gettingold

Good article in the New York Times today about surfer gangs protecting their turf on Hawaii's North Shore. Reminds me of some anti-social roadies on this forum.

Sorry, no link. That is way beyond my cyberabilities.

jsharr

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/sp...fing.html?_r=1

Here is the article I think.

gettingold

That's it; complete with a picture of PCad. Thanks.

SushiJoe

https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/sp...=surfer&st=cse

SushiJoe

^^ beat me to it!

jsharr

joe is slow.

jsharr

who is this jsharr guy anyway?

dsellinger

I'll bet they still wave.

sfcrossrider

The difference is in surfing you have a limited number of waves every day, so a local being territorial at their break is understandable.

We have an unlimited number of mooks ranting endlessly about a variety of topics, so I don't see the correlation, or the need for territoriality.

SushiJoe

In more ways than one, let me tell you!

gettingold

C Law

plus no one is going to feel threatened by a pack of 150 pound roadies. Save for the local brownie troop.

gettingold

I may be 150 pounds but Im mean as a rattlesnake.

Surferbruce

I've spent time on the North Shore and while I don't condone violence, the situation there is pretty unique. Imagine you lived on an island with a 7 mile stretch of road that was THE best 7 miles of cycling in the world. Now imagine every year planeloads of Freds would arrive to ride that road outside your house, and they had little or no respect for the locals or rules of the road or anything and put everyone in real danger.
That's how it is over there, and the boys essentially police the breaks themselves. It works pretty well too. If you want a wave at Pipe you can have one, but you need to pay your dues-and it's not easy. It's been made even harder in recent years as the locals have taken up mixed martial arts during the flat spells. Some of those guys are so burly and intimidating that just a look pretty much tells you where you're at, and you have to do something pretty dumb to get beat up.

sfcrossrider

That's why I love surfing Ocean Beach. Anyone who can get past the 100 yards of pounding foam, and destructive current to surf our open ocean has a right to be there. That, or they drowned in the process.

veloGeezer

FWIW I used to live in Hale'iwa on the north shore of Oahu 20 years ago

there aren't "surf gangs" protecting local territory like its a street corner in South Central LA

that's more the California surfer mentality

all that is going on is that people who live there know each other and surf every day, all year round. Certain times of the year, you get a bunch of mainlanders showing up and acting like they own the place. The local mokes don't take too kindly to some hauli idiots who don't know what they're doing just paddling out in the lineup

ther reason has nothing to do with the limited number of waves. If you know how to work in a lineup, the number of waves is somebody else's problem anyway. The real reason is that in that surf, the most dangerous thing out there is other surfers, especially ones who don't know the place.

so when you hear about people getting beat up, they probably dropped in on somebody's little brother or something. Or maybe they don't have any concept of the "right of way" of don't understand how to tell who is deeper in the wave and who's wave it is.

Honestly, I had more trouble with the locals surfing in California than I ever did in Hawaii

but, with regard to road cycling, I always harrass the local bike club when they come around and ride on my roads. It isn't territorial, though.

sfcrossrider

So you're cool with some cat dropping in on your wave? I surf with several Mavricks surfers who can work a line up like no one. Someone paddles into their line, or jumps their wave, and a beating will surly follow. Maybe it's a California thing.

knucklesandwich

I agree that some measure of self-policing needs to be done at certain breaks, whether due to sheer crowd volume (both local and non-local) or the danger factor of a particular wave, but I have a lot of problems with where the Wolfpak seems to be headed in the past few years.

Mind you, this is based purely on their coverage in the media and secondhand knowledge that I hear from a buddy who lives (and surfs, and gets hassled) out there. A good deal of their “enforcement” lately has been much more high profile in nature, and I wonder whether their main aim anymore is to keep their beaches safe (and kook-free) or are they gunning for exposure- the t-shirts, movie and TV show deals, etc.

There’s a difference between snapping the leash of an idiot who has no business in the lineup, and following him onto shore and beating the crap out of him in front of hundreds of onlookers and cameras then loudly decrying in the papers that it was necessary, and without the Wolfpak there’d be chaos in the water. Kala seems to be Exhibit A of this type of self-promoting anti-social behavior.

rydaddy

Territorial roadie thugs!?

HigherGround

If a noob paddler shows up with neon yellow board shorts, a mirror clipped to his sunglasses, and tries to surf laying reclined on his board, then he deserves what he has coming to him!

GP

I live on the local bike route. The only time I feel territorial is when I find cycling trash (cartridges and gel wrappers) in front of the house or see guys peeing in public. I've always thought that road cyclists are a-holes though so I expect that kind of behavior.

sfcrossrider

Totally agree. Be safe out there, bro.

furiousferret

Growing up in Santa Cruz we used to have to deal with inexperienced surfers from San Jose coming over and making it dangerous for everyone else. At least when I lived there, there was a mentality of superiority over other people. Locals didn't want others surfing their break, part of it was safety, most of it was ego.

bdcheung

Do guns work under water?

gettingold

Fredpak.