Surf Fight Caught on Camera in Malibu (Video)

Dashel Pierson

Sun, November 26, 2023 at 10:00 PM UTC

2 min read

Malibu is a zoo, as far as surfing goes.

Traditional surf etiquette does not apply; multiple surfers ride the same wave; drop-ins are frequent, if not expected; collisions are common; chaos ensues.

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Hence this next clip, which is admittedly a few weeks old, but recently resurfaced on our algorithms. It’s an extreme example of the bedlam that is Malibu, but not unheard of. In fact, this clip could even serve as a symbol of surfing Malibu as a whole.

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The clip comes from Shacked Mag, “The Los Angeles Surf Mag.” (Their words.)

They titled it as such:

“Violent Fight between Surfers at Malibu caught on Cam.”

It shows what appears to be a Surfline Cam Rewind of Surfrider Beach. Two surfers – longboarders – take off on the same knee-high wave. They ride it nearly to shore, then get close. One surfer, the deeper one, with presumed priority despite its futility at Malibu, then pushes the other. From there, it goes to minor blows. And one surfer attempts to hold the other underwater – as in a homicidal drowning attempt.

With text overlay, Shacked Mag narrates:

“Two surfers in a fight. One of them appears to submerge the other one.

“One of them disappears for about 30 seconds…(looks like he gets dunked underwater?)

“Once this other guy paddles over, he resurfaces above water.”

Then, it’s done. At least what the cameras captured.

In the comments section, most folks seem to echo the same sentiment – why fight over such mediocre surf?

“None of those waves were worth fighting over,” wrote one. “But stupidity does prevail in crowded lineups, and sometimes things have to be realigned.”

“Not really worth fighting over,” wrote another, “but if inside guy was calling drop in guy off the wave and he was ignoring the call then I reckon inside has every right to push drop in guy off his wave. Drop in guy should’ve simply paddled out but he wanted a piece of action and it looks like he got what he asked for.”

A third added: “I can't believe longboarders fight. are you guys really that good on two foot waves? dear Lord.... there could be five guys standing on that wave.”

Just recently, local radio station KCRW did an investigative piece into the alleged violent surf localism at nearby Topanga Beach – the term “Topangry” was coined.

“If you have too many people trying to go after one limited resource,” said Topanga local, Chad White, “it doesn't matter what that is in human life, we turn into a**holes.”

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