The wind seemed to be pretty westerly, the tide was very low, and the swell was small, which only means one spot will have  wave – Llandudno.

Llandudno on a Sunday, for me at least, normally means I put myself in the mindset of being happy with just 1 wave.

But unfortunately, and I know stories of locals are nothing new, but there are several boys at Llandudno that insist on catching every single wave that comes through, leaving nothing for anyone else. In addition to this they think it is their god given right to do so, claiming to be locals and that they live there. The thing is I’ve been surfing at Llandudno for years now and I can say last Sunday I have my first run in with a complete and utter twat.

I’ve seen the guy many times, and given him space like I do any surfer. I’ve even seen him go nuts at some people, but naively thought he was justified because he had never said anything to me, so I didn’t say anything. If anyone reading this does surf at Llandudno, you’ll have seen the guy I am talking about. He is about 5’8″, later 30′s, black and grey hair, he always wears a Zero wetsuit and he surfs very well as a natural footer.
So after I managed to squeeze in 3 really bad waves, this dude tells me not to sit deeper than him? He declares that I should not be catching his waves, and insists that I should show respect to people that “Live Here” [I wasn't sure if he meant living in Llandudno or Cape Town, because he certainly doesn't live in Llandudno], and should he see me sitting deeper that him again he will “Burn Me”. Now I was kind of shocked at this coming from this guy. I mean I’d seen this guy surfing a lot, and we have even exchanged pleasantries from time to time. He was yelling at me claiming I was sitting deeper to “Command respect” [What a load of bollocks], and then shouted at me basically saying I should respect him by not catching any waves. He also muttered something about me being a goofy footer and not being as good as the other people there.

So needless to say I didn’t get out of the water, I stayed and sat close to him and got one or two waves before it got dark before I headed in.

So now the response. Normally people that demand or command respect by shouting, like our subject in this story, are scared themselves. Unfortunately this guy likes to do the talking so basically shouts until he catches a wave and then says nothing after he paddled back out.  In addition to this I will not be giving this guy any space in the water, and if I see him unnecessarily shouting at anyone else I’ll try and help. Here is the plan.

• I’ve started a “Localism” category and further stories will be posted in here.
• I am going to be naming and shaming this guy, when I have the details.
• I’m going to name and shame the surf instructor that just sat and watched.
• I’m going to try and help other people out if this sort of thing happens to them.

But why should I do this?

• Everyone, even the Llandudno Idiot, have been on the other end of the stick.
• Everyone was once a beginner.
• Everyone was not a local at one stage.
• Everyone deserves some set waves and space to catch them.
• Everyone should surf with the Aloha spirit.
• Everyone should show their fellow surfers with respect.

Once this idiot shouted at me, he merely lost all the respect he did have – which is the opposite of what he wanted.

Here is a picture of Glenn Beach before I went to Llandudno. At the time it didn’t look that great, but to be fair, I probably wouldn’t have bumped into this trouble maker!

A big Mahalo for the link, to the original South African surf mag. I hope more people visit my site, so that they can use the surf advice or just look at the latest surf picture from Cape Town.

Here is a picture from Glenn Beach with a ZigZag sticker. Right on the poop scoop sign, thats quality mate!

So, picture the day. Jenny and I turn up at Ulu’s at about 2pm for a surf (surfing late as not feeling great in the morning due to too much sun yesterday). It was pushing low tide, offshore, sets about four to five feet and looking pretty good. our sunburn has finally got a bit better and life seems pretty good. It looked a bit hectic for Jenny but she was keen to paddle out anyway as she had sat in the clifftop warung yesterday (I had a killer session, four to five foot, offshore and clean, heavy and managed to get quite a few waves). so walking down through the cave (there are now concrete steps rather than the old shitty ladder) we passed a handwritten cardboard sign requesting that they were filming the Quiksilver Young Guns surf video between 3pm and 6pm so could people please get out of the water and show respect…

We were surfing at Ulus till 2pm the day before and there was no signs or other info to alert anyone. We got in the water and surfed for about 20 mins.

