[Unimog Bob]

Good points.

Regardless of this guy, newbie or not, he is not in isolation. I see many people ride well within 100 feet of shore (less than a line's length) on a regular basis. Many come in to carve their turn within 20 feet of people. I do view this as ego (but am open to hear other reasons anyone would do this).

To me it seems like just staying out another 80 feet is so easy. It literally doesn't register in my mind why/how some can knowingly come so close to bathers. It's like an equation in my head that doesn't add up.
(Coming close to bathers : Negative to them= Possibly huge.. Positive to you= ego stroke). That's not a very well balanced equation and has always bothered me.

The only reason I even care (as do many others) is that riding too close to shore appears to be the number 1 threat to our access along the beaches, and obviously, I don't want a little kid hurt. It's a real threat, not just me being a granny. Several of us know this. The problem is that for many, this concept is totally foreign.
It's easy to get caught up in what you are doing and having fun, but as a group, I think we need to wake up a little better to our surroundings.

This type of behavior is obviously widespread. Otherwise we wouldn't hear about so many issues.

Alex, I see jeopardizing others along the beach and our access as pure ego. Maybe this newbie wasn't behaving that way, but that's what I believe to be the source of most of the problems.