"I did what I had to do to protect myself," says longboarder after lame surf fight.
Yesterday, BeachGrit reported on the world’s lamest surf fight, an incident that led to one surfer being cuffed and arrested and facing possible jail time on assault charges. Various Instagram and Facebook accounts posted video of the incident, a light collision on a two-foot peak at First Jetty in Virginia Beach.
This morning, I spoke to Jordan Montgomery, the twenty-year-old longboarder in the video about what happened and why he filed charges.
First, said Jordan, the other guy didn’t teach him to surf.
“My father did. I don’t know where he got the perception he taught me to surf,” he said.
Second, he’s had “ongoing problems” with Alex after an incident when he was ten years old. No charges were pressed then. Jordan doesn’t want to talk about that incident in cases it prejudices the case against Alex.
“This happened so fast. I felt his hands on me! He was tackling me out of aggression. Surfing shouldn’t be a scapegoat for violence.”
And the collision?
“It was five-thirty, low light, dusk. He stood up and jumped at me. He put his hands on my shoulders and I grabbed him and rotated him. I was confused, like, dude why are you tackling me on a one-foot wave? He didn’t punch me in the face. You can see in the video he doesn’t push me off the board, but his hands hit me in the bottom of the neck and chin area. I felt it! He laid a hand on me and in the United States you can do that. Surfing is a recreational sport and I’ve been surfing for fourteen years. I’m not a kook. I rode for Hurley for ten years… I’ve done all the Rip Curl GromSearches, NSSAs. I know what the hell I’m doing! This happened so fast. I felt his hands on me! He was tackling me out of aggression. Surfing shouldn’t be a scapegoat for violence.”
Afterwards, he said Alex announced to the lineup, “All you bitch-ass longboarders, if you go right I’ll kick your ass!”
“When it comes down to people threatening me, I’m not going to fight in the parking lot,” said Jordan. “It’s not how I roll. He could definitely kick my ass. I’m not going to fight the guy.”
Initially, Jordan said he didn’t go to the police and only did so when social media lit up over the video and he “didn’t feel safe.”
“There were 190 comments (on Instagram and Facebook) and the majority were threatening towards me, saying things like, ‘Let’s find this kid and break his face’ and ‘Let’s swell his eye shut’ and ‘I hope his tires get slashed’. All these unstable, random people. I was worried about all the people he’s told to hurt me.”
Jordan says he was forced to make the assault charge (simple assault and not battery, he said) so he could get a restraining order.
“There were 190 comments (on Instagram and Facebook) and the majority were threatening towards me, saying things like, ‘Let’s find this kid and break his face’ and ‘Let’s swell his eye shut’ and ‘I hope his tires get slashed’. All these unstable, random people. I was worried about all the people he’s told to hurt me.”
“I was just protecting myself. To get the restraining order, you have to get someone into the process. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s what society tells you to do. I didn’t feel safe and I went to law enforcement.”
Jordan told me he planned to tell the court he doesn’t want Alex jailed and that he just wanted to keep a little legally mandated space between the two of ’em.
“I’m not trying to get him in trouble. I probably went a little over bounds. I did what I had to do to protect myself.”
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He was attacked unfairly. It was not like he provoked it by doing anything as vile as accusing the shortboarder of being married to a sugar momma.
“I’m not a kook. I rode for Hurley for 10 years.” — My mind has no idea how to process that statement.
Why would anyone go left at 1st Street lol
The real crime here is the fact that there were people out surfing that day who weren’t riding longboards. This Alex character should get 18 months in the slammer simply for the equipment choice.
Starting a conversation with All you bitch ass longboarders is pretty funny
So went to police after 190 different individuals on lame social media made him feel….??? Should he get 190 restraining orders? Felt so violated after FB. Better surf Sandbridge and change your identity
If Justin Trudeau surfed this would be him.
Seems like a lot of hackneyed holes in both sides of the story
So, was it a 2 foot wave, or a 1 foot wave?
Gonna have to figure that out in court..
I say call Judge Judy. She can sort it all out..
Punishment should be you have to go right on all 1.5 foot set waves at VAG I mean VAH beach
“Let’s Swell his eye shut!”
Sponsored by Hurley for ten years? Now it’s all starting to make sense..
Derp
NO ONE POSTED THE VIDEO OR EVEN WENT THROUGH THE FOOTAGE UNTIL WE HEARD FROM ALEX AFTER HE GOT OUTTA JAIL
Sorry? I can’t hear you.
The footage certainly does not show any of that from a distance.
I predict Jordan Montgomery will move states and change his name when he grows the fuck up and realises how embarrassing he is.
To be fair, maybe Alex is a full-blow jerk?
Maybe.
Probably!
“I pushed him into his first wave. His parents don’t surf,” says Alex. “I saw him do his first floater.”
What if this is another way of saying: ‘I like pretending to help young kids surf so I can touch them inappropriately’.
Seems handy for Alex to get all aggro about it…to divert attention away from other things maybe?
This is all theory.
No no, i like where your going.
Said the editor of News of the World.
We can all make this our very own choose your own ending novel! https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
It’s a wide open field of speculation until their two versions of the story combine at speed and form a white-hot singularity of truth.
I’m merely positing one possible scenario…
Such a long bow!
Good huh?
Enough about this young pup! Check out this footage. Last fall Hatteras Simon Hetrick! Not a single sticker..LOVE IT!
