There was a time, not that long ago, when surf god Laird Hamilton was the only stand-up paddler along the coast. He was polite. He was cool. He was welcome.

But people not as cool and not as skilled have turned stand-up paddling into a free-for-all, open to anyone with the bucks to buy a board. It's not what the stand-up paddlers do beyond the break that's the problem -- it's how some of them ride the waves, how they don't wait their turn, drop in at will, snake the rest of the surfers. It's how they use the size and speed of their boards, uncouth and unapologetic.

So here's someone in the Cove, very politely taking a stand against the stand-ups.