California
Where Is Surf Localism at Its Worst? It Might Be at Home in California
“Get off my wave, bro.” Photo: Brad Jacobson
When I tell other surfers that I lived in Brazil for six months, I’m often asked how I dealt with the localism. There seems to be some underlying assumption that all Brazilian surfers will kick your ass with Jiu Jitsu if you paddle out at their local breaks. And even when I arrived in Brazil, I admittedly subscribed to this preconceived notion. But after surfing all around the states of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo over the course of six months (including testing my luck at a certain secret spot in Rio), I can report back that I experienced virtually zero problems in Brazilian lineups. To the contrary, the Brazilian lineup vibes were typically pretty relaxed compared to what I am used to back home in California.
Then last week I was tasked with covering the latest update in the Lunada Bay localism lawsuit saga. Localism was fresh on my mind and it led me to ponder a paradox: Why do surfers from California, most of whom, to varying degrees, have grown accustomed to putting up with verbal abuse and the odd fist fight, tend to think that localism must be worse elsewhere? In my 18 years of surfing on every continent except Antarctica, my experience tells me the opposite. Localism, at least over a wide region and population of this size, is at its worst in my home state of California.
My worldview has been, of course, shaped by my experiences. Others might beg to differ. And there definitely are small pockets of places around the world where, on paper, worse localism issues. But I think that humans in general, including us surfers, are susceptible to bias that strengthens our perceived safety of the places that we live in and know intimately, while elevating the perceived risk of the places that are foreign to us, like in my example of surfing in Brazil.
I grew up and learned to surf in Santa Cruz. When I started in 2006, the infamous localism of the 1990s Santa Cruz scene was already fading, but even so, getting threatened by men twice my age came with the territory. I got used to it.
I’d watch older guys chase out SUP surfers and longboarders from their shortboard-only breaks. Or a loud guy with a dad-bod would dictate who could and couldn’t surf near him at the top of the peak. And even my first time ever surfing, on a one-foot day, some idiots threw rocks at me and my friends from the cliffs. I guess my lime-green soft-top had a “hit me” sign on it.
Then I relocated from Santa Cruz to San Diego where I lived for 10 years. It was largely the same story down there: Angry locals at jetty waves who think they own the spot, intentional drop-ins at a reef accessed only by boat, a friend who got smacked in the head for wearing a GoPro, and a spot where a no-leash policy is enforced by a small group.
The Lunada Bay story was the most well-publicized, and arguably the most severe, but it is definitely not unique along California’s expansive coast.
And it’s not that I haven’t experienced any of this behavior abroad. I have. I was kicked out of a lineup on the African isle of Mauritius – a spot notorious for its localism – simply for being a foreigner. Just a few months ago I was aggressively called a “f*%cking asshole” in Costa Rica for a minor disagreement on paddling etiquette. And one bad apple on Reunion Island decided that he would take all my waves because he “hadn’t seen me there before.”
You might find some degree of localism anywhere you go, but my experiences of surfing abroad have led me to feel that wide-reaching localism, on average, is more pervasive at home in California. The locals in Panama and Sri Lanka gave me nothing but smiles. In Japan the local surfers rolled out the red carpet to us visitors. When I spent three months in mainland Mexico this year, the locals were happy to share their lineups. And even in crowded, chaotic, foreigner-filled lineups in Indonesia, things remained relatively cordial.
I have not been everywhere in the world and I do understand the role measured localism plays in keeping a lineup safe. I’ve never been to Australia, the North Shore of Oahu, or the pay-to-play Mexican point breaks, for example. So, who knows, maybe my opinion could change. But from the localism data I’ve gathered, California takes the cake. Perhaps this is due to large swaths of California likely having the most surfers per square mile in the world over an area of that size. There are plenty of California surf spots, similar to Lunada Bay, some that I’ve surfed and some that I won’t bother, where you are all but guaranteed to run into trouble.
While my analysis of localism may seem dispiriting, it really isn’t. I’ve found most surfers, whether at home or around the world, are friendly folks and the common denominator of holding a surfboard creates a bridge that can easily connect you with others. But as I was writing about Lunada Bay last week, I couldn’t help but contemplate my global experiences with localism and how my fellow California surfers tend to downplay its impacts at home while they amplify the issue elsewhere.
Eagles singer Don Henley filed a lawsuit in New York on Friday (June 28) seeking the return of his handwritten notes and song lyrics from the band’s 1976 album Hotel California.
The civil complaint filed in Manhattan federal court comes after prosecutors in March abruptly dropped criminal charges midway through a trial against three collectibles experts accused of scheming to sell the documents.
The Eagles co-founder has maintained the pages were stolen and had vowed to pursue a lawsuit when the criminal case was dropped against rare books dealer Glenn Horowitz, former Rock & Roll Hall of Fame curator Craig Inciardi and rock memorabilia seller Edward Kosinski.
“These 100 pages of personal lyric sheets belong to Mr. Henley and his family, and he has never authorized defendants or anyone else to peddle them for profit,” Daniel Petrocelli, Henley’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement Friday.
According to the lawsuit, the handwritten pages remain in the custody of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, which declined to comment Friday on the litigation.
Lawyers for Kosinski and Inciardi dismissed the legal action as baseless, noting the criminal case was dropped after it was determined that Henley misled prosecutors by withholding critical information.
“Don Henley is desperate to rewrite history,” Shawn Crowley, Kosinski’s lawyer, said in an emailed statement. “We look forward to litigating this case and bringing a lawsuit against Henley to hold him accountable for his repeated lies and misuse of the justice system.”
