What Does "Respect the Locals" Even Mean?

Cheers Megzee. Sometimes no humans really sucks!! haha

"Uni assignment i did a few years ago. This is my take on things. I'm sure this will ruffle many feathers. I hope so."
Love Blue Diamond x

You know, BD as well as I do mate......there are so many parallels with the fine topic you introduced on another thread......
This localism in surfing topic is the very shallow end of the pool.......
I love the deep end......
Good onya mate

Good one megzee, one of my all time favourite songs from NY

Classic Story Megzee.

Having spent some time in the "Barri working wetliners with Headbutt and Kieren, staying with local crayfisho, x, I do believe I know the rodent like gentleman involved.

There were many shenanigans, I think a few locals went to sleep with baseball bats by the bed in case indiscretions should come back to haunt them.
I also believe I heard that same gentleman utter one of the most deathless line ever when he was being called to account.
He simply paddled up to the bloke and said "save your breath mate" and paddled away.
The other bloke was stunned.

IN defence of the pecking order there , there was a very, very efficient method of utilising the resource , which I'm sure you witnessed, whereby if one local couldn't catch it he would call the next guy in to "back me up".
I was very impressed with this level of communication.

Once I'd done enough time there, I was called in as the next "back up".

And when cray season started and the deckies and skippers were pulling pots I enjoyed many wonderful uncrowded sessions with Junkyard Jonny.

Sometimes being a local doesn't just mean rocking up when its pumping and paddling to the inside . It can mean background stuff like volunteer work at the local Boardriders , CFA , footy club ,cake stall etc etc. Beach clean up days , etc , all stuff involved in a deeper connection with the local community which flows on out in the water . So you might get a good day, a really good day, and sitting out there is our old mate , other side of 60 now, who is struggling to get one as crew who don't know him or the fact he's been surfing here 30 plus years keep paddling up inside of him . This is where localism has value , the locals know him , value his contribution to the area and let one go through to him . The blowins have no idea and burn him again and again ...

exactly.

Im the old mate over 60 been riding my local point break for 48 years and
when its big and heavy need to pick my take off spot and wave selection
carefully as having two very very bad paddling shoulders need the space
and need the young guys to give me a chance no question which in general
they do I sort of demand it anyway in a quite sort of way. I also tell everyone
im not going when I know I have little chance of making the take off and tell
them when im going. Sometimes when I get a little too excited my brain says
GO my body says NO which generally ends up poorly. Non locals work it out
pretty quickly.

Got punched in the head last year at my local, by an angry dude, who didn't like me paddling an 'alternative surf craft' and catching all the waves on it.
(Note, I wasn't burning anyone and was staying clear of the pack)

I then proceeded to whale on him, such that he couldn't catch a wave anywhere near me for the next 2 hours. Also gave him a mouthful at every opportunity.

Left me feeling a little ashamed even though he was the aggressor...

Well san in my books even at your local if you took all the waves as stated
you deserved to be punched in the head.

Evo,
I took waves inside and underneath, not getting in anyones way, but racking up the numbers.

What do you mean “whaled on him”? Hit him back?

@ Freeride - "And when cray season started and the deckies and skippers were pulling pots I enjoyed many wonderful uncrowded sessions with Junkyard Jonny."

For sure, Cray season was the best time to get those uncrowded golden sessions....
Funny thing about localism, is that the locals themselves can have the biggest ongoing feuds amongst themselves......Johnny and old Les Norrish were arch enemies for many years......I think Johnny Junkyard's " novelty" approach to surfing heavily offended Les's "purist" attitude and "never the twain shall meet..."
Plus the Rat had his local "fan club"........who he subsequently and rightfully avoided....
Side Note: Junkyard Johnny was the only bloke in the Southern Hemisphere with a 20 ton tip truck for a letter box.....

"... inside and underneath..."

is an interesting turn of phrase too...

'Inside' can be...

on the inside - where no one is bothering to sit or catch waves

or, inside of him - where the grumpy prick might just have a point

inside and underneath - sounds like

1) inside of him under the lip - which ain't cool...,

or, 2) just on the inside from the pack but catching them underneath where he's just missing them - which is technically cool... but grumpy dudes missing waves tend to get pissed if you are... 'catching all the waves'...

number 2 is a real grey area, and I often talk of this with my frothdog friend, ...who likes to sit on the inside and clock up a wave count on substandard waves, rather than sit on the pack waiting for the gems

people see you bag a heap of ok 3- 4 footers, while they wait amongst the pack for the 5 - 6 foot gems, then get all bent out of shape because you got 10 waves to their 1, or none...

