An altercation at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz, California ended with one surfer holding the other in a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lock and forcing him to apologize.
A six-degree black-belt surfer, Sandro “Batata” Santiago, founder of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu schools in Santa Cruz and the Bay Area, posted videos of the May 2 tussle on his Instagram page, sharing his side of the story.
According to Santiago, he jumped in the water at Steamer Lane and gracefully greeted the other surfers. Then, one surfer paddled over to him and accused Santiago of yelling at him during a previous surf session. (You can see Santiago jumping off the cliff here.)
Santiago said he had called out the surfer for entering the lineup and not waiting his turn. The surfer began to follow Santiago around the lineup, allegedly threatening him and telling him to go back to his country, eventually throwing punches at him.
When the surfer came out of the water, Santiago was waiting for him and held him in submission, forcing him to apologize several times. “I’m sorry,” the surfer pleaded on the ground.
“As a martial artist, I don’t train to hurt people,” Santiago said. “I train to compete, to defend myself, and to teach discipline. Hurting him would not have proven anything. I was fully aware of what I could do, but I chose not to harm him.”
“I chose to do the right thing — to show restraint, discipline, and respect, even when it wasn’t given to me,” he added.
Santiago said the other surfer was the aggressor the whole time, saying he ended up being a “crybaby.” However, based on the videos posted, it appears Santiago was eager to deploy his martial arts skills once the two were on land.
According to his school’s website, Santiago moved to the U.S. from Brazil in 2000 and founded his own Jiu-Jitsu academy in 2007, also running martial arts training programs for tech companies in Silicon Valley.
The other surfer has not been identified and hasn’t shared his side of the story.
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