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VIOLENCE IN SAN DIEGO LINEUP
Man jailed after punching Seaside surfer
By: Evan Fontaine
Photos: All photos: Billy Watts
SURF NEWS VIOLENCE IN SAN DIEGO LINEUP
October 16, 2008
52124 visits
A Carlsbad man in his mid to late twenties was arrested last week after assaulting a surfer in the water at Seaside in Cardiff, California. Law enforcement officials who witnessed the fight from the parking lot immediately took the assailant, a bodyboarder, into custody once he came ashore. The victim, Austin Sneed, 18-years-old, was punched twice on the top and once on the side of his head.
 
"I was just hanging out in the parking lot with all my buddies," Sneed said. "There were like three or four guys out and a couple boogieboarders, longboarders...I don't know, it was small, and so bad. It wasn't really worth going out. But I went out anyways, like 30 minutes later kinda half awake, not really into it."


Sitting outside, talking to a friend, Sneed turned to take his first wave of the morning only to find the bodyboarder in question blocking him. "He was right underneath me," Sneed said. "He kicked and just went. I turned around as he was paddling back out, and I just nodded my head and was like, 'You're a kook, get outta here.' He confronted me, charged over pretty fast, stood up on his board, got really high and started punching the top of my head a couple times and the side once. I had no idea who he was."

Outweighed and having seen the handful of cops in the parking lot before he paddled out, Sneed elected not to throw a punch. Instead, he pointed out the small police detail posted up in the parking lot to the person who had just punched him.

"I knew they were there," Sneed said. "So I wasn't going to fight back. He was a lot bigger than I was too."

Sneed has yet to press charges. "I don't think I'm going to," he said. "It's not worth it. It was just stupid. [The surf] was so small, it wasn't necessary."
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