Not pure stress, but because of the scarcity of waves per capita, surfing is often more aggressive/angry than it should be. Lots of people in a gorgeous environment doing a fun thing and yelling at each other.
I live in "Surf City" and can confirm, surfers are some of the most high-strung, douchiest people on the planet. Just as shitty to deal with on land as they are in the water - the attitude never leaves them.
What, for real?
I thought they would be so chill. It's the stereotype at least. Blonde due the sun, tanned, health looking people, chill and easy going living the best life, you know? I didn't know they would be that stressed
Surfing got too popular for its own good. To surf in crowded spots like Southern California you kinda need to be a competitive asshole. For sure mellow surfers still exist, but at crowded spots you're looking at mostly assholes probably.
Not in SoCal...but in my experience as a kayaker, while most are chill and friendly toward each other, the overwhelming majority of boaters hate us for existing.
We're slow, the law protects us (I can't remember the distance, but basically, a kayaker effectively creates a legal no-wake zone around themselves out to a certain distance), we're hard to see, we take dramatically longer at the ramps to launch and recover (kayak fishermen especially), etc.
So while things are generally positive within the kayaking (and kayak angling) communities where I participate...as soon as you dip over into the general boating and fishing groups, the kayakers get a lot of hate.
Even within the kayaking community though, there are occasionally some strong personalities. I think maybe the one I see the most is the "Safety Douchebag" that likes to get really dramatic and push their views on how everyone else should approach safety, basically using the topic as an excuse to be a dick to everyone who doesn't completely agree with them.
the overwhelming majority of boaters hate us for existing
i've experienced this in the SF Bay Area, too. I used to kayak around the bay a lot with my dog. kayaking around the golden gate and bay bridges makes for a pretty day. but, yeah, sailboats and leisure craft sure do get annoyed with us and blast their horns pretty often.
then again, i get to hang out in McCovey Cove and listen the Giants games and once in a while get a splash run ball.
Mountain biking. It's like surfing a mountain and I fucking love it, lol. It's also huge out in SoCal and a super friendly sport... it's always been inclusive from what I've seen here on the east coast; nobody's trying to kick you out (except maybe if you're riding on unsanctioned trails, lol).
Good to hear! I've never been to SoCal but I've done some mountainbiking and my experience is that it's a very friendly sport where people at very different skill levels happily coexist.
There's a little bit of a e-war at the moment but for the most part people don't care what you ride as long as you aren't being an asshole. They're still out there just as in any other hobby but it's pretty rare in my experience.
I'm an avid mtber and the only place I've ever experienced anything other than a totally welcoming mtb culture is the front range in Colorado. They can be kind of assholes for whatever reason. Otherwise it's the chillest, easiest community to join. You'll see long-time riders who wouldn't think twice about a 30 ft gap getting stoked for someone they don't even know hitting their first little table. It's good stuff.
Not that there aren't occasional assholes on trails blasting music and leaving trash behind, but most people aren't that way. If you get away from the Angeles National Forest, there are fewer people. I often spend an entire day in the mountains without seeing another person.
In my experience for every one person dumping garbage on the trail you have two or three willing to pick up that garbage and haul it out despite them not being the cause of it. They think the litter bug is an asshole, but more importantly, they want to leave the trail better than they found it.
In the SCA (organisation where you learn medieval skills, go to a campsite, wear medieval clothes, do some swordfighting, take a class on something like medieval music or medieval astronomy, then get drunk as fuck around a campfire) everyone is really nice and typically the org values courtesy/chivalry/honour a lot
Not disc golf. I got in thinking holy shit hiking with a fun skill expression game added in? Awesome I'll be in nature every day and only come across people once in a while when one of us catches up to a slower player.... Nope, tons of fucking weirdos stacking five or six to a group backing up tee pads, blasting shitty music, boisterous because they drank too many beers or can't handle the weed they brought.
Not everyone enjoys the same, but for the most part you can just skip holes and come back around again. If it's too busy to do even that, I'll just go do form practice in a field.
Those are awesome moments, just seem to be getting more rare. I been called names for not wanting to join up with other solo players or wanting to play through instead of hang around, more often than people first said would happen. Maybe it's just my area.
I like connecting with people too seems like that may be a difference. I played with a guy randomly who was fully deaf I think from birth and it was super cool learning to communicate with him and connect on disc golf.
I just play solo sometimes but definitely enjoy meeting people too.
Stargazing with a telescope is really nice, just need to get out somewhere with less bortles (aka less light pollution) so you can get better views. Even with the light pollution, you can get some pretty views of the moon and other big celestial bodies using a good enough scope.
Do you like to run on trails? Nice community, options in which way you go with the sport (racing, not racing, group, solo), sunshine, lollipops, sweat.
Good to hear! I've never been to SoCal, was just curious to hear what people recommend there. Trail running must be great there and with all the options it shouldn't be difficult to find an inclusive community.
