Surfing & Wave Etiquette

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Schell Michael. I'm here with Expert Village and today we're going to be doing a series on how to surf. So let's discuss some surfer etiquette. Just like we have etiquette in life, we have etiquette in the water. Respect not only for the ocean but for other people and it's something that I feel is really important and if you can get this right off the bat, you're going to be "in there". You never want to go in the water thinking like, "Oh I'm so good" or "Oh yeah, I just caught this wave", you never want to get too cocky out there because that's when the ocean will give you a slap in the face or possibly, somebody else could give you slap in the face. So, you just want to be courteous when you go out there. A few of the things, key things you want to remember is, you never want to jump in on someone's wave and how you can tell that is the surfer closest to the break, if they're on it first and, say you're like, you didn't see them and you look over and you're like, "Oh my gosh, there they are" you want to just pull off the wave as quick as you can, get out of there and let that person come through because sometimes, there will be four or five people paddling for one wave and once they realize, "Oh, this person has it" then those people will retreat. It's never like, oh, there's only one person on a wave. So, if you ever get in that situation where you've found yourself in front of somebody they're probably not going to be mad at you as long as you just kind of get off their wave as quick as possible. So, that's one important thing, is don't snake somebody. Let's see, what else out there...just keeping a positive attitude. People are super friendly in the water, you know if you ever want to just talk, "Hey, what's up" or ask them how the surf is out here, how long have you been, you know. Any kind of conversation is great. Not being too loud and cocky, I'd say would be the best thing and just respecting people's waves."