I'm a number 2er too, I'd rather clock up some wave time, rather than enter the cockfest out the back, but if out the back is less intense, I'll venture out there and take my turn...

big problems arrive, when you clock up 10 little runners, then see an opportunity out the back and snavel one when no ones in place

it's complicated, but some crew see 'waiting your turn' as not getting a wave before someone else, which is bullshit in my book, Im more than happy if crew spread the crowd out. and if you have wave reading ability / local knowledge that delivers 'luck', good for you...

nothing worse than seeing waves go unridden in peopled up surf just because crew don't have the skill / guts / initiative to make the most of the conditions

see it a lot indo where locals aren't really the issue, but grumpy wave counters are

even seen a high end fashion board manufacturer pull up my friend for getting too many waves, ...after days / weeks of him and his entourage of about 10 (groms and older hangers on) paddle out day after day and totally dominate the line up

fuck it's complicated, with perspectives often playing a bigger part than any hard and fast rules, but geez, boardman was a tool...

and ive gotta say, some of the resort and boat owners have some weird perspectives about taking turns when they are trying to get their clients into waves... especially when they have old and kooky clients...

some serious self-centric perspectives going on there

and it seems the more the clients pay, the weirder it gets...

the commodification of surfing... cunt of a sport... and worthy of a thread on its own

Yes, start that thread someone... from where you'd rather be...

(Seriously, I'm seeing 2 x car ads per ad break on the Olympics with hip crew at the beach going surfing, aaargh)

sypkan,
Definitely number 2, I'm rarely going to get a set wave (that's not my go to) and respect the older crew who sit and wait and are patient.
Don't drop in and don't snake.

Blowin,
Quite the contrary, more like an acerbic tongue

While I've tried to read most of these comments there's a lot to get through,so here's my two cents. I think being a local somewhere does count for something as there needs to be some sort of order in any line up whether super crowded or not.

I also think that just being well mannered and respectful at your local or elswhere should be the behaviour we all follow. I know that when I travel elsewhere I always take the wait and see approach before "establishing my position" in a line up and always try to make conversation with locals wherever I go.

So when surfers come to my local I would always appreciate and welcome someone who showed me the same courtesy however I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with the complete lack of etiqute shown by pretty much everyone whether local or not. Just today I'm sitting out my local with one other guy talking and had about 6 peanuts paddle out and go straight on to our inside without hesitation then think that the next wave is theirs,which I often oblige with a drop in (I fail to see how anyone could consider this as okay to do) I've done this alot and will continue to do so and am more than happy to point out why I do so to anyone who's keen for a chat.

I would never come to blows with anyone (which seems to be the go to in a lot of stories/theories in this thread) but am always keen to explain my actions as I believe there needs to be far more "education" given to those who think it's okay to go anywhere and paddle up anyones inside for example and show little regard for others in the water.

It's simple. Don't be a dick in the water and show some respect, local or not, and watch the effect of "good etiqute and behaviour". There's alot of issues within this one topic to cover but it would be great if everyone just took their turn equally and perhaps treating everyone as a local might be a start?

Good to see old 'Clucky' Cunningham holding the line ...
https://www.betootaadvocate.com/uncategorized/surf-town-local-asserts-au...

Localism is rearing its head here in the southwest a bit of late. The freeloading vanlife/backpacker crowd are wearing out their welcome . Shitting everywhere, camped up in all the best carparks all day (and night) ,being dicks in the surf (its been tiny for weeks) stealing for the shops ,every scam known, campfires, general entitled trustfunder / rich euro/ south american cunt behaviour . NYE a bunch of frenchies throwing durrie butts at the point and then arguing about it which then led to one of them throwing a coward punch at a 16 year old local kid, turned bad for them after that .
Going to be a long summer

or a funny summer ;) Call the bad behaviour out or it will just get worse. Don't even see it as localism just basic respect. easy

Yeah Robo, they get called out all the time, just soo many of them , safety in numbers and the entitlement is off the charts . Lot of Euros and Argentines but the rich east coast kids in their 100k troopys are often just as bad , it may be a generational thing possibly ? Maybe this is what we get from the "everybody gets a prize- the world evolves around you" raising style the millennials and alpha gen grew up in?
Over it anyhow as are a lot of the local population , the Rangers are overwhelmed and the local Shire give no fucks anyhow or they would at least provide an overflow camping area somewhere . The wineries that apparently employ them could also provide camping as 1 they own fuckloads of land and 2 they are the apparent excuse as needing grape pickers etc but hey they cry about lack of visa workers but dont want to get their hands dirty either
Open to suggestions ( a cordless drill was mentioned yesterday , 4 flat tyres is a good message ) , in Santa Cruz they superglue the door locks on the car ha ha The Pleasure Point Night Fighters
I am sure SW WA is not the only place being engulfed in vanpacker shit or is it?

