Corky Carroll: One surfer pushes another surfer off a board. No question who’s in the wrong — or is there?

I was going to save this one for closer to summer, when more people will be getting ready to learn to surf for the first time. But then this morning there was an incident in the water that inspired me to open up this discussion now, ask for feedback, and then revisit the topic in the spring.
It’s the much-debated subject of proper surf etiquette, or “rules of the reef” as we used to call it.
What happened this morning was a female surfer took off in front of a male surfer and t