The incident occurred in Morro Bay, located in Central California. Photo: Austin Schmid // Unsplash
Andrew Eric Gustafson, 60, was booked into San Luis Obispo County Jail in August after allegedly attacking a surfer with a paddle and holding her head underwater. He was booked on suspicion of attempted murder but local prosecutors never filed that charge. On Wednesday, however, Gustafson appeared in court to face two felony counts of assault with a deadly weapon — one with force likely to produce great bodily injury — pleading not guilty in court.
Haylee Red-Van Rooyen, the woman Gustafson attacked, spoke in court that same day and made her account of the incident public for the first time. According to Red-Van Rooyen, she was surfing with a small group of friends while other groups, including paddleboarders, were scattered in other areas of the beach. The paddleboarders initially left the water and then Gustafson paddled back out to the lineup where Red-Van Rooyen had been sitting with her friends.
“He proceeded to take about three waves and just in the middle of us, so we would have had to pull off the waves,” Red-Van Rooyen said. “And then on the third time, I was way down the line, and then he took the wave from behind me and came just tearing down the line, and then ran into the back of me and knocked me off the board.”
In describing the scene, Red-Van Rooyen says she exchanged words with Gustafson, calling him a “d–k” and an “a—–e.”
“I’m a woman that was raised to stand up for myself, and I didn’t want it to happen to anyone else, so I confronted him,” she explained. “Told him that wasn’t cool, that wasn’t right, not necessary.” Gustafson began yelling expletives back, saying “f–k you” and calling her a “f—ing b—h,” she said.
At this point, Gustafson was back on his board chasing her in the water, towering over her on his paddleboard. She testified that he eventually raised his paddle and “at that point, I know that he’s going to hit me.” That’s when he hit her and eventually held her head down under the surface of the water.
“The three words that he was saying over and over that day was, ‘you f—ing b—h,’ ‘you f—ing w—e’ and ‘you f—ing c–t,’ over and over,” she said. “I thought I was going to die,” adding that, “He grabbed my hair and held me underwater, and I didn’t know if I was going to make it.”
California State Parks rangers reportedly investigated the charges as a misdemeanor originally, then bumped it up to a felony. And Gustafson’s lawyer argued in court that because his client had no previous criminal record, the charges should be reduced back to a misdemeanor, simply summing the whole thing up as “the classic story of surfer versus paddleboarder.”
Judge Crystal Seiler denied that request due to the seriousness of the conduct and his language used in the altercation.
Gustafson will now appear in court in early March for a pre-trial arraignment.