“ rich east coast kids in their 100k troopys are often just as bad ,”

Due to mining WA would have to have more cashed up young people than almost anywhere else on earth. Sure they don’t have WA plates on them troopies mike??

Free camping in strictly defined areas is banned (and enforced) in NZ unless your van has a toilet and grey water tank. Every caravan park has drop off tanks as do some major highways. Here in the country of who gives a fuck it’s different. What you’re describing just wouldn’t happen in NZ without intervention from police, council or locals ... god I love NZ.

Saw plenty of rubbish, shit, used nappies dumped along the great ocean road over Xmas from day trippers

Used nappies are my pet hate. What sort of person leaves a filthy nappy on the side of a road/beach for others to clean up? Next is the dog poo bag chucked on the nature strip/path.

mikehunt207 wrote:

Localism is rearing its head here in the southwest a bit of late. The freeloading vanlife/backpacker crowd are wearing out their welcome . Shitting everywhere, camped up in all the best carparks all day (and night) ,being dicks in the surf (its been tiny for weeks) stealing for the shops ,every scam known, campfires, general entitled trustfunder / rich euro/ south american cunt behaviour . NYE a bunch of frenchies throwing durrie butts at the point and then arguing about it which then led to one of them throwing a coward punch at a 16 year old local kid, turned bad for them after that .
Going to be a long summer

I heard the butt tosser and maybe a dozen of his mates ended up getting totally done up by three locals.
And one big name local didn't join in, which was probably a smart move.

The shire around here is turning a blind eye to the vanlyfers. Accommodation is fully booked so they’ve taken a more-the- merrier approach. Thankfully this isn’t a recognised spot for your average surfer yet and so it’s mostly just dust off crew* P platers in convoys of jacked hiluxes. They don’t seem to stay more than a day or two.

* “Dust off crew “ are the mobs who jerk themselves dry filming each other doing doughnuts on the low tide line. $15K worth of fruit on their cars and two weeks holiday a year to get it dirty.

Aghhh the van lifers are in my shithole. Idiots are parking across three beach side car spaces sideways so they can roll the awning out and set up the deck chairs for the day. Rangers aren't doing a bloody thing.
As for the 'dust off crew ' ,, ffs they are beyond a joke.

van lifers are in abundance up in the NW at the moment and mid coast. There was a shark the other day (sunday) that came in and had all the perth kooks scrambling for the sand and rocks. My mate stayed out and they all tried to yell SHARK at him but he didnt come in. Hes 63 and still charging doesnt give a toss about tiger sharks.

Too chewy?

Haha yeah but hes a hard cunt, full hardcore bloke. Nobody messes with him. One of my best friends in this town as i respect his charging at his age a lot.
I hope im still getting pitted at jakes point when im in mid 60's.

I really dislike how soft Aussies are now probably because they have their balls
ripped out by the Me2 movement and political correctness. Males of Australia
have lost their character and toughness and get cleaned up by arrogant French
arseholes tourist. Thats un Australian.

People dropping their ciggy butts on the beach makes me see red. I've picked up thousands of the fuckers on beach cleanups over the years. If you're a smoker, and you drop your butts, and you're reading this, well you can go get fucked. I hope a porta-loo truck crashes into your house.

Spuddups wrote:

I hope a porta-loo truck crashes into your house.

yep, Give Kenny a call. He might have a better solution.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-19/surfing-crowds-pose-danger-noosa/...

tubeshooter wrote:

Spuddups wrote:

I hope a porta-loo truck crashes into your house.

yep, Give Kenny a call. He might have a better solution.

That was actually what I had in mind!

evosurfer wrote:

I really dislike how soft Aussies are now probably because they have their balls
ripped out by the Me2 movement and political correctness. Males of Australia
have lost their character and toughness and get cleaned up by arrogant French
arseholes tourist. Thats un Australian.

No, people just know how to fight now. Getting into a street fight is extremely risky business. You never know what the other person may know. Maybe Israel was mistaken for France?
If you’ve never had a street fight best not to start now.

evosurfer wrote:

I really dislike how soft Aussies are now probably because they have their balls
ripped out by the Me2 movement and political correctness. Males of Australia
have lost their character and toughness and get cleaned up by arrogant French
arseholes tourist. Thats un Australian.

