Explanation of Localism

billypilgrim

Nep status
Apr 19, 2017
686
1,257
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CJ Nelson on becoming top dong in the local pecking order.

“So we’ve all been standing in line for 30 years to get into Disney Land and 2 million people just got to cut in front of us and now we have to have lunch with them. That’s it. It’s done. So what are you gonna do?"

If you're CJ Nelson? Apparently sell them a bunch of mass produced Firewire junk that is "as radical and diverse as my life".

BOOOOOOOOFARKINHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
 

Slabsplease

OTF status
Mar 5, 2015
158
143
43
Learn to read the undulations of the ocean, learn the waves you want to surf at the most (and all their faces/moods/etc), navigate the lineup properly and the crowd factor diminishes. Give yourself the best chances by putting in time and knowing at a moments notice where to be. It's all a read.

I've updated the clueless on the rules and will continue to and I've told many a "local" to seek mental health therapy for being so attached to their subjective status. Respect what is respectable.
 

Subway

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 31, 2008
13,519
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LBNY
if you are indeed a long time alpha local, and still have the ability to make waves with authority (not saying you need to be shredding and boosting airs, but surfing well) then you should be getting your share of set waves, but that responsibility falls more on you than on the misbehavior of a bunch of adult learners around you.

burn them if dumb Luck puts them right next to you on the wave of the day. If they are indeed the flotsam and jetsam that make up at least 50% of the modern incompetence and entitlement we are lamenting on this thread, that guy simply won’t matter….and if he lips off, just explain that you are taking off on the best set waves, there are plenty of other waves for the less experienced. But again, if you are alpha, your demeanor and your competence will still work, minus the fighting and lawsuits

just burn the douchebags if needed. The rest will get it.

BTW the above elitist approach is not always the best, and I am purely mentioning it in respect to one’s true home break where you basically grew up and/or have been surfing for decades
 

ElOgro

Duke status
Dec 3, 2010
32,112
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if you are indeed a long time alpha local, and still have the ability to make waves with authority (not saying you need to be shredding and boosting airs, but surfing well) then you should be getting your share of set waves, but that responsibility falls more on you than on the misbehavior of a bunch of adult learners around you.

burn them if dumb Luck puts them right next to you on the wave of the day. If they are indeed the flotsam and jetsam that make up at least 50% of the modern incompetence and entitlement we are lamenting on this thread, that guy simply won’t matter….and if he lips off, just explain that you are taking off on the best set waves, there are plenty of other waves for the less experienced. But again, if you are alpha, your demeanor and your competence will still work, minus the fighting and lawsuits

just burn the douchebags if needed. The rest will get it.

BTW the above elitist approach is not always the best, and I am purely mentioning it in respect to one’s true home break where you basically grew up and/or have been surfing for decades
Put on your Hendrix pants and chant “you’ll never hear surf music again”.

15 years with one neighbor, best friend. Everyone else was a visitor. 45 people out this morning in conditions both of us would have given a pass on even if nobody else was going out.

CJ Nelson became a local between exciting the aircraft and the walk to immigration on his first trip here. You wouldn’t have to ask him, he’d tell you. Travels with an entourage.

It’s a shame he missed out on the Pat Tobin orientation.
 

One-Off

Tom Curren status
Jul 28, 2005
14,207
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33.8N - 118.4W
I saw this earlier in the week and started a thread and then deleted it... It’s funny to me that someone who runs a brand that sells soft boards to beginners complains about crowds and breakdown in organization. The point has turned into a total shitshow. Painful to see.
I also found it laughable that he talks about a "real" surfer and then mentions Steve Coletta, but also "Matt Johnson" as the epitome of hardcore surf ethos. He laments, "There's no 'Big Wednesday' in it" anymore. He then goes on to demonize, "...barbie doll, pop culture." :foreheadslap: Maybe someone should tell him "Big Wednesday" was a Hollywood movie?

As far as being a local.... I've been surfing my local spot for just shy of 50 years. For more than half of those years I was, due to employment, a weekend warrior and would always dawn patrol (like pull up in the dark) to try and get in those 30 minutes with no crowd, and one hour with a light crowd. There was definitely the same handful of guys every week who knew what they were doing and would get the set waves, not by intimidation or some pecking order, but because of wave knowledge.

Now, recently retired, I avoid the weekend like the plague and have also learned to avoid the morning to avoid the before work crowd. Right around noon I find the place pretty empty. I never see anyone I know surfing there any more and the people who see me wouldn't know I'm a "local." But I still get my set waves thanks, not to some place in a pecking order, but to good old fashioned wave knowledge... Matt Johnson style. :roflmao:
 

menobrah

Gerry Lopez status
Feb 28, 2021
1,056
2,148
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Wait a second. While I generally agree with the him isnt this the guy who had all the fins stolen out of he and his pals boards in northern baja a while back for behaving really poorly in the lineup..hilarious take from him if so, frankly surprised he doesnt have a surf school in santa cruz given his whiny take at this point.
 

