Hi All

Regarding SUP/surf etiquette, I just had a lovely extra long weekend down the coast.

Friday was a couple of hours of fun 2' waves all to myself. No wind. Lovely.

Saturday early the reef had probably half-dozen short board surfers and two SUPs. I decided to wait until later when all the short boarders got cold.

I paddled out and two other SUPs came out and there were 5 of us.

We happily cycled through the sets taking wave after wave after wave. My natural instinct to chase the pole position kept showing itself but I could see that there were more waves than we could possibly surf so we formed into a circuit and cruised. Ride a wave, paddle out, get into position, ride a wave. (Besides , there was a much better SUP surfer than me taking off far deeper and either making it ... or not. The rest of us were having loads of fun on the bigger, wider, sneaker sets.)

There was a little chatting going on but mostly we were taking a breather or paddling for a wave. I think I missed 3-4 waves in 3 hours.

The short boarders all stayed on the inside and surfed the steeper inner reef while the SUPs hung out the back on the bigger but fatter waves.

As we all tired we would drift off down the beach taking waves on the way back to the car park. I got a few hoots from short boarders as I grabbed waves on the way through.

Sunday everybody else had gone so I was left with 2-3' reasonably good waves all to myself. I chatted later to a short boarder who didn't come out because the waves weren't good enough but he could see the fun I was having.

This morning was a but rainy and windy and, to tell the truth, I'm a bit surfed out.

The point of saying all this is that it was easy for SUPs and short boards to work in together. Everybody got all the waves they wanted. Nobody had to hassle for waves. The short boarders were stoked (and a little envious) to see the SUP's having a good time.