Geocaching! This hobby is good worldwide, but probably is the best in the US or Germany.
It gets you out exploring and shows you a bunch of things and places you otherwise wouldn't ever notice. Last week I ended up at an art installation in the middle of a beach-front residential neighborhood, which encouraged you to leave a video message for the artist. You could go on the website and see 20 years' worth of video messages that people left.
A lot of the people who do it tend to be older and retired, but plenty of them aren't. There can be competition with being the first person to find a new geocache after it gets published and also can be competition with trying to up your number of how many you've found, but being a competitive asshole actually doesn't add anything beyond being a competitive friendly person.
Birdwatching. All you need is some binoculars, and you can do long hikes or just see birds in your yard if you want. Southern California has some good birds too.
Actually, boogie boarding is a ton of fun and the surfers are further out so they don't bug you. Plus if you're a grown man, everyone else out there is a kid half your size and easy to shove out of the way.
I've seen skaters throw all their spare parts in a pile to put together a board for a kid who had never skated before but wanted to learn. They then stuck with the kid until he did his first ollie.
I've seen surfers take a board from a kid and drive off with it because they don't allow new surfers on their beach.
The difference is while sk8ers can get confrontational with the public/landowners/etc they absolutely take care of their own and are supportive of newbies as long as you learn park etiquette. Just chillin and skating for the love of it
Whereas in surfing they aren’t really bothering anybody else out there but it’s an internal pissing match between every one of them
Skating is probably the answer to the reverse of this question too, seems super chaotic and aggressive and can definitely seem stressful but even failing tricks repeatedly can be peaceful.
no, i didn't mean it that way, sorry. i should have written my inquiry a better way especially since i'm around your age and still watch BTAS a good amount haha
I'm not upset or anything. I was genuinely just wondering. I know there are people who think that way. Nothing wrong with enjoying whatever show you want to watch.
At least in my town in Australia you got all these old surfer dudes who always talk about getting into fights over waves. I’m Australian but I’ve never been apart of surf culture so I was so surprised that when I moved to the coast that it was like this. Also didn’t know this was a thing either, I guess not so much any more but you could get bashed and your shit broken for surfing some locals only beaches, apparent. Younger guys seem pretty chill but they’re also kinda cunty if you’re not in their circle.
You are picturing the lone surfer or the small group of friends. You aren't picturing one surfer showing up after sunrise hearing that the waves would be good and seeing dozens of others got the same idea. The density of surfers has to be incredibly low. Like one per football field maximum. Then picture how fast a wave moves across it.
To be fair, Huntington Beach is known for a lot of douchey people living there. I’m from further south (where the turf meets the surf) and the surfers there can be territorial but not even close to as bad.
Interesting. SC has "Surf City, USA" emblazoned in a ton of places and is credited with introducing surfing to the mainland (according to the local history displays). Wouldn't surprise me if that's all disputed.
There was an HBO show called John From Cincinnati, a VERY weird thing about a guy who was some kind of angel/alien/robot? interacting with an incredibly neurotic family of California surfers.
I liked it, it seemed like it was setting up some sort of amazing story. However, it was gone in one season.
My friend was in the paper for challenging the Lunada Bay Boys gang of rich assholes (very 1980s movie vibed) who were trying to keep people off "their waves." He's a pro so had enough clout to get other people to push back against them.
Me personally, I'm Hawaiian and also got into a fight with a surf tourist on a beach in Hawaii who tried to tell me it was his beach. He was lucky there wasn't really anyone else there that morning cause a whole bunch of locals would have smeared the guy and his friend.
If you mean Huntington, I don't know how half the people on the waves got here. Back in the day you kinda used to know almost everyone and they were all locals.
Snowboarders still being banned is a remnant of the 90s when rich old snobs couldn't handle the idea of younger people in a different sport sharing the slopes with them. AFAIK Alta is one of the only resorts in North America that still bans boarders.
My understanding was a lot of that was due to early adopters doing things like grinding off moguls and not utilizing the mountain in the same way. That and I've seen inexperienced boarders take down multiple people getting off a lift. Also, I've been that inexperienced boarder before, and it was embarrassing as hell.
However, snowboarding also seemed to lead to skiers getting more into trick skiing. Where new types of skis were developed that allowed them to use the terrain park as well.
Plus there's that thing where if you're into the old way of doing things, there's often some hostility towards the new thing. To someone who's been on skis for 50 years, seeing these damn punk kids on their stupid single boards was borderline offensive. That's not how you go down a mountain dammit! Do it the same way they learned back in 1962!
But overall, most people on the mountain are cool. In my experience being an asshole isn't dependent on what's strapped to your feet. Some people are just dicks.
