How bad is the surfing localism

[Nani]

Re: How bad is the surfing localism

this may be a stupid qwestion, but do many girls surf? I would love to learn butbdont want to be the only girl out

[Ron Whitfield]

You kidding...

...there are so many girl surfers out there, you'll be wondering if any boys surf!

Charge 'em!

[Nords]

Re: How bad is the surfing localism

this may be a stupid qwestion, but do many girls surf? I would love to learn butbdont want to be the only girl out

Not a problem. Plenty of women/girl surfers out there.

While you're worried about dealing with a bunch of guys, the guys are even more worried about looking stupid in front of a surfer grrrl...

[Nani]

Re: How bad is the surfing localism

ok thanks so much! LOL this might be another stupid question but aregirl suffers ecxluded at first like guy suffers or are they more welcoming? So the advice would apoly to me also, to stick to a beach were visitors go all the time? Also I dont knowhow to surf yet, I was hoping I cauld get someone to teach me or take lessons. And sorry for mispelt words, I'm typing this on my mans iPhone and the keyboard is messed up and I can't see. What I'm typing or anything and it changes words on me like crazy. Were about t take it in and get it fixed soon though mahalo!

[tutusue]

Re: How bad is the surfing localism

Hi Nani...once you get settled in to your new life on Oahu and know where you'll be living, that would be a good time to start a thread on HT to get surfing advice that will apply best to your situation. In the meantime, keep reading this thread. That said, Waikiki beach is usually a good starting place and it has instructors and board rentals. But that's not much help if you end up living on the leeward (Waianae) coast or the north shore as the bus ride is lengthy.

[kani-lehua]

Re: How bad is the surfing localism

exactly what tutusue said.

besides, once you do own your own board, i don't think theBUS allows you to bring them on. uh, no racks available.

[tutusue]

Re: How bad is the surfing localism

exactly what tutusue said.

besides, once you do own your own board, i don't think theBUS allows you to bring them on. uh, no racks available.

And, to add to that, living close to a beach doesn't automatically mean that it will be a good surfing beach.

[turtlegirl]

Re: How bad is the surfing localism

And, to add to that, living close to a beach doesn't automatically mean that it will be a good surfing beach.

Seriously!! I can't even BUY a wave here in Kailua! Makes for nice swimming, though.

[turtlegirl]

Re: How bad is the surfing localism

Well, me & my sweetie got our first taste of surfing localism yesterday, and it sucked. We were out at Kuhio (where all the beginner kooks learn to surf) with a friend who's visiting from CA. Our friend was super excited, and had also brought his videocamera along on his giant rental board, strapped to the nose. We got some really cool shots!

Anyway, looooong story short - we're not beginners, so we paddled way out, but made sure to go around the side, of course, and from the first minute we were getting stares and stinkeye. wierd, but no problem (we thought) because we were waaaay out of everyones way. And we were having a nice time hanging out with our CA friend.

2 guys ended up being big jerks to us immediately. I'll call them "longboarder dude" and "big ugly stand up paddle guy" busupg for short. Longboarder starts going out of his way to surf right at us on every wave. Especially me. Like, okay dude, obviously you're really good, and we're staying away from you, so please quit trying to surf over us?! Busupg starts doing the same. And we were way out on the shoulder, and even if the waves died underneath him, busupsg would deliberately keep paddling at us. Eventually, their other friend wanted to get in on the fun, and yelled at us over every wave that we went for, even if he wasn't trying for it. LAME!

So my sweetie and I had a quick powwow while paddling back out, and we're like "forget this, these guys are retarded, lets get our friend and move somewhere else", but at this time, busupg is standing by our friend, holding his paddle like he's gonna hit us, and saying lots of mean nasty things. And threatening to break our boards and beat us up. Did I mention that he's standing over us brandishing a paddle?

We're all like, "no, dude, don't be angry at us, we were just leaving, here have your waves, we're getting out", but I guess that was't good enough for busupsg, and he kept ranting and raving and being really over the top. Just would not shut up. It was really wierd, because we never did anything to provoke him, but he thought that my sweetie had cut off his friend 'longboarder dude' on the last wave.

So we left, but when we were back on shore, we reviewed the tape of that wave that busupsg was yelling about, and it was very clear that nobody had interfered with anybody's wave. Both surfers respected each others' right of way, and in my opinion, showed perfect surf ettiquette. This guy apparently just wanted to chase off some haoles.

My friend goes back to CA today, with a story for all his friends about some maligned crazy sup guy who wanted to beat us up in the water over nothing. What an embarrassment for Hawaii.

Anybody who's met us should be rolling around laughing about how silly it is that some big freaky guy wanted to beat us up. Us?!! The nicest kids on the beach?!! Crazy.

[Ron Whitfield]

And quite typical/common

Take a spear gun next time...

[kani-lehua]

Re: And quite typical/common

let's not mince meat over this...they're just plain old **bleep**.

so much for promoting hawai'i with the economy in a major slump!!!! tourism is down, down, down!!! and they want to act like that. idiots!

[pzarquon]

Re: How bad is the surfing localism

Um. It bears noting that turning away visitors is very much the motive in thuggish behavior like this. Territorial surfers and the HVCB are likely not on the same team.

Did you get video of said behavior? YouTube!

[matapule]

Re: And quite typical/common

so much for promoting hawai'i with the economy in a major slump!!!!

One of my California attorneys is a professional surfer. He is a 30 something world class surfer. In fact he financed his way through law school by winning surfing contests. He refuses to surf Hawai'i, any of the islands. He said he has had nothing but bad experiences in the Hawaiian surf scene. He said the locals are not only rude but dangerously aggressive. So much for aloha on the water.

[Stephen]

Re: How bad is the surfing localism

I'm racking my brain trying to figure out where Kuhio's is (doesn't the street run parallel to Kalakaua?). . . . I'm assuming it's in Waikiki and Diamond Head of Kaisers, which I would consider pretty much a beginner's wave and Ewa of Suicides (San Sousi Beach - if memory serves me correctly.) Anyway between Kaiser's and Suicide's, beginners should be given some leeway - not carte blanche to run over people, but definitely not have to put up with harassment. If the break was closer to Kaiser's or Suicide's, then I can't argue with a little localism (not violence, but some stink eye if you're dropping in on poeple or taking waves before you've waited your turn.) Based on your post though, it doesn't sound like that - and these barneys were just a couple of d-bag punks. Sorry your Cali friend saw the ugly.
Ragin Cajun

[Stephen]

Re: How bad is the surfing localism

Matapule,
I think I read the one post too fast and missed yours! (the Mainland has slowed my brain )

I surfed all over O'ahu and more often than not, I encountered aloha - sure there are a&*holes in the water, but they're not the majority.

Ragin Cajun