Posted on 04/10/2002 5:58:44 PM PDT by ATOMIC_PUNK
3 Calif. Surfers Arrested in Brawl
Three Surfers Arrested, Accused of Assaulting Fellow Wave-Rider in Case of Territorialism
S A N F R A N C I S C O, April 10 Surfers are known for their hang-loose attitude. But for some wave riders a strong territorial streak lurks beneath the laid-back veneer.
Police say such a streak may have been behind an attack on a surfer at a secluded federal park beneath the Golden Gate Bridge. The incident led the government to arrest three surfers Wednesday.
The victim, Adam Browning of Berkeley, had his nose broken and needed several stitches in his face. He claims the three men tried to drown him while shouting at him "not to surf here anymore."
Browning says the men took turns holding him and punching him as he became entangled in the leg rope connecting him to his surfboard. He calls the attack a case of surf territorialism a mentality akin to that of street gangs defending their turf.
Ryan Farrell, 30, Yoel Gorfain, 22, and Jeffrey Duerson, 21, all of San Francisco, were arrested Wednesday and jailed in lieu of $50,000 bail. The three were charged with assault resulting in serious bodily injury and are expected to enter pleas next week. They face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Neither Farrell nor Duerson had legal counsel. Gorfain's attorney did not return calls for comment.
A U.S. Park Police investigator said in a sworn affidavit that Farrell grabbed Browning's surfboard and tried to break off the fin.
According to the officer, Jon Schneider, Farrell yelled: "What the hell are you doing surfing here?"
Browning, 31, said he survived the attack by biting the hand of one of the surfers trying to hold him underwater.
"Who knows what would have happened if I didn't do that?" Browning asked.
Authorities say the fight broke out at Fort Point, a setting known for classic left-breaking waves on a low tide. The spot in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area provides long rides and a majestic setting with views of Alcatraz Island and the San Francisco skyline.
Surf territorialism has led to reports of assaults, tire slashing and to diving and aiming a surfboard at someone like a weapon.
The March issue of Surfing magazine included a layout of top spots at the North Shore of Oahu and warnings that certain spots were for "locals only" and that others were "fight clubs."
"The 'fight club' icon is simply used to mark the areas where fights commonly occur," said Evan Slater, the magazine's editor in chief. "Some are territorially driven, others are due to an increasing number of surfers fighting for a decreasing number of waves."
Surf-related assaults have been reported and prosecuted in San Diego, Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
You say, Duh! Surf terms! I surf, I know how to talk. I say, good for you! But how about all those newbies and kooks. They gotta learn somehow. This is the place then. Don't be a kook, start reading. (last edited on 03212000)
360 - A maneuver done wherein the board (and rider) spin 360 degrees on the face of the wave.
Aerial - Part of a maneuver where the surfer and his/her board leaves the water. This maneuver requires split second timing and is only performed by expert surfers.
Air - After a good bottom turn with lots of speed, head up the face, off-the-lip, and into the sky!
Barrel - A hollow faced wave and great to ride.
Blown-out - winds blowing so hard as to chop up the surf and render it unridable.
Booger - Bodyboarder
Bottom - referring to the ocean floor or to the lowest part of the wave the surfer can ride on - the bottom of the wave.
Bowl - a shallow spot in the path of the wave, causing the wave to break a little harder.
Bumpy - choppy water or it could be a decent wave but still the face could be bumpy.
Caught Inside - a surfer on the shore-side of a breaking wave (then he's going to take-it-on-the-head.)
Channel - a relatively deep spot where the waves don't normally break.
Choppy - Very small waves on the surface created by local winds.
Clean-up Wave - A wave that breaks outside of the line-up and dumps on the entire line-up.
Close out - when waves break all the way across a bay or normally safe channel rendering a surf spot unridable (because surfers can't paddle-out to the line-up.)
Covered - Same as "toobed."
Cut-Back - A 180 degree turn that's done on either of the two rails of the surfboard. Turn back toward the curl or breaking part of a wave.
Cut out - Same as pull-out or kick-out.
Da kine - Hawaiian style talk: The best kind of wave, as in, "I jus caught da kine wave, brah."
Drop - The initial downward slide on the face of wave after taking off and before the bottom turn.
Drop In - 1. To intentionally cause your board to drop or fall on someone who takes your wave, or obstructs your path, while surfing. - James McBurney, Charleston, West Virginia 2. To snake someone; or cut in on their wave.
Drop-knee - One foot on the bodyboard, with the other hanging off the back. Difficult and fun.
Dude - "Thats what me and my surfing buddies call each other, and like the dudes we see like catching sweet waves...and like kickin spongers." - emailed to Surfing.Guide@about.com
Floater - Where the surfer rides his board loosely along the top of the breaking up or foam of the wave.
Face-of-the-Wave - The front part of the wave. One rides on the face of the wave.
