Chaos at the jetty

Today there were remnants of the big swell I missed because I was out of town. People hungry for more waves crowded the lineup all day. It was chaos at the jetty (no more than any other summer day, I guess). That means three or four people taking off on the same wave, and lots of yelling and narrowly avoided (hopefully) collisions.

Standard practice at our break is that the self-appointed better surfers huddle at the jetty and today there were eight or ten of them all together in a small space. They all take off on each other and then yell for right of way. Today I saw some of these surfers very nearly run over each other. Had I done what they do, had I taken off on a wave which wasn't my wave and had four other people on it and then nearly hit them, I would have been crucified.

I did not run over anybody, but I did what everybody else does: paddle for waves I think I can get. A couple of times I paddled for waves which someone else ended up getting as well, and then made sure they didn't run over me if we both got them. The way I do that, if we both take off, is not to even try standing up, because once I stand up, I have little to no control over my board---I can't turn. So I rode a wave or two in on my stomach and stayed safely out of everyone's way.

For this I got yelled at by a former friend (now not my friend, I guess, simply because he's the friend of the guy K. is sleeping with. Get that?) And this was just not fair, so I stood up for myself: I was in control of my board, I did not do anything anyone else did not do. I did not hit anyone and no one hit me.

Normally I would've just meekly nodded and apologized. But I am sick of being condemned for what everyone else does. Partly, this is because of being a woman in a lineup of ten men. But mostly, it's because of the myth that K. has created about how bad/incompetent/careless/evil/fill in every bad quality a person can have I am. And everyone, even and especially those who don't know me, believes her because she's young/cute/blond and is sleeping with one of the most popular surfers in the community, hence she is one of the most popular surfers.

Well, it's nothing but crap and I am sick of it. I may not surf very well or at all at times but I actually am one of the more considerate and cautious people out there. Plenty of people get away with really selfish and even dangerous behavior because of their hierarchy in the local surf mafia. I am not going to take shit from them. I am not going to meekly move over and just let them hog all the waves and drop in on their buddies and let that be the way it is because it's the way it's always been. (It's not true that their superior surfing skills make it OK or safe to do what they do: I saw that amply today, with the near-collisions.) Most of all, I am not going along with the myth that K. has created. No, I'm going to do what I did today: go for the waves I can get.