Nathan Florence’s Guide to Crowd Management

Here are some nuggets from Nathan’s 25-minute presentation on crowd management. Of particular emphasis is how he approaches crowded lineups at new or unfamiliar waves where he is not in the local rotation. He'll maneuver from inside double-ups, paddle out when the wind isn’t just quite right, or take the slab when no one else wants. There’s a lot of study in Nathan’s guidebook. 

“The first thing I do when entering a crowded lineup, if it’s about 10 people out, I’ll try to say hello to everyone and just be friendly, he said. “I’ll try to let them know I’m not some uppity pro coming in thinking I'm going to paddle straight out the back around everyone and take the first big wave. I’ll individually go up and shake hands if it’s like 10 and under. Anything more than that, it’s a little too much. You’ll be shaking a lot of hands.

“I don’t paddle and sit myself in the center of the pack,” he continued. “I don’t paddle and sit myself outside of everybody. Even though I can go on the next set, as far as I could sit in the position they’re sitting and catch the wave from there, that doesn’t give me the right or reason to do that.

“But when I’m in a new place, it’s like, oh my gosh, I’ll ride anything. I’m so excited to be at a new reef and surf a new wave that every wave is exciting to me. I often find that I have a way better time just riding what I can versus being envious and waiting and going, ‘Ahh that guy got another good set. He waited a while for it, but damn, those guys are catching every good set.’ 

“I know that can be frustrating. There are certain waves and times where you’re like, damn I really wish I could ride one of those sets. If it’s a really localized wave and these guys are getting one after another. I know it can be a bummer. But I accept that is a part of surfing certain areas.”