Surfers may seem laid-back and carefree, but they get riled up when someone violates the sport’s unwritten rules. For example, it’s a big no-no to cut in front of someone riding a wave. But can you enforce the surfer code on dry land? A California court recently took that on.
Keith Plocek, a surfer and journalism professor at USC Annenberg, explains that the case is about Mark Olson, whose back got sliced open by another surfer’s board fin (a sharp piece beneath the board) in 2018 in Montecito, California. It happened after Patrick Saville jumped onto a wave right in front of Olson, cutting him off. Olson submerged underwater, then felt extreme pain in his back. It turned out that Saville also fell off his board but wasn’t wearing a leash to keep it attached to his ankle, and ended up kicking his board into Olson.
In a 2020 lawsuit, plaintiff Olson argued that Saville was liable for his injuries because he didn’t follow surfing etiquette rules and was even more dangerous by not wearing a leash.
According to Olson, Saville was behaving like a “kook.” Plocek explains, “It's a term that is generally used for new surfers who don't really know what they're doing. They often get in another surfer’s way. They often … accidentally cause trouble because there are limited waves, and it can get dangerous out there.”
Olson and Saville each brought a former professional surfer onto their legal teams. On the plaintiff’s side, the retired pro said the rules are important and must always be followed, whereas the one on the defendant’s side said the rules are more fluid.
“I sympathize with the guy who got hurt of course, but it's not really a case that [my surfer friends and I] would have brought because … literally the ocean is fluid, right? … It's not like there are lanes in traffic, where these are painted on the concrete, right?” Plocek says. “This is a wave that is moving. And is it the person who stands up first is the person who's closest to where it breaks? … There's all kinds of gray areas.”
Leashes are not legally required in California or the U.S. though.
The court sided with Saville, then Olson appealed and the case went to an appellate court, which also sided with the defendant. “They ultimately just said, ‘There's an inherent risk in surfing.’”
Plocek agrees with the ruling but fears that it might spark more trouble in the waters: “There's a whole phenomenon called localism, which is basically people who live near a surf break often feel like they own it. … The ocean belongs to everyone, obviously it's a nice, feel-good sentiment — but also, the California Coastal Act of 1976 pretty much said as much. But the thing is: One of the ways that locals … discourage [outsiders] from hanging out and taking their waves, so to speak, is they do drop in on them, they do cut them off, they do threaten them in indirect ways.”
He continues, “Now that the court has basically said that these rules are just there, but they're not really legally binding, [my concern is] that it might encourage them to do bad behavior from the part of locals who are trying to intimidate other surfers.”
