Surfing
Crowd-to-Quality Ratio
Today’s increasingly crowded lineups always seem to beg the question of whether it’s better to battle for high-quality crowded waves, or better to find low-quality, uncrowded waves. This is obviously a personal choice and a case-by-case by decision. There are certain factors one must consider in making the decision between surfing the perfect crowded reef or the sloppy, uncrowded beach break.
Firstly, one must honestly consider one’s own skill level - how do you rank in a crowded lineup? If you are in the lower 50%, chances are you’re better off at a less crowded wave until you improve your wave selection ability. Second, how aggressive are you? Do you get a kick out of jockying for waves and calling off shoulder-hoppers, or are you just trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings? Crowded lineups don’t have feelings, so neither can you. Third, what are gas prices and how far is the next break? No sense in wasting lots of gas for little gain. Most importantly, what is the crowd-to-quality ratio? There is no quantifiable way to measure this, but one must consider that a lower-quality wave may also be crowded and that the crowded wave may not be high quality, so sometimes it’s best to abandon speclation and just paddle out and have fun. My advice is to get a little bit of both - sloppy waves improve your surfing, crowds make you tough. Just as long as you’re staying stoked.
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