PARKING LOT PUNCH OUT, THU 17APR2014

Loc: El Porto

Time: 0630-0900

Crew: Juan, Manny, Gary, Dave T. (WHC)

Conditions: 2-3FT+, offshore, consistent, overcast, violent.

     I was supposed to go to HB, but I wake up late, late being 0530. I figure if I stay local I’ll catch the best window of surf, since the low tide is early. Plus, last night the Westside Hurley Crew had given me the heads up that most of them would be surfing Porto, so I didn’t want to miss out on an expression session.

     No free parking today, but I’m hella early, so I put an hour’s worth in the meter—good until 0900. And you’d think that Porto would be packed, but it’s not. With first light much earlier—now that the days are longer—most people are still on the 0700 paddle-out mindset, but really, you can surf as early as 0600 if you want to push it.

     While the rest of the guys surf in front of the bathrooms, I paddle out just north of 45^th.

     The surf has been getting better, and today is a testament to it. With the overcast sky and glassy ocean, the water is a gray mirror image of the clouds above. Seeing the waves are hard, but once they stand up and cast their bending shadows over their curling faces, you can see that the waves are standing up.

     It’s not “big,” but it’s punchy and rippable. With only a few guys around me, I catch back-to-back rights, never connecting more than two turns, but the single snaps I get are enough to fuel my stoke.

     I paddle closer to the boys who sit at 42^nd, but it’s too crowded here and inconsistent. I turn around towards the tanks. Another right rolls in. I paddle back.

     The crowd is thin until about 0800, but even with the new faces and the tide rising, we’re all still scoring. My wave of the day is an outside left that everyone calls me on. The first section is steep, so I climb the face and do a cut back before the wave mooshes out on the inside. I receive thumbs-up when I look out the back again.

     Jack, also one of the homies, shows up. He paddles up to me and says, “There was a fight on the sand. Two guys were just swinging at each other. One of the guy’s friends had to save him.”

     Afterwards in the lot, I check my phone. I have text messages from Gary, explaining what had happened in the lot when he was leaving—round two. Apparently there was a fight between a local guy who surfs the bathrooms a lot and another regular, all due to “snaking.”

     Later, I saw the video posted on Facebook, a part 1 and a part 2. I know the guy who got beaten up, but I won’t mention his name. Let’s just call him Red wetsuit. Red is pretty much a local-local, like he’s legit. He’s been surfing Porto for quite some time.

     THIS IS WHAT I HEARD: The other guy, Black wetsuit, surfs there too, but doesn’t quite fall into the El Porto elite hierarchy (neither do I, so I’m not talking shit here). Red has been snaking Black for some time, so Black is “over it” and snakes Red to give him a taste of his own medicine, and . . . this is the result.

     I’d like to write something insightful, but I really don’t know what else to put. I’ve been there, snaked. Hell, guys have looked back at me while they’re snaking me and kept going down the line, especially at Porto. So when I surf there, I expect other surfers to have shitty etiquette. It just comes with the territory. With low expectations, I don’t expect much from people, so when I’m snaked, I’m not surprised, sadly.

     We’re supposed to be adults and talk it out, but there’s something different about the energy in the lineup and surfing in general. Egos blow up tenfold. Pride (I can’t let that guy punk me). And next thing you know, it’s like high school again. There’s a fight on the quad. Everyone who wasn’t there hears about what had happened.

     In my last blogs I had said that tensions have been rising at El Porto. Something extremely negative in the air. Can’t say I didn’t warn you.