Up the Coast of the California's: Fat and Old

If you haven't tried it before I recommend the barrels for breakfast

I'm going to begin this entry with the following. If your fat, old and not that great at surfing don't hassle people in the water. Actually don't hassle people at all regardless of your skill level and years of experience at your local break. With this in mind please enjoy the following:

Paddling out at a beach break known for its localism can be a little bit intimidating.  When I paddled out at Silver Strand Beach in Oxnard with my brother and Dad I was a little bit apprehensive about getting about the possibility of getting harassed in the water. When I'm in IB I can be pretty aggressive in the water. I'm not afraid to potentially paddle around someone or paddle battle someone for a wave. While this works fine for me when I'm in Imperial Beach it can be dangerous for me when I'm at a new spot. This session I was doing fine. Making sure I generally went for the smaller waves that most people didn't want to avoid pissing anyone off. Apparently this wasn't enough.

While I was paddling for a two foot left that was setting up to potentially give me one little section before it closed out one of the locals spotted me. He was quite a character. Looming an impressive 5'6"(this is a rough estimation) he literally towered under me. What he lacked in surfing ability and in height he had in beer drinking ability and weight. His gut was the size of a Thanksgiving Turkey. He had a mean look with his shaved head, splotchy skin and absence of a smile. He saw me paddling for the wave and something snapped inside of him. He quickly turned around and started paddle battling be for a wave that barely came up to my waist. 

peak action

I pulled out of the wave as soon as he started paddling for it but apparently this was not good enough. As I began to return to the line up the man shot his board out at me. As I turned around to question the motives of my attacker he began to growl and paddle towards me. "Don't paddle battle me you fucking bitch", he screamed at me. I was confused, not only was the wave only two feet in height, it was about to close out. On top of that, I had not even attempted to paddle battle him, I simply backed off of the wave as soon as he started to paddle.

Daniel got more waves than anyone else in the water combined and somehow did not get hassled once

The man paddled up next to me and splashed me. "Do you want to take it to the beach?" he screamed.
I hadn't yet replied to his first comment and was beginning to worry for my safety. "Well do you?"

"Sir, I don't know what is wrong right now but please stay away from me"

He stared at me incredulously the gears in his brain quickly spinning trying to think of how he should reply but before he could I paddled away.

Later in the session I saw him paddle for a five foot a frame peak. The left was setting up for a sweet little barrel. He went for the wave but instead of pulling in and getting a perfect barrel he stood up, went straight and still managed to eat shit. He was a kook...


 Below are pics from another beach break that we will leave unnamed that we surfed later alone.

-Words n such-Israel Dedina

-Photo creds plus a big thank you-Serge Dedina