It was quite crowded and a bit aggro (about thirty people out), but actually not that bad as there was only about five really good people (yanks). So, on my second wave I took off (lovely set wave, getting bigger down the reef) did a bottom turn and a top turn (setting up for the section) and some yank wanker takes off just inside me as I top turn, bottom turns and basically hassles me off the wave. I shout and him (‘shit man, you must be joking’) then get nailed when I should have speared him. during this time, guys on the cliff have started shouting and whistling for everyone to come in. there are about thirty guys out along the whole reef at Ulu Watu. Some people thought it was a shark sighting! then local guys start walking out on the reef ledge and most people realise that they are calling everyone in. so, I am feeling pretty pissed off about the snaking but jenny and I paddle in as we don’t want to piss anyone off. I am wondering if the blond wanker who snaked me is meant to be in the video so don’t want to hassle him too much in case the locals come after me. so we come in, walk out of the cave to hear shouting and screaming from above. At the top of the cave a big local indo guy has a western guy in a headlock, and another indo guy is punching him in the back. No one seems to know what is going on until I speak to an older ozzie guy who is saying that the white guy is a french guy who was giving the local ‘lifeguards’ hassle about not being able to go out. he said that Quicksilver had paid off the local Ulu ‘lifeguards’ to clear the ENTIRE break (bear in mind there are about four peaks) so that they can film a surf video. there are lots of angry people about. anyway, the guy is finally let out of his headlock, another guy comes up with a wooden two by four (it looks pretty nasty for a minute) and then smashes the fins off the french guys board and pretty much beats the shit out of it. the local ‘lifeguards’ (all in yellow shirts) tell him to go and not come back. strangely the frenchie seems up for the fight, despite having the shit kicked out of him a minute ago. he is chased up the steps where some ozzies finally persuade him to go. It is pretty tense after that. The Quiksilver sponsored sufers (three or four of them) were actually sitting on the steps next to me and I had previously asked them what was going on (they didn’t know but were apparently quite spooked by the whole thing). We went up to our warung and started to clear out as there was a really bad vibe. a helicopter turns up to take photos, along with a camera guy in the water plus a rib out in the sea. It is pretty weird, you look out from the cliff and the whole sea is totally empty apart from these four quicksilver guys, the camera crew and the helicopter. We took a few photos of the helicopter scene and left. The ladies from our warung actually apologised as we left…

The only consolation was that less than an hour after they cleared the water, a big storm came in, it poured with rain and went on shore so they can’t have got much footage for their pains. (we were surfing now shitty waves at dreamland at this point) what was quite sickening about the whole thing was that it was all ‘sanctioned’ by a multinational corporation like Quiksilver. Ok, some people might argue that the ocean is free for everyone, but Bali does have a communal society with self appointed village committees (banjars) which handle sharing, ownership etc so maybe there is something like that at Ulu Watu. But to beat someone up really sucks. Quiksilver must have known that by paying the locals off this sort of thing would happen- and there were quiksilver guys present (surfboard riders, film crew and managers) who could have stopped the violence. they could have advertised it properly (a few days at least before like a contest) and given money to the local community (or at least advertise that) and maybe given out a few t shirts to the pissed off travelling surfers who gave up their afternoon surfing for their cause. Having spoken to quite a few surfers after the event, everyone was genuinely shocked at how out of hand things became and were really angry that it was all created by Quiksilver.

It would be great if you could put this out into the media, I’ll happily provide any further info you need, personally, I won’t be buying any Quiksilver gear again. It would be interesting to know what their view is on the whole thing.

by Julian Soper.

You may distribute and link to if you quote Cape Town Surfer as the source and the Author – Julian Soper.

Sorry for the cheesy caption – it had to be done!

See The Post Where I Found Clive
See The Post Where I Found The Fin

Clive’s Lost Fin

See the post where I found the fin
See the post where I reunite Clive with his fin

Since the swell has been good, but the wind hasn’t been great, leaving Greenpoint a little bumpy.
So the moral of the story is, when you are driving in South Africa always make sure you have a decent spare wheel, jack and spanner in you car. I was driving home last night and a log was rolling down the road. Rolling log plus the side of your wheel leaves you with what I had in the picture below. Unfortunately for me though, I didn’t have a wheel spanner so I had to wait for a friend to come and help out.

It is the left fin, if you are looking at the bottom of the board with the nose pointing away from you, and is an FCS fin. The plugs look a little bit scratched, nothing major and the fin itself is fine.

Check Out The Post Where I write about finding the fin owner

Check Out The Post Where I reunite Clive with his lost fin