<iframe src=”https://player.vimeo.com/vi…” width=”640″ height=”338″ frameborder=”0″ webkitallowfullscreen=”” mozallowfullscreen=”” allowfullscreen=””></iframe>
System 10 from Jordan Montgomery on Vimeo.
Quote from his recent wave of winter entry..
“I paddled out to Rocky Rights early and bided my time,” said Hetrick. “It was super slow, with the occasional bomb set. That wave broke a lot farther out than the rest, so I had to scratch and kick to it. I almost lost it on the drop, but once I was in it, I did a little pump that sent me over the foamball and on the way out. I was riding a 5’7″ AJW Potato Launcher in a quad, which has a lot of volume so it feels more like a 6’0″ paddling — which I needed on this one. [Laughs.] Overall, just so happy and grateful to have been in the spot to catch the wave; thanks to the locals for sharing.”
But he’s sponsored…..
My i site sucks like my spellng. On my screen i sea know stickers..
God damn llamas……
Did you ask Alex Burdett for Jordan Montgomery’s number? Cause that would be classic if you did! Grit sourcing like mainstream media could never tap in to!
Does Jordan think he can keep Alex out of the surf when he surfs? What if Alex is in the water first? Will Jordan think he can enter the surf with a GoPro and show Alex is in violation of the restraining order?
…emailed Jordan and he hit me back with his number this morning.
Sometimes people need a good slap. I feel like this Jordan character has had a lot of them!
Hard to know what to think of this without knowing the people. On one hand it’s easy to see that the incident in and of itself is pathetic, nothing to see there. But on the other, if the kid genuinely feels threatened by some loudmouth and a bunch of trolls, plus if there’s a history that we’re not privy to, then it’s kind of fair enough. He’s seen an opportunity to feel safe and tried to take it.
It’s not how I might deal with it, nor some other people who’ll be crowing online about how much of a pussy he is, but maybe we’re just lucky in some respects, and maybe this kid isn’t.
pussy
Dog
I don’t want to praise Joel Jitsu ever but fuck. When he got a beat down and being a skinny puss he didn’t know how to fight back he then learnt Ju Jitsu and became good at it (which takes a while) so he can fight back if there’s ever a next time. I’m sure he probs uses it well and is now even more of a total cunt in the surf safe in the knowledge he could choke most people out.
That’s why you fight in the water!! He who hold their breath longest wins!
Nailed it with your opening statement!
longboarder
I hear what your saying, but even if the kid got beat down, he should have stood up for himself. In the words of Brad Pitt from fight club, “you never truly know someone until you have fought them”. The bully in school, once challenged, backs off. Atleast in my experience.
Yes, just challenge the bully, may only cost you a couple teeth and some brain damage.
But isn’t that just the point? Some people just aren’t built like that. And we (well, Americans) have facilitated this sort of thing by creating a society where petty litigation is both accepted and encouraged.
Is testing whether or not the bully will back down worth getting dental implants from a beat down worth it? I’d say not.
Or, you could take daily beatings. You have your approach, I have mine. I didn’t get bullied but 1 time, still have my teeth, and my dignity.
Ha! Daily beatings… My personal approach is to sit back, watch and laugh at people arguing over surf. I have gotten tacked for dropping in on people in 2-ft dribble at scripps before. Just laughed their cursing off and paddled away. End of conflict. A decent part of me wants to put kooks in their place, but lets be honest, I am that kook every once in a while. Its people who think they aren’t who usually cause the problems… Just look at Hawaiian politics.
I would never use my 14 years of mixed martial arts to hurt someone while surfing, maybe if they assaulted my wife or my child, but a level head is more respectable than a misdameaner- you can’t fight this day in age and to encourage it in this situation is ignorance. Now, to fight over a wave that literally is so slow it moves backwards (1st street at any size) is even more absurd. I can see it now- trying to get a decent job “well I have this misdemeanor here because well bru, this guy cut me off at first street and you know 90s surf culture never dies bro, so I pounded him”…
Self defense ol chap, self defense. There is no reason to allow someone to bully you. As stated, you have your approach, I have mine. It’s that simple.
Alex is not a bully not to say he didn’t get worked up about this incident but not a bully in the water whatsoever, he’s one of the guys out there and well respected. Jordan is a pussy, he made the 1st facebook status Alex responded and the community responded accordingly backing Alex. Jordan should’ve just apologized in the water and it would’ve never left that, what he does not understand is that Alex is a working artist who supports himself through that and will now have a “violent” crime on his record, sit in jail, and pay thousands of dollars for what? you making a stupid decision getting mouthy about it on the internet and not being able to handle the responses of others? kid needs to grow up and handle his problems the right way but what do you expect from a little rich kid whose parents pay for his RED camera and along with everything else in his life. The jetty has an ongoing problem with longboarders fading and completely disregarding the idea of splitting peaks, and the weather was 70 something degrees in the winter with a little wave and that always makes things worse out there, This situation is all around completely ridiculous, but Jordan is 100% responsible for it.
Just as I said – impossible to judge without knowing the people.
And you clearly have your own biases.
Of course I do, just trying to shed a little more light on things.
Agreed.
In the future, just give way to anybody who wants to surf the white water. NSSA Champion and ten years Hurley sponsored. Really?
“I’m not trying to get him in trouble. I probably went a little over bounds.”
Ya think?
Ashton is on a roll lately!