-frame sequence, the taxing surfer is far enough away that he doesn’t represent an imminent danger to the priority surfer. Nevertheless, as he starts off, he drops a section of foam that will impede the other surfer and probably prevent him from completing his wave.
In the two images above, which make up a single sequence, the taxidermist, by starting up on the wave, causes the section to close, blocking the way for the priority surfer, who will not be able to finish the wave, while the offending surfer will enjoy it to the end.
Taxing is even more dangerous in powerful waves!
Taxing a priority is dangerous = accident potential increases all the more in powerful waves or when rolling close to an obstacle (rocky bottom, dyke, etc.).
In big waves, as in the case above, the taxed surfer is hampered, so he can’t surf optimally and risks being caught by the wave or enclosed by the section and ultimately shaken off. In the jargon, we’d say he’s “puffed”. It’s not fair to block someone in such conditions.
In special cases, two surfers can ride the same wave without getting in each other’s way.
Some waves allow the surfer positioned perfectly at the peak to choose which side he or she wants to start from, and are said to open on both sides. This allows two surfers to catch the same wave from opposite directions, without getting in each other’s way. 
In the image above, the surfer with priority didn’t want to start on the right, which would have allowed the surfer on the shoulder to start on the left without being at fault. He probably felt that the left was deeper and opened up better than the right, so he took priority.
See the images below:
Taxing is bad, staying on the wave is even worse!
In this sequence from above, we see that the priority surfer is slowing down because he’s being hindered by the taxi driver. By the time the taxi driver apologizes, the wave is almost over. Before apologizing, it would have been nice to leave the wave at the top to let the surfer on the left pass.
Anyone can tax someone by mistake, but we find that it happens more often to some than to others, mysteriously.
If a surfer pretends to want to catch his wave, the surfer in priority must shout to signal his intention. The surfer who starts anyway usually realizes his mistake quite quickly, and the rule is to get out of the wave as soon as possible to minimize the inconvenience he has caused.
Starting as close as possible to the foam doesn’t give you priority!
The image above is interesting. Admittedly, we can see that the surfer circled in blue is being taxed by two people. But let’s look instead at the two others rowing to his left, further inland, indicated by a flash of red.
The surfer closest to the foam is sometimes said to have priority: indeed, the peak is where the wave will break first and form foam. Here we see that the surfer on the left is already very low in the wave, the wave is going to break at his back and he’s going to start right into the foam. He doesn’t have priority, he’s too close to the beach, the wave has formed further offshore and a better-placed surfer has already risen.
An example of what could happen here: the surfer circled in blue starts with dignity at the top of the wave and skirts the wave when a surfer behind him emerges from the foam shouting “hep hep I’ve got the right of way”. The surfer who started at the peak is bound to move away along the wave, leaving a gap between him and the foam, into which some smart alecks will be tempted to swoop.
Be able to assess the surfer at the peak: is he going to ride the wave or ruin it?
The surfer in blue marks his right of way over the surfer on the right by heading in his direction. The surfer in red will then tax him. However, the blue surfer, starting far behind the peak, has little chance of passing the section. If the red surfer doesn’t start, chances are it’s a wasted wave.
This is where observing the other surfers and assessing their technical level becomes an important parameter: the surfer in red has to assess the level of each of the other protagonists in a matter of seconds. In doubt, he figured that the surfer in blue wouldn’t be able to get through the section to get to him. Unfortunately, if the latter is very strong, a board will soon be shaving his whiskers!
Which brings us to a frequent oversight: in order to always be in a position of priority, many surfers place themselves as far inside the wave as possible, wasting waves as they get up only to be immediately blocked by the foam. A surfer in a better position would have been able to ride the wave all the way to the shore, but didn’t start for fear of being taxed.
In this way, the greedy behavior of certain surfers encourages others to depart from the priority rule and to start when they are positioned more on the shoulder and risk committing a foul if the surfer were to pass the section. They draw the conclusions that suit them and lose all objectivity when observing the other surfers in the water: for example, the section that blocks the way for the priority surfer is often the section they knocked down by taxing him.
The rules of priority must therefore be tempered by rules of common sense, or you’ll soon find yourself in a state of chaos and tension on the spot. Everyone wants to catch waves, but you have to know how to calm down a little, observe rather than paddle over everything that moves, and share instead of trying to scrape up the slightest wave that passes by. Otherwise, one person’s excitement becomes another’s annoyance, and the rules of citizenship in the water end up exploding.
In the case above, the red surfer justified taxing by convincing himself that the priority surfer wouldn’t pass the section. “When in doubt, I tax”. What’s clear here is that he’s going to get in the way of the priority surfer.
Does the surfer who started further offshore have priority over the surfer closer to the shore?
The surfer at the bottom of the wave must not paddle out to catch a wave on which someone has already started further offshore! As shown above.
Sometimes, the surfer in red thinks that the surfer in priority won’t start for fear of running into him. It’s a risky gamble, and one that’s not appreciated by his peers.
However, this “farthest out to sea” rule becomes obsolete when the surfer uses a non-standard craft such as a stand-up paddle (SUP): indeed, he can start far behind the line-up (wave waiting area) compared to a surfer on a shortboard.
As a result, SUP surfers are often seen cutting straight across the bottom, regardless of whether or not they’re positioned at the peak. Having the advantage of buoyancy doesn’t mean they don’t have to respect the “closest to the peak” rule, otherwise it’s a bit too easy.
When a longboarder or SUP rider, thanks to the volume of his board, has a clear advantage over all the other surfers, and no one else can compete for priority, common sense dictates that he should not keep coming back inside, but let the other surfers positioned at the peak take their turn at catching waves.
Surfers close to the shore must not get in the way of surfers who have started further offshore!
In the photo above, the bottom surfer is waiting to catch the wave. However, a surfer is already on it and the red surfer, by staying in his path, is going to get in the way or endanger both of them. The rule would have been for him to paddle out to sea so as not to get in the way of the wave and the surfer.
The taxman is rarely right!
Having priority does not give you the right of life and death over other surfers!
The question of responsibility
As we’ll see in a later article, the surfer riding a wave must remain in control of his machine and not injure other surfers closer to the beach whom he may encounter on the wave’s path.
There’s a whole protocol of actions for getting back out to sea without interfering with surfers on their wave, but beginners sometimes ignore these rules and shouldn’t be cut off just because they’ve made a mistake. The expert surfer must remember that he too was a beginner, and that he didn’t get out of mom’s bed with a board on his feet!
In the event of an accident, it’s the person riding the wave who’s at fault if he or she collides with a third party who isn’t surfing, and whom he or she has bumped into on the way.
But then again, there are exceptions. In fact, surfers who weren’t meant to catch a wave can create danger by engaging in unsportsmanlike “snaking” behaviour. Snaking to catch the wave. By starting off in the foam, for example, or by deliberately blocking the path of a better-placed surfer: I’m cutting the surfer off so I can take the wave for him!
Here again, we’ll see that you can take priority with dignity or shame by “snaking”. In the jargon, such a surfer is called a “ragace” or a “crevard”. These exceptional cases may call into question the “closest to the peak” rule.
When it comes to liability, there’s no doubt about it: the surfer who taxes is 100% responsible for any accidents he causes.
Civil liability
When a surfer injures someone or damages his board, because he hasn’t respected these rules or because he hasn’t mastered his machine, rather than being stingy and bad-tempered, all he has to do is take out civil liability or insurance! Just like driving! Everyone makes mistakes, and it’s only fair to take responsibility for them.
On that note, happy surfing and more on the next episode…
