A veteran surfer has punched a teen he collided with while attempting to ride the same wave in Gold Coast, Australia.

The appalling incident, which was captured in a now-viral Instagram video, took place at Snapper Rocks, a popular surfing destination near Coolangatta, Monday, according to Yahoo News Australia.

In the clip, one can see the veteran surfer and the bodyboarding teen colliding with one another after unintentionally trying to ride the same swell. The surfer then begins punching the boy for dropping him in, hitting him repeatedly. Another surfer paddles up to throw a punch at the first surfer and asks him to go onto the beach.

"He's just a kid, dude. You're twice his age," a woman can be heard saying in the video.

Andy Morris, editor of the Instagram account 18seconds__, where the video was uploaded, said people dropping in on each other are pretty common on the famed beach, which is renowned for squabbles between surfers battling for the finest breaks.

"Usually everyone just moves on," he told Yahoo News Australia, "However this incident escalated quickly. In this case, the bodyboarder is called into the wave by all the other surfers in the takeoff zone. The surfer snakes him from around the back and claims the wave — then has a go at him for dropping in on him."

Surfing etiquette suggests that the surfer on the inside has the right to a wave, so others are not supposed to drop in. However, surfers online debated on who reached the wave first. Some netizens, on the other hand, claimed there's a lot to decipher in the video.

"Sounds like he snaked the sponger who was a kid and then hit him. A lot of bad in this whole thing. Bummer. Maybe waves should be difficulty rated and surfers should have a belt system," a commenter wrote.

Meanwhile, some viewers urged the video uploader to name the veteran surfer who "chose violence" and shame him publicly. A netizen then said they would have slapped the surfer with "assault charges" as he was allegedly the one "at fault" in the situation, news.com.au reported.

However, Queensland Police reportedly told the outlet that no reports of the incident have been filed.

Surfing
Representative image. Pixabay
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