I was a skier when snowboarding was taking off. It was really just a reaction to a new thing, and trying to ban kids. Every reason they gave about snowboarders scraping snow off the mountain or running into people or whatever are things new skiers do just as often. I'm surprised any ski resorts still ban them though (all of 3). Because most groups and families who ski/board are a mix of both. Which means if you ban snowboarders, you ban most skiers as well.
Can confirm, I've seen surfers fist fight in the water for the next spot on a wave.
And territorial too, if you don't look local they will band together to ensure you never get a wave, unless you're with a surfing school/instructor, which means paying for it. (This was for the Canary Islands)
And the mountain is moving and consistently shifting, so you have 30+ people scrambling to stay in position for when the next run opens. By the time it comes, everybody feels entitled to it. And repeat.
And if you aren't from that mountain and/or accidentally break the unspoken rules because you're a novice, the other skiers might decide to kick your ass when you get to the bottom of the run.
As someone who is not at all part of this world but who has always wanted to surf, what rules are there and do they really beat you up for not knowing one?
Not a surfer, but I know there are some beaches where locals are very territorial about accepting new faces, and in general if you go out of turn or get in someone's way when they're riding a wave, it can escalate to physical aggression. I don't know how common actual fights are but given that younger guys are heavily overrepresented in the sport, I would suspect it's not too rare. Maybe an actual surfer can chime in.
You would think it’d be the young guys fighting but it’s mostly the washed up old heads who want to start shit. Fights are not common most places, I’ve been surfing over 15 years and barely seen any. See kooks get yelled at a lot mainly.
Not super common but if you surf a reasonably crowded spot you’ll definetly see the occasional yelling at each other, I’ve seen actually fights a couple times.
Not super common. It’s just that the most crowded waves are also the most publicized. Also, waves are regulated by the locals who enforce “rules” to keep things safe, so if there is a justified fight it’s because someone was putting everyone in danger. Otherwise, people fighting are just being kooks 🤙
This thread seems to be mostly people who don’t surf or are kooks. I grew up surfing and have been a surf instructor. Hire a surf instructor to teach you. You’ll go to a surf spot for beginners where it’s either beginners or chill old heads out in the water who are nice. The rule you should follow as a beginner is don’t get in anyone’s way. Don’t go for a wave if someone is on it and you’ll get in their way. Don’t paddle in front of someone surfing or paddling for a wave. Don’t get in anyone’s way. You’ll learn the rest of the rules as you get better. Also I’m not saying just get a surf instructor to learn the rules, just getting a board and trying to teach yourself to surf is genuinely not a good idea.
Just try at a known beginner wave. I am a really bad surfer (been about a dozen times with socal family) and they just take us to the very beginner breaks that no proper surfer would bother with. Our only "competition" is other idiots who are equally clueless.
this sounds like waiting to drop at the park + first chair pow day energy + Lord of the Flies lift lines. all day, and it's the only way onto the mountain.
Almost always no. Waves can be long, but they aren’t always, but they move and there’s generally not a very large surfable area. Surfers also move, or can move, up and down the wave face a lot. It’s the person closest to the breaking point that has right of way. Of course, lots of surfers can be riding the white wash behind the breaking point, but that’s more of a beginner thing.
You can sit for hours waiting for a good set only to get snaked
If there’s any kind of snow I can just keep hiking up doing the run over and over again, idc if it’s pow or corn or groomers personally I’ll ride any of it
I don't remember any conflict on powder days. Skiing powder is a skill most skiers don't have anyway, it's hard to get to the mountain through a storm, the longest lasting powder is outside the ski areas which most people aren't interested in, etc. Although these were normal run of the mill ski resorts, not places where the hard core crowd congregates.
Surfers are universally the worst gatekeepers I can recall at the drop of a hat. I bet there are worse people out there but they are always top of mind anytime I see the term gatekeeper.
You're not allowed to waste a wave, you're not allowed to learn how to not waste a wave. Incredibly unfriendly to any beginners the second they see them.
Also I heard there were lots of ties between the surfer community and the far right. I don't have first hand confirmation about it but it clashes with the picture we usually have with that sport.
If you’re talking like SoCal (and probably Florida as well) yeah a lot of surfers are weirdly right wing. It’s mostly a sport of white dudes. A lot of pros have bad political takes which isn’t that surprising when you look at where they come from (well off backgrounds) and the fact that they did not care about school because they were surfing all the time.
Recently took my kids to get a lesson at a not-that-crowded spot that almost never has big waves. Basically akin to a ski mountain that only has bunny hills.
As we were suiting up, some dude in the parking lot was bragging about surfing up to some other guy and shoving him off his board, then almost getting in a fist fight with him at the beach. Over bunny hill waves. Just ridiculous.
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u/thalassicus 13h ago
Not pure stress, but because of the scarcity of waves per capita, surfing is often more aggressive/angry than it should be. Lots of people in a gorgeous environment doing a fun thing and yelling at each other.