Inciardi’s lawyer, Stacey Richman, said in a separate statement that the lawsuit attempts to “bully” and “perpetuate a false narrative.”
A lawyer for Horowitz, who isn’t named as a defendant as he doesn’t claim ownership of the materials, didn’t respond to an email seeking comment.
During the trial, the men’s lawyers argued that Henley gave the lyrics pages decades ago to a writer who worked on a never-published Eagles biography and later sold the handwritten sheets to Horowitz. He, in turn, sold them to Inciardi and Kosinski, who started putting some of the pages up for auction in 2012.
The criminal case was abruptly dropped after prosecutors agreed that defense lawyers had essentially been blindsided by 6,000 pages of communications involving Henley and his attorneys and associates.
Prosecutors and the defense said they received the material only after Henley and his lawyers made a last-minute decision to waive their attorney-client privilege shielding legal discussions.
Judge Curtis Farber, who presided over the nonjury trial that opened in late February, said witnesses and their lawyers used attorney-client privilege “to obfuscate and hide information that they believed would be damaging” and that prosecutors “were apparently manipulated.”
When thinking about vacations in Southern California, destinations such as Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs may come to mind.
However, according to Airbnb, none of the three – or maybe any SoCal city you are thinking of – ranked among their top ten trending destinations for this year’s Fourth of July weekend.
That would be Lancaster.
The short and long-term rental service’s list of trending July 4 weekend destinations includes locations renowned for scenic landscapes (such as Cle Elum, Washington and Saratoga Springs, New York) and others known for significant Fourth of July celebrations (Marshfield, Massachusetts and Sanibel Island, Florida) in addition to desirable locations as picked by potential renters themselves.
Airbnb’s top ten trending destinations for Fourth of July 2024 are:
- Pocono Township, Pennsylvania
- Saratoga Springs, New York
- Marshfield, Massachusetts
- Leadville, Colorado
- Bangor, Maine
- Lancaster, California
- Cle Elum, Washington
- Wenatchee, Washington
- Sanibel-Sanibel Island, Florida
- Fort Myers Beach, Florida
Breaking it down further, Airbnb found the “most wishlisted” home in each state; California’s was the Invisible House, located within Joshua Tree National Park.
A one-night stay at the Invisible House from July 7 to July 8 will cost $2,934 before taxes.
To view Airbnb’s list of trending towns and “most wishlisted” homes, click here.
(NEXSTAR) – If you’re stuck in traffic every morning and every evening, is it comforting to know you’re not alone? The average American adult spends 219 hours a year – or more than nine full days – commuting every year, a new analysis by MoneyGeek found.
The personal finance site used data from the Census, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, TomTom, plus gas prices to determine where residents have the best and worst commutes.
Six of the 10 worst places for commuters are in California, MoneyGeek found.
It’s not just that drivers in Vallejo, San Jose, Stockton, Modesto and other California cities have to sit in traffic for a long time – though they do – but they have to pay out the nose to do so. Gas prices are high all around California, and residents in further suburbs (like Vallejo and Fairfield) are often driving longer distances to get into the office. (MoneyGeek factored in the cost of gas, but not the cost of public transit, in its report.)
To make matters even worse, commuters who drive to work risk damage to their car – or their own safety – every time they get behind the wheel. Crash rates weren’t highest in California cities, however. Drivers in Jacksonville, Florida; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and San Antonio, Texas, were more likely to experience a crash during their commute, MoneyGeek found.
The study combined these factors – commute time, rush-hour speed, crash rates and gas costs – to give of the country’s 124 largest metro areas a score. The 20 worst communities for commuters are:
Rank
Metro area
Score
Avg. 1-way commute (minutes)
Avg. rush-hour speed (mph)
Morning commute crash rate
Annual gas cost
1.
Vallejo-Fairfield, CA
0.0
34
28
0.31
$1,792
2.
Stockton-Lodi, CA
5.2
35
28
0.20
$1,791
3.
Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL
14.3
32
27
0.32
$1,099
4.
Modesto, CA
15.0
31
28
0.18
$1,582
5.
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA
15.5
35
31
0.12
$1,931
6.
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
19.5
28
26
0.27
$1,367
7.
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
20.1
32
18
0.16
$1,042
8.
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
21.3
28
31
0.35
$1,243
9.
Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL
21.6
33
27
0.15
$1,133
10.
Jacksonville, FL
23.0
28
34
0.54
$1,202
11.
San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX
24.9
29
30
0.45
$1,015
12.
Birmingham-Hoover, AL
25.1
29
32
0.25
$1,161
13.
Baton Rouge, LA
25.3
29
29
0.48
$1,028
14.
Charleston-North Charleston, SC
25.6
30
26
0.36
$941
15.
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX
27.5
33
23
0.21
$918
16.
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT
28.1
33
30
0.06
$1,492
17.
Albuquerque, NM
28.4
27
34
0.45
$1,167
18.
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
28.5
31
20
0.10
$1,066
19.
Worcester, MA-CT
28.8
31
29
0.10
$1,239
20.
Port St. Lucie, FL
29.1
31
27
0.15
$1,078
If you’re looking for someone to be jealous of, look no further than Madison, Wisconsin. Drivers there benefit from low gas prices, rare crashes and short commute times, earning it the No. 1 spot for best commutes in the ranking.
The shortest average commute time overall was found in Wichita, Kansas. Meanwhile, drivers in the McAllen, Texas, metro area pay the least for gas every year. The award for fewest crashes was a three-way tie between Boulder, Colorado; Lancaster, Pennsylvania; and Trenton, New Jersey.
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