The only thing sketchy about Roca Bruja is the paddle back out after you've been caught inside. Ollie's is a far more sketchy break IMO; jagged rocks, desolate conditions, deep water etc..I have seen plenty of seals while surfing in NorCal. What you should watch out for is abnormal marine behavior; i.e. seals beached and/ or making loud distressed vocalizations.
Never made it to Ollie's, but Roca Bruja is pretty insane. Black sand churning makes the water look pitch black and the strong offshore wind making that howling noise off the rock...I was sitting on my board waiting for a set to roll in and got an eerie feeling something was lurking in the water near me...not to mention,walking through knee deep water in the dark on the way back to the truck where crocodile activity is abundant is not for the faint of heart...and then after tying the boards up and driving about 10 ft from where we just stepped out of the water and seeing a 9 foot croc in front of our truck...
What? witches rock? ollie's point? Good wave... yes spooky... no. almost always a crowd. crocs? everywhere in that part of Costa. Sorry not spooky. y'all need to get out and travel more. The youtube video wasn't even witches it was Donkeys a couple hundred yards down.
Sure did. I lived literally right on the beach for a year my freshman year at Stockton. Had a room on the second floor of a townhouse with a bedroom window that faced the ocean. Unreal... missed a lot of classes that year. The townhouses are gone... now condos are there.Originally Posted by CaptJAQ
A few of us used to surf what we called Trestles at the inlet in WWC on the Coast Guard Base. I don't know what it's like now, but back then it broke way outside. Fishing boats used to come into the inlet and we always felt like sharks would follow the boats, and that creeped us out.
But I surfed a rivermouth in North Florida alone one day... about a 2-2.5 mile walk from the lot where you can park. Most guys rode bikes because the sand is hard packed and flat, but I was walking. This area is notorious for bull sharks that like to hang out where the estuary dumps into the ocean. Murky water... miles from anyone else... sharky as he11...
So I'm paddling back out after a wave and I'm getting this really creepy vibe... keeping my eyes peeled for bait balls and fins... and out of the corner of my eye, not 2 feet away from my right hand as I'm paddling, something just explodes out of the water. As I sh1t myself, I turn my head to look to see what it was... a cormorant. Must have paddled right up into him because the water was so brown. Sure spooked me...
Last edited by LBCrew; Oct 21, 2011 at 11:12 AM.
Assateague, VA - I’ve seen two sharks there. One was a Mako about 30 yards away from me. I was able to get a real good look at him from head to tail through a passing swell.
Second, was maybe a sandbar/sand tiger shark about 6 foot plus that was literally inches away from me thrashing on sand bar. I freaked out and paddled back to beach slowly (I was trying not to panic), because between the sandbar and shoreline there is no wake, like a swimming pool, had to full on paddle back to shore. I kept my feet up and looked back several times, but nothing. I was white as a ghost when I met my father on beach.
These events took place years ago. Recently surfed there and seems like the sandbar is gone or just isn't prominent anymore due to beach erosion. I have to think twice about surfing there.
Duppies in Barbados. Super remote and the only part of the island that is remotely "sharky." But, if it's just you and one or two other people out in 6'+ surf (about when the spot starts working) it can seem pretty ominous. Never seen a shark out there but the paddle in can be super creepy. There is an insane current that will pull you right into the cliffs if you don't stay in the right spot.
Did you ever surf North Point? The walk down to the wave is about as scary as what is in the water...
At this spot near cabo - south of zippers a few miles- I had a whale come up about 30 feet in front of me. No warning, and suddenly this huge back just came up and then was gone. It always reminded me of that scene in Empire Strikes back when Luke crash lands in the lake. It was spooky....great little spot though.
Haha, welcome to my home break... The sharkiest water I've been in. I've seen 2 sharks THIS YEAR. Also, a 10 foot tiger shark was pulled off the surf 4 years ago. I don't stay out if I get a vibe. That's safe to say.
I agree about Ollies Point not being scary at all. Very close to the point, lots of support (boats, other people), it just didn't feel scary at all to me personally. NorCal, on the other hand, ALWAYS feels creepy. Only in Santa Cruz with the crowds do you have the consolation that whitey would probability-wise, likely hit someone else. There was a spot in Monterey called Boneyards which always freaked me out. Rarely would there be more than 2-3 people, lots of submerged rocks, and lots of sea life. The younger seals get curious and like to sniff you up-close. I've never heard of a bite, but they tend to approach stealthily and pop up within a few feet. It was pretty bizarre. Combine that with the frequent fog banks and lonely company, and it definitely fits the 'creepy' definition to me. A lot of Hawaii spots give the same vibe. They break so far out that you would have a difficult time making it to shore if injured. It's a really vulnerable feeling to be out there alone...luckily that hardly ever happens.
Another spooky spot to me was the Cove in Hatteras. I surfed Igor there last year and surfed alone for a good while. The waves broke very far out, and the Jaws theme was in the back of my mind the whole time.
For me it's all about people. If I'm alone and far from shore, especially over a shallow reef, that makes it spooky. Otherwise I seldom think about it.
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