Koby Abberton is that you?

soggydog wrote:

If you’ve never had a street fight best not to start now.

Sage advice.

Constance B Gibson wrote:

"I heard the butt tosser and maybe a dozen of his mates ended up getting totally done up by three locals.
And one big name local didn't join in, which was probably a smart move."

Hahahahaha. Bullshit. And the real story is funnier than this myth-making bollocks. Funniest bit is former champ 'local' (who admittingly has to watch out for these kind of capers) got choked out by a backpacking chick, while he had her boyfriend in a headlock! True.

The rest of the good ol' boys were bloodied and unbowed, shirts ripped etc, whilst the Frenchoids looked like they were ready for a night at the opera! Foreign Legionnaires, perhaps? Maybe Israeli Mossad types?

Never judge a book by its man-bun.

Thanks for the input, goes to show you should be careful what you believe regarding casual surf-check yarns.

You ladies better never come to Hawaii

No perhaps we shouldn't, but how about putting all the vans and troopies on a car-carrier and shipping them to Hawaii. Warm water, tropical fruit to pick, great waves, sounds like paradise tbh. I hear they can fight, too.

Where i live we are all friends at the check spot but as soon as we all paddle out we are all competitors with attitude amongst us..small takeoff zone and boards that catch loads of waves are a threat. bodyboarders are the lowlifes who often paddle to the slab deeper takeoff and often dropped in on by locals.
I ride a lid sometimes but the points not a bodyboard wave, you need more drive to make the barrel and its boring on a lid. one local who is considered a bit of a clown takes off deep but never gets tubed, prefers to do clown manouvres like ak47 shooting the people in the carpark or cockroach laying on his back.
He hasn't been tubed since he moved here but thinks he rips and brags about surfing every day despite going missing when its over 3 foot. Classic guy though and seems always gets asked if he knows where to score some mull as he looks and acts like a hippy but doesn't smoke mull.
Despite Kalbarris reputation of angry locals etc ive found the locals to be pretty cool and always up for a chat at the supermarket or whereever. Locals just get a bit pissed off with tourists snaking or getting greedy paddling behind everyone.
Also locals dont like tourists camping near the new toilets and taking up car spots with their buses and caravans. the carpark was half washed away by the cyclones tidal surge.

junkyard J?

Yep

Thi shas nothing but everything to do with this thread.
During a quick 36 hrs of power to the West coast I was surfing with a mate who lives there at one of the more well known spots towards the top of the cape.
The track is in quite a bit of disrepair which I would guess was keeping the crowd reasonable.
Post surf coffee at Yal and a surfing acquaintance of my friend stopped to chat as we watched the surf. An English chap he was with a few telltale signs of being a bit of a kook. He then launched into a presentation regarding said track and how he would be lobbying the council to bitumise the track and build a proper carpark and be “done with it”. I’m not a local on this coast, but sometimes I can’t help myself. So I told him that the break now has a filter, filtering out those that can’t drove a car properly( himself firmly in this category) and that the longer the track stayed fucked the better it was for those that are able to negotiate a 4wd track. He should not whine to the council and stick with the rest of the foreigners at the sealed car parks………… filters are good.

Beware of the bitumen lobbyists on the cape, they’re writing letters to the council. Fuckers.

There are a few spots like that on that coast soggy..one is one of my favorite swell magnets but the roads are fucked...i had a suburu all wheel drive back when i was there last and despite offroad skills bottomed out a lot on one track. Slept there a couple of nights and was shit scared surfing by myself early morning but the wave is like a friendlier aussie pipe and handles southerlies..i call it "the noose".
apparently camel buried some boards there as that's where he paddles out to one of the outer reefs.
the tracks certainly thinned out the crowd compared to gracetown spots like lefties.
Leave the tracks alone.

also one morning saw a quoka which is rare for that far south.

Lefties like carpark further north are nuts these days. We’ve been getting a few vanlyfers down south too. A few got tuned in very quickly when the rules got broken over the Christmas break, zero etiquette, all foreigners That’s why the spots not so easily accessed need protection.
Also the guy in my above story was a blowin “new local” from the UK. Fuck that guy.

On a small day with easterly winds when the margs comp was on a few years ago a few of us went to a secret spot that when we got there no one was around...then Parko and his entourage turned up and paddled out...i decided to start drinking beers even though it was only 7:30 in the morning.
Surf was average anyway and felt sharky.