The Hierarchy of surfing

Can we have an amnesty on 'what's the best surfcraft' threads? I think 436 threads on this topic is quite enough...

Yeah. What a can of worm,s,at some stage everyone has to get over it. The best surfer is the guy that,s having the best time irrespective of what he,s on. Just learn to respect,don,t drop in, don,t get in the way, and wait your fucken turn, and i,am sure everyone will be happy.That is unless your a selfish,selfcentered c@#$%.

1) Old guys who are still surfing
2) ladies who surf
3) kids who are learning down the beach
4) mountain goats who come out to surf once in a while
5) Kneeboarders and lid riders who rip and get shacked
6) fashion victims who ride fashion boards, fishes quads logs while wearing tight shorts
7) angry looking men who would look more at home on a rugby pitch.
8) pro surfers who are trying to impress judges.

SUP's dont count.

Good surfers
Average surfers
groms
Anything else can be dropped in on or snaked.
Just remember to have fun while doing it. And don't forget to put on your sunscreen!

people who drop in are grubs and show no respect to others. they forget that they were once a grom or young fella lerning to get out of the way of an oncoming craft.who is it that owns the surf or surf break????? there is no answer because its NO One. it comes down to respect and having fun in the surf. riding waves and shareing the experence with other people.you people who dont have these morals are surfing for the wrong reasons.please find another sport....

everyone inside of you until they fall off, unless they have dropped in on some one else until the guy they dropped in on makes it around them then you should give way.

1) Shortboarders / Longboarders
2) Groms
3) Me (Not good enough to be called anything along the lines of a surfer haha)
4) Bodysurfers
5) Kiteboarders
6) Snorklers
7) Gutsliders

1) shortboarders
2) shortboarders
3-25) shortboarders
26)Kneeboarders
27) mals
28)bodysurfers
29) anything in between
10087) bodyboarders
last but not least) fascist bigots, just so I get a chance

Dunno about everyone else, but for me the attraction of surfing has always been that there ain't no hierarchy.

Just don't drop in.

And if you are near the top of the pecking order, don't be greedy.

The surfer having the most fun is the winner

awwwww

The best are those on shortboards. However, a surfer on a big mal is someone who will always own the wave no matter what! The little buggars learning in the white wash are the new generation of surfing. So, be nice to them to ensure that surfing stays a sport of socialising and something that is not just for competition...

Sorry Mishy, got to to disagree with you. Youve got to go as aggressive as possible when running the gauntlet through the kooks playing around in the white water. The line ups are crowded enough and we have to sort the men from the boys, so only the strong keep going to take up surfing.

I would be interested to know the general consesus on surf schools, who find it necessary to sit in groups of thirty odd in front of exactly where you are surfing. In the whole hierarchy thing, I think that these kooks with there soft tops and helmets are the lowest form of life. I think it is fair game to aim and run over as one sees fit.

Good call mtw, how come these guy,s have slipped under the radar? As if there ar,nt enough surfer,s in the water without surf school,s churning out more kook,s. We lear,nt the hard way cause if it ain,t hard it ain,t worth do,in. There,s got to be something abhorrent about a bunch yuppies paying some burn,t out fuckwit pittance for the pleasure of teaching them how to further ruin our sport/lifestyle.

most of the repeat posters except for admins are idiots, or having a laugh, which is of course ok. But if anybody who posted on this STUPID thread was serious in saying that there is actually a definite hierarchy of surf craft in the water.. thats idiocy. I have to agree with a previous poster, the heirarchy is:
1) person having fun
=1) persons having fun
2) people not having fun
3 - forever) people not having fun BECAUSE of some opinion about other surfers they have in their mind.

come on people stop hating and just enjoy the waves

There is of course a hierarchy in surfing, but in the less crowded spots it is pretty simple. If you know what you are doing you get in rotation and if you don't know what you are doing you sit on the shoulder, or better yet just go to another empty beach. It's always interesting for me to read the views of surfers from crowded areas. There is probably only one surf school that I know of in my area and everyone is supportive of it because for the most part we know most will give up after the class. There is no need to show any grom abuse or come out and be aggressive when you are in the sticks. This time of year I am usually lucky if there is 2 other surfers to distract the sharks during the week haha.

do you own the water? do you own the wind?
do you surf your signature to mark the world you own?

some write books.
others poetry.
these are artists.

you my hierarchy driven friends have limited yourselves to simply writing and rewriting your own names.

There is a hirachy in the surf and it does get enforced.
The ones who have the most experience do get the better waves and they do advise beginners on where to surf and what to do. It's just the beginners who think they have a god given right to do what ever the hell they want in the surf that are the root of the problem.
Like it or not it does exsist!

