Battles Waged Over Waves : Violence Among Surfers Swells During Summer

On a good summer day, when the southern swells hit the coast, the beaches from Venice to Ventura are among the best surfing spots in the country. These days, they are also among the toughest.

When the best waves roll in, so do hundreds of surfers, sporting Day-Glo wet suits, carrying personalized boards and sharing a mission: to catch the day’s best ride, or as the surfers put it, “to get tubed and get stoked.”

But as the competition heats up among surfers searching for the perfect wave, so do the turf wars in the water. And the fights on the beach. And the vandalism in the parking lots.

When surfers talk about “hitting the lip,” they don’t always mean creasing the tip of a wave.

“The whole thing is stupid but sometimes you can’t do anything but fight,” said Solo Scott, a professional surfer from Venice. “A couple of us went up to Oxnard a few weeks ago and these dudes tried to kick us out of the water. They kept trying to intimidate us. So we started fighting right there in the water. It was a case where we had to beat the hell out of them if we wanted to stay in the water. So we did.”

The outer signs of the surf wars resemble those of Los Angeles’ more notorious gang wars: graffiti to mark off turf, “locals” quick to pounce when their boundaries have been crossed and mocking of rivals.

In Malibu, the dreaded “Vals”--surfers from the San Fernando Valley--are singled out for abuse. In Santa Monica, surfers from Venice are hassled when they show up with their “sticks.” And visitors to Silver Strand Beach at Hollywood-by-the-Sea in Ventura County, by far the consensus choice as the most unfriendly surfing spot for “unlocals,” will quickly discover that their cars, their surfboards or their bodies, are in jeopardy if they linger too long.

Surfers going to Malibu from the Valley are greeted by a series of spray-painted road signs saying, “No Vals,” “Vals Go Home” and “MLO,” meaning “Malibu Locals Only.” On Morning View Drive near Zuma Beach, one of the busiest in Los Angeles County, the pavement is painted with numerous variations of the “No Vals” theme, including the outline of a man’s figure with a gun nearby. The accompanying message: “Vals Die.”

‘Surfing Underwater’

“You can always tell the Vals,” surfer Randy Thompson said last week, pointing to a group of young surfers near a graffiti-covered wall at Surfrider State Beach. “They end up doing most of their surfing underwater.”

This battle in the surf wars has a long tradition.

Legend has it that during the 1960s one surfer tried to block the canyon roads during periods of large wave swells so that “Vals” would not be able to get to the Malibu beaches. The term became so prevalent in surfing circles that “Vals” came to be used in beach communities such as Santa Cruz to refer to any inland dwellers.

As the summer crowds swell, the rivalries blossom anew.

“It’s a battlefield out there,” said Malibu lifeguard John Renaud. “On a day when the surf is good, you may have 200 people out here trying to catch one wave, and they all want it for themselves. It’s like the Wild West out there. Only the fittest and most aggressive survive.”

Although officials of the Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors do not keep statistics on fights among surfers, they estimated that altercations and surfing accidents account for between 1% to 10% of the medical aid calls they respond to each year. The percentage is higher at beaches used predominantly by surfers, such as Surfrider State Beach or Pt. Dume in Malibu, according to Capt. Gary Crum, one of the county’s 600 lifeguards.

Some Injuries Accidental

Last year, there were more than 4,000 medical aid calls on beaches between Venice and the Ventura County line, ranging from a child stepping on a piece of glass to a surfer suffering a fractured skull after being knocked in the head by a flying, pointed surfboard. Usually, the surfing injuries are accidental. Sometimes they are not.

Renaud, who has been patrolling Malibu beaches for the last 16 years, said many of the altercations are triggered when one surfer cuts off another on a wave, sometimes causing their boards to collide at speeds above 20 m.p.h.

Many of the disputes are merely verbal. A surfer will yell at another wave rider to get out of the water if he has been particularly offensive or reckless--or simply if he is a stranger. When the threats go ignored, however, they often lead to brawls on the beach.

Richie Collins, an 18-year-old professional surfer, was beaten and hospitalized in Newport Beach earlier this year after a territorial dispute over waves, according to Newport Beach police.

The other surfer “called me a ‘kook’ and said I had no respect for locals,” Collins told Surfing Magazine recently, recalling that he was followed after he left the water and attacked from behind. His assailant, 21-year-old Kirk Johnson, was charged with assault and battery and later pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of disturbing the peace. He was placed on 18 months probation and fined $109.

Tension Skyrockets

Although most officials said that case is extreme, Renaud said the tension in the water skyrockets in the summer when school is out and the masses head for the beaches, mixing inexperienced surfers with the professionals and the fervent amateurs who consider the waves their own.

“Usually you just see punch-outs, but not too long ago I saw one guy shoot his short board at a guy who kept snaking him (cutting him off),” said Jefferson Wagner, better known as “Zuma Jay,” who has owned a surf shop by that name in Malibu for 13 years. “The board hit the guy right in the kidneys and he had to be carried out of the water. He suffered some internal injuries.

“There’s no doubt that there has been an increase in altercations among surfers. I compare it to rats in a cage. Surfers have such incredible egos that they can’t share a wave. And when you have more surfers than waves, well . . . you have problems.”

