The sun was out and the water was smooth on July 5, 2018, the day Mark Olson’s back got sliced open by a surfboard fin. Earlier that morning, Olson had chatted with a buddy about the surf conditions at Miramar Beach in Montecito, an exclusive enclave on California’s central coast. When Olson got to the beach and paddled out into the water, he saw waves with “a clean, fun shape,” he later recalled. “Classic Miramar.
Olson set up among the other surfers and watched the waves rolling in. Surfing is a waiting game, and a typical session involves a lot of floating and staring. Soon there came a rideable wave, about three feet tall, and Olson and a few other surfers started paddling for position. Olson and one other guy made the wave and popped to their feet; it was go time.
Surfers call this “dropping in” or “shoulder hopping.” If someone is already riding a wave and you try to catch that same wave in front of them, you’re the baddie. Many nonsurfers are familiar with the general idea from the original. It’s easy to sympathize with Utah after the other surfer punches him in the face and cuts his leash, the cord that keeps him connected to his surfboard.
So what is surf etiquette exactly? Olson’s legal team brought in former pro Shaun Tomson, who laid out a version of the rules similar those. In short, those rules are: 1) don’t drop in on surfers already riding a wave, and 2) don’t lose control of your board. This etiquette is not obvious to new surfers, and they often learn the rules from others in the water, usually not in sotto voce.
As for regular kooks, they’re going to drop in because that’s what kooks do. The ocean is unpredictable, and there are often many surfers going for the same wave. It’s sloppy and crowded out there, and most of us get in the way sometimes. We’ll just keep yelling at each other when it happens and try not to get
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