Ok so I am closer to middle age than I am my teens & I have only been surfing for a couple of years.This is due to circumstances not allowing me to learn sooner.
I try & pick a break away from the best waves at a surfing location so I give better surfers the best waves, although sometimes I have to join the line up to get a wave. I know my order in this situation & give due respect.
What pisses me off is when even after showing this courtesy some surfers still carry on like they own the deeds for the surf because I am a KOOK & they can carve.
Well if you use that line of thought,does that mean that because I have been driving a car longer than them & I am a better driver, I can just cut in front without warning,blast my horn without warning,give you THE stare or just run you off the road totaly. I think not!
There is an OLD saying & that is, if you want respect, first you must show respect!

dbear I understand your situation. But a couple of middle age years in the surf unfortunately does'nt qualify you for any respect yet. Sorry but you just have to deal with it.
Keep learning and hopefully one day you will actually do something in the surf that demands respect, sitting on your board in the lineup and not hasseling isn't enough.

There are several 2-3 year experience guys in their 20's and 30's where I surf. They've fitted in with the crew no problem, been accepted by them and are often called into waves and given advice.
So your heirarchy doesn't exist everywhere.

antifroth I hear where you come from.I know how skilled good surfers must be. I just think that respect is not what they should demand, an appreciation for the skill & hard work that goes into being a good surfer, yeah no doubt.
What I am saying is that good surfing skills does not give you a reason to be arrogant & possibly shit on people you dont know.
Ive got to say I have never met a wave nazi, but I know they exist.
Ive just been out when you can feel the tension & you know guys are having a dig at you to their mates around them. I am cool with that coz I can cope, but thats still not right.
I am curious to know if you get out there & other surfers shred better than you, do you bow down?
just for the record ive only just come out of my 30's so please dont imagine me as a grey old hack. I mentioned middle age as it seems to be looming up faster than the memories of my teens fade:]

It's all solved! Bureaucracy has worked out a way to solve all this nonsense by nanny stating us.
View this!
There is a proposal being aired to stinking behaviour by SUPs and newly "graduated" surf school students and tourists hitting high quality breaks and being basically just shrapnel in the water.
The proposal is to grade all surf spots in levels up to a double black diamond spot ( just like in skiing).

However in the surf, surfers will be graded and have to wear a colour patch designating their competence for the break, so too will the old registration stickers come back, and some locations will be matched to certain surf craft i.e. SUP only spots, mal spots and mixed and then short board spots and boogie board spots.

It probably will begin at the Super bank and crowded locations like the Pass at Byron and Lennox Head, Crescent Head will be a Mal only spot and if successful others will follow.

If it works and councils get enough from the rego fees and fines then it will only be a matter of time before the idea crosses the ditch!
Councils have been looking for a long time for a way to control surfers and gain money from them, this is the start of something horrible. Think hard on this!

It didnt work when surfing first took off, it wont work now

dbear - the way to get more waves is to surf better. That is how you are going to get respect. There is a numbers issue to deal with, and since the shortboard revolution it has been a way of life. There are too many people out surfing in this decade for the amount of waves actually breaking. Now if you knew how to get more waves from the crowd you can't tell me you wouldn't do it, and unfortunately it will be at the expence of a lesser ability surfer.
Lately there has been a total disregard for the unwritten code of ethics in the surf due to so many people taking up surfing, bit like a supermarket carpark on a saturday morning, total kaos. When that happens the ones who are of less ability are the ones to suffer. It all sounds pretty arrogant and selfish, but it is the way it is and mate it is so much mellower today than it was 20 - 30 years ago in the surf. Back then there were lot's of punch on's and a lot of localisim, you actually had to perform on every wave at crowded places or be sent in.
I don't know how to fix any of it and it is frustrating to deal with.

antifroth- Thats cool mate, I guess there is more to learn than wave selection & take off point etc.
Man as if its not hard enough already !! LOL

Dbear, you have the right attitude and it would appear that you are keen to learn.Keep surfing bro and you will soon climb higer in the food chain (not litterally, nothing to do with man eaters). Also get as fit as you can, shorten your sessions and intensify them, you will find that your wave count, wave quality and satisfaction will rise.

Try and steer clear of those places which are super crowded, I drive an extra 45 minutes to a place which is down a dirt road and does not attract the crowds. I dont think the attitude of the more you carve the more waves you get, it is the more experience you have the more you will know where to wait for those waves and the more waves you will get.You will also learn to read the surf better, I surf with a mate who is like you (in his thirties and only been surfing for a couple of years) and it shocks me on some of the shit that he takes of on. Only take off on the wave if you can see what the wave is going to, if it is going to close out, forget it.