Dr. Susan Reynolds, director of the Malibu Emergency Room, the only emergency clinic between Ventura County and Santa Monica, said she sees about five to 10 surfing injuries a day in the summer.

“There’s no way to tell if an injury was intentional,” she said. “A frequent comment is that ‘somebody cut me off,’ but rarely will anybody say anything about being attacked. If somebody shot a board at them, they probably wouldn’t know it.”

Razor-Sharp ‘Scags’

Reynolds noted that the skirmishes in the water can lead to serious injuries, especially with the razor-sharp “scags,” or fins placed on the bottom of surfboards for increased maneuverability. “When you get hit with the scag,” she said, “it’s like what a Skil Saw can do.”

Several years ago, a Carlsbad man was fined $500 and placed on three years’ probation for spearing another surfer with a board in a dispute over wave rights. The conviction was followed by a flurry of prosecutions for assault with a deadly weapon--a surfboard--and resulted in a reduction of “localism,” the harassment of visiting surfers, at least for a while, according to the prosecutor, Steve Anear.

“It still is a problem and sometimes it leads to violence,” said Anear, a deputy district attorney in northern San Diego County who is a longtime surfer himself. “There’s a whole lot of ways to get hurt with a surfboard, and in areas like Malibu, where it gets completely chaotic in the summer, it can get pretty crazy.”

Ever since surfing began, wave jockeys who live in beachside cities from San Diego to San Francisco have looked on visitors from inland towns as invaders. In the code of surfing ethics, outsiders are about as welcome as a glassy sea.

Veteran surfers say “localism” is at its worst in areas such as Silver Strand--or Pt. Dume and Trancas Point in Malibu--because the “locals” actually live in homes on or near the beach. At many of the spots, the beach is difficult to reach and the limited public access serves to reinforce the belief, by the locals anyway, that the beach is private.

‘It’s a Joke’

“We’re constantly breaking up fights between people who say this is my wave, or this is my beach,” said county lifeguard Craig Mattox. “It’s a joke. These people will slash tires, break car windows and even throw rocks at you if they don’t recognize your face.”

Malibu surfer Eddie Vail knows the dangers of visiting unfamiliar beaches. When he traveled to Silver Strand Beach about a year ago, he said, he quickly noticed that he was being followed--in the water.

“It was the weirdest thing,” Vail recalled. “I’d paddle out and this huge guy would paddle out right behind me. I’d catch a wave and he’d get on it behind me. Everywhere I went, he went with me.

“When I got out of the water, he followed me all the way up to my car. And then all of a sudden, I was surrounded. These guys started pounding on my car with rocks and then they started to pound on my surfboard. My car got trashed. You could say it was a little intimidating.”

Some surfers from outside the Silver Strand area have learned not to leave their cars in the parking lot, which is filled with warning signs such as “LA Beware.” In a reversal of the pattern elsewhere, the surf clashes at Silver Strand are at their worst during the winter months, when the Ventura County beach enjoys some of the best waves on the coast.

‘Can Be a Tough Place’

“You rarely catch anybody in the act,” said one Ventura County lifeguard who asked not to be named. “It can be a tough place to surf at times, but it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be. Usually it’s just a bunch of teen-agers who don’t even surf.”

Mark Richards, owner of Val Surf, a string of surf shops in the San Fernando Valley, said the anti-Valley sentiment has died down somewhat over the years, in part because of the outstanding ability of many surfers from the area.

“Before, Valley surfers wouldn’t wear anything that showed where they were from because they were so paranoid,” Richards said. “You still see some of that, but it’s not nearly as bad as it was. The graffiti is unfortunate, but I think it’s mostly harmless.”

Scott, the professional surfer, said the localism in Venice and Santa Monica “often borders on the ridiculous” because many of the surfers who use Venice beaches grew up in Santa Monica and vice versa.

“In some cases, these guys are friends, until they hit the water,” he said. “That’s the funny thing about waves. People ride them for a while, and then they begin to get possessive of them. Unless you surf, it’s hard to understand, but you’ve really got to protect your waves. Otherwise, you’ll lose them.”

Surfing Hot Spots 1. Hollywood-by-the-Sea (Silver Strand Beach): This beach is patrolled by “locals”, many of whom live right across from the surf. They have been known to pounce on surfers from Los Angeles, whether the visitors are from Malibu or Encino--it makes no difference. The signs here read: “No Southers” and “LA Beware.” There have been numerous reports of tires slashed and windows broken on visitor’s cars. 2. Trancas, Pt. Dume, Zuma and Surfrider Beaches: These Malibu beaches are among the best surfing spots in the country during the summer and, as such, are where most fights erupt. The “locals” here are Malibu surfers and, to a lesser degree, wave-riders from Venice and Santa Monica. Their enemy: anyone from “the Valley.” The signs here read, “Vals Die,” “Vals Go Home,” “MLO” (Malibu Locals Only) and variations on the theme. 3. Venice and Santa Monica Beaches: The bottom line is that, despite their proximity , surfers from Santa Monica dislike surfers from Venice and vice versa. Most of the skirmishes are minor in comparison to those at other beaches.