Background:
Surfing my favorite wave last week and was dropped in by one of the heavy locals... we shared the wave all the way to the inside and I thought it was cool but when we hit the shallow part of the reef the guy was right up my ass and I couldn't straighten out so I just had to hold on, duck my head and eat ****... broke a foot off my friends classic Hansen 50/50 longboard. Went home. Didn't say anything because we both got washed into seperate areas of the reef.
Saw the guy at the local bat (wanted to hear some reggaetone) the other night but he looked ****y so I didn't stay.
Yesterday, he dropps in on me three times. So, on the fourth wave he turns to go and I paddle even deeper and take off behind him, catch up to him, and wind up crashing into him trying to launch off the lip (not intentional).
He paddles bacl screaming in Spanish and very shortly it led to,m "Lets go to the beach."
He paddles in fast, before me and takes off this little boat ramp the local fisherman use. I figure he's going for backup or friends, so I start walking home. Over it.
I turn around he has a piece of rebard in his hand and starts swinging it full speed with real intention. I avoid two, deflect one with my board and then he throws it at me... catches me in the thigh (pics too big to upload but can e-mail to interested parties) Cuts through my trunks, gives me a decent gash, a nice bump yesterday and black and blue today.
So I pic up the pipe ... now his two friends have caught up.
I lok at them (been surfing with them for a week) and tell them I don't have a problem with them. They're nervous. Don't really want in.
I tell the other guy, I live here now. I'm not a tourist. I'm half Cuban and not a gringo. I also tell him I don't want no toruble, but if he wants me to respect him as a local he has to respect me as a man. Also, he might not have friends or a pipe the next time I see him. He picked up a rock after throwing the pipe but it was too big for him to throw with any speed, I knew I could avoid it.
After one of his early swings I new I could have closed the gap and hit him, taken him down, but I wasn't sure if I could finish him fast enough to get up before his friends stomped me with their boards. After I had the rebard, I new I could shatter this guys shoulder, because he stashed his board by the boats and had no shield, and I knew his friends were ****ting themselves at this point (I was bigger then all of them) but something told me to de-esculate it. He dropped the rock, I dropped the pipe (close to me). At this point some people I now show up and start translating for me in spanish. Basically, I know I aint local yet but I live here and its my favorite wave and no one is going to tell me I can't surf it. Also, if he's my enemy, then we finish it now. My comfort in the situation scared them, because I was willing to fight them all. The pipe scared me a bit, but once he threw it I felt 100% safe.
Afterwards I heard a friend explained myself to him, explained my side of the situation. I normally would have let the whole thing go in the water but I was in a bad mood because the girl I love is moving back to the states to go to massage school and we argued the day before and she left me to walk home from a surf spot like 3 or 4 miles away... up and then down two steep hills.
In the end, this might have been the best. I proved I'll stand my ground but don't want trouble. And now they know me and know I live here.
Honestly, everday here is 100% different... a different fish while spearfishing the reef, a different swell direction doing something new over a reef, etc., etc. Yesterday was bad. Today's good so far: got my first check as a freelancer $$$$.... have a lesson with my new student, a 13 year old on the block tonight... an old friends in town.
Another day in paradise