Waiehu

Legend (inyourownmind)
Apr 1, 2009
350
198
43
Wait a second. While I generally agree with the him isnt this the guy who had all the fins stolen out of he and his pals boards in northern baja a while back for behaving really poorly in the lineup..hilarious take from him if so, frankly surprised he doesnt have a surf school in santa cruz given his whiny take at this point.
Yes, this is "the guy" who had all the fins liberated from his crew and himself during the night. Nice move by whoever took the fins.
I find his rant pretty entertaining, since he makes his living by selling surf goods to the same people he is complaining about. I have met him, but do not really know him. You Santa Cruz guys may know the story from some years back, when he threatened the Father of one of the "Enforcers" in the Pleasure Point area without knowing who he was. The details of this episode were shared with me by a long time friend I have done some work with and now lives in Santa Cruz. Pretty much ended with him with his tail between his legs and offering an apology to the Father. The thing I really find entertaining about the story is that my friend kind of got involved in the drama when he started getting messages that one of the sponsors of CJ who wanted to talk to him. When he went to meet with the Sponsor he was asked to not get involved, since he is friends with the man threatened. Turns out, the rumor mill in Pleasure Point had it that my Friend was going to step in. The humorous thing was that my Friend had not even heard about the confrontation and the threats.
Personally, do not think much of him. I wonder how he feels when one of the people he is complaining about paddles out and sits next to him on one of the boards he sells.
 
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PPK96754

Miki Dora status
Apr 15, 2015
4,699
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Kauai's north shore ~
Put on your Hendrix pants and chant “you’ll never hear surf music again”.

15 years with one neighbor, best friend. Everyone else was a visitor. 45 people out this morning in conditions both of us would have given a pass on even if nobody else was going out.

CJ Nelson became a local between exciting the aircraft and the walk to immigration on his first trip here. You wouldn’t have to ask him, he’d tell you. Travels with an entourage.

It’s a shame he missed out on the Pat Tobin orientation.
Tobin! :applause2: Long time I no hea dat name. :roflmao:
 
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LarryTate

Nep status
May 7, 2012
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Wait a second. While I generally agree with the him isnt this the guy who had all the fins stolen out of he and his pals boards in northern baja a while back for behaving really poorly in the lineup..hilarious take from him if so, frankly surprised he doesnt have a surf school in santa cruz given his whiny take at this point.
Correct. He also has a line of $800 soft tops. Oh the irony.
 

ElOgro

Duke status
Dec 3, 2010
32,112
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Since nobody has brought up his ex JAH...

I see 15 pages here...

I see people do stuff here, people that can surf with a reasonable level of competence, that if the same happened in their hood by an outsider they’d loose their sh!t. The “I’m only gonna be here for five days” syndrome.
 

ElOgro

Duke status
Dec 3, 2010
32,112
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Tobin! :applause2: Long time I no hea dat name. :roflmao:
I knew him from the art community in Laguna before I moved down here so I got a pass. I don’t know about him over on your side of the pond but his newcomers orientation here was legendary.
 

kidfury

Duke status
Oct 14, 2017
24,933
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Where are all these alpha locals? Think I mighta got stinkeye from one at Windansea one time. Sorry I got your set wave, bro.
 

Sharkbiscuit

Duke status
Aug 6, 2003
26,586
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Jacksonville Beach
CJ Nelson became a local between exciting the aircraft and the walk to immigration on his first trip here. You wouldn’t have to ask him, he’d tell you. Travels with an entourage.

It’s a shame he missed out on the Pat Tobin orientation.
As mentioned by others.




Since nobody has brought up his ex JAH...

I see 15 pages here...

I see people do stuff here, people that can surf with a reasonable level of competence, that if the same happened in their hood by an outsider they’d loose their sh!t. The “I’m only gonna be here for five days” syndrome.
This is the problem with the "pecking order" once there's too many hatchlings in the nest. Everyone thinks they're better or have paid more dues. The longboarders try to exploit paddling advantage. Every opportunity a shortboarder has to shut the door on a longboarder exploiting paddling advantage, they exercise. Some of the contest kids, some of the randoms, and some of the regulars are one-man-crowds.

I mostly surf B-grade to avoid the shitshows at the main spots. Sorting out the conditions they're almost as good as (or with weird conditions, sometimes better) takes homework.

Trying to surf reefs/points in 2022 without it being a WQS contest getting crashed by a surf school group lesson is kind of like learning the vagaries of tide/direction/interval/size that constitute fun surf at sh!t spots. Setting your alarm for the asscrack pays dividends in Latin America, where the locals are notoriously slow and the tourists don't want to wake up to a buzzing noise. Weekday California, sometimes 4:45 is more crowded than 10:45.

It's 2022. Plot wearing wetsuit as the Y-axis and wearing asswhippings as the X-axis and the most fun is in the upper-right.
 

EastCoastBrah

Legend (inyourownmind)
Nov 16, 2020
496
454
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All CRIME Surfboards are designed by CJ Nelson & Ryan Engle, and are built to be "soft-tops that work". They are all made like "real surfboards", and constructed from shaped eps foam blanks with stringers, glassed with 6oz epoxy cloth, then finished with a textured EVA foam skin (which you should not wax), laminated to the deck. The end result is a highly shreddable, super fun surfboard that performs exceptionally well in most conditions, and that also doesn't wear out like those other disposable soft-tops...

This is pretty funny.

Wants to make money off influx of surfers, but doesn't want to see them in the water.