Goofy-foot - Rider who surfs with right foot as lead foot.
Goon - Overbearing Locals.
Grom - From grommet. A young surfer.
Gun - About seven feet long. Used for big-wave riding.
Hang Ten - All ten toes on the nose. Gotta be on a log to do this one.
Hollow - extremely concave curling wave (a good thing!)
Hodad - A beginner or non-surfer.
Honey - A female surfer.
Inside - Refers to where you are in the line-up, or a place relative to the break. Inside would be on the side of the face of the wave; toward shore. Also refers to a position relative to the shore line, as in, "he craked his head on the inside reef."
Kook - If you don't know then you are one (dat's OK. We all were once.)
Mushy - Slow, sloppy waves of little power. (Better than no waves.)
Outside - Refers to where you are in the line-up, or a place relative to the break. Outside would be on the back of the wave or it would be at the outer most place one could wait relative to the shore yet still catch a wave.
Over-the-falls - Not good!
Line-up - Place in the water where the wave breaks. Naturally, all the surfers "line up" there and wait for the perfect wave.
Log - Longboard, nine feet and longer.
Pit - Place directly in front of the crest of the wave. Usually, if you get in the pit you lose speed, get caught and pounded.
Plank - Long Board
Lip - The top of the face of the wave. Usually curling forward some.
Make a wave - To go for a wave and "make it" as opposed to getting tossed off your board and pounded by the wave.
Pitched - Tossed of the lip of the wave and usually off the board.
Prone - Ride with your belly on the board. The most common and easiest way to ride a bodyboard.
Rickt - deriving from "Richters" deriving from "Off the Richter Scale" meaning that something is awesome / cool / da bomb / etc... (Mahalo to Christian Thiel uzsatq@ibm.rhrz.uni-bonn.de for providing this one for us. Chris says that there is even a secret spot on the CA Central Coast named Richters.)
Ripping - Executing drastic and radical moves on the wave. Having it your way with a wave.
Re-Entry - Attacking the lip, usually going vertically and then turning nose down and re-entering the wave.
Short Board - About six feet long or less.
Shore break - Waves break very close to the beach.
Shubee - A tourist who buys surfing gear, dresses surf, but has never surfed in their life.Soup Bowl - Steep takeoff point with mushy shoulders on both sides.
Prevelant on the US East Coast.Sponge - Bodyboard. Called sponge because its core is made of a sponge like material. Your bodyboard.
Sponger - Somebody that bodyboards.
Standup Surfing - To stand up on the board and ride. Only a hand-full of bodyboarders are doing this one and all from Hawaii at last count.
Stick - Your board.
Stoked - "I'm stoked man! I jus got toobed!"
Swell - A good thing.
Tanker - Same as a log.
Tailslide - Part of a larger maneuver in which the surfer purposely makes his/her fins lose their grip and the board slides.
Take-off point - The best spot to be in the line-up to catch the best part of a breaking wave.
The ZONE: This is the place where there is no escape from the wrath of the on-coming wave.. You are caught inside, too far in to catch the wave, and the wave is breaking to far out for you to paddle outside THE ZONE. You get pounded in the zone.
Toes-on-the-Nose - Riding a wave with one's toes curled around the nose of the board.
Toobed! - Riding inside the "tube." In the green room.
Top Turn - Similar to the re-entry but the approach is less vertical and usually performed to gain speed.
Tourist - Non Local
Tube - When the crest falls over the hollow barrel, it forms a pipe shaped wave.
Tube-Ride - Where the surfer rides behind or inside the broken curl of the wave. Also known as "In the Barrel"
Surfz up! - Waves are breaking and surfable. I'm outta here!
I quit years ago. Besides the water is so polluted you'd get cancer being out there.
A copy of this is going on the wall in the shaper shed.
Actually, I think there is a lot more to this story than meets the eye.
I'd bet my 30 year-old, single fin Bing Australian Foil on it.
Sounds oddly similar to what must be going through the mind of a Great White shark... just prior to its taking a bite out of an unsuspecting surfer.
I quit surfing when my Hobie longboard (no leash) on a wipeout whacked me in the head breaking my jaw and knocking me out cold.
Bra' - short for "brother".
Epic - Huge, awesome; used to describe an exceptionally great ride, e.g.: "That was epic, bra'!"
Ah, the good old days. I sure had a lot of free time back then...
And this territoriality stuff is nothing new -- try surfing at somewhere like WindanSea in La Jolla fifteen years ago -- the more agressive boyos would try to spear you with the nose of their board. I cratered one goons eye for that tactic, and after that his buds gave me my space (he went home to mama).
Glad I quit.
They Little Sisters of the Leather Jacket. Rough nuns.
The water is very bad 1L.
I read about that some months ago, thinking about it, I guess that's logical in light of the pollution.
Glad I quit many years ago.
;)
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