A place in the crowd: Where do we fit in the lineup?

Ask a surfer to describe the conditions at any particular spot, on any particular day, anywhere in the world, be it urban beach or remote Pacific atoll, and I could probably tell you the very first thing they’ll talk about. Not the swell, the tide, direction of the wind or consistency or shape of the waves. No, despite all the factors involved in even the most prosaic go-out, virtually all surfers narrow their initial session assessment down to a single topic: crowds. FULL STORY from The Inertia