drop-in

The act of taking off on a wave in front of another surfer who is closer to the curl, and thus thought of as having first claim to the wave; an intentional drop-in is generally regarded as nothing less than wave theft, and can lead to argument, retaliatory drop-ins, even violence. Surfers in bygone eras rode happily side by side on the same wave, and until the early 1950s—when turning became the n...