"You're not done until you're bleeding." The sentence sums up pretty well what went on at this year's Tamarack Takeover in Carlsbad, California.
If you catch a couple of waves, run over a few kids, and manage to escape uninjured, you may consider yourself lucky.
The first Tamarack Takeover of the 2019 summer season was insanely successful, with around 150 surfers battling it out for the same waves.
The surf carnage had its casualties. A few courageous wave riders got their faces bashed in by the soft top board army, and one soldier injured his knee.
Ride While You Can
The goal of the Tamarack Takeover is simple: catch a wave and fall over your neighbor. In other words, try to survive the busiest lineup on the planet without a scratch.
And if you survive phase one, you're then invited to hit the shore break and avoid a face-plant. Just remember to wreak as much havoc as you can. That's your sole mission.
Surf etiquette is something that is kept outside this surfing bash. Why? Because party waves do not follow the informal surfer's code of conduct.
The surf gathering smashed all records. "The Light Up," as it is also known, also attracted a huge non-surf crowd eager to witness, photograph, and film the chaos.
Who said kooks couldn't have fun?