crazy animal encounters

Ever ride a wave and have an entire pod of dolphins join you on the wave, essentially dropping in on you and then you ride behind them down the line? Happened to me once at Ponce Inlet one beautiful Spring morning.

 

That happened to me once when a kid living in PR, at Stop 8 in the San Juan area.

 

Is that La Ocho or whatever? I never made it to that side of the island in my 4 trips to Rincon.

 

Cat returned inside late one night last week, talking up a storm more than usual. Should have done more than say "Hello", but was preoccupied watching the Bali comp. Woke up the next morning to find a de-tailed mouse at the entrance to the bathroom, as my gift. Half asleep, almost stepped on it. Blood everywhere on the floor. Adept huntress fetched another one over the weekend, bringing it inside. Left the tail on that one. Dog managed a baby squirrel in May, partially decapitating it. Nothing strange, happens every spring. No need for costly pest control service around here, like all the neighbors. Keep telling them they should have acquired wild rural pets, as opposed to domesticated milled ones. Doves must have become wise, no kills this year.

 

Yup, that is La Ocho...those numbers, La Cinco, La Dos, La Ocho, are all bus stop numbers going INTO San Juan along the cliffs.,, on the Ponce de Leon Avenue. Surfed La Ocho and La Cinco millions of times; great places when it is 10-12 ft faces!!!

 

Right on, I was scoping the area out before my first ever trip to PR and considered going there but ended up going with Rincon instead and fell in love with the area. As small as it may be.

 

Something happened to La Cinco--I never see anybody out there anymore. Not sure if it is a bathyscape issue, or just that the path down the cliff was blocked when the local authorities built a freaking parking place where it had been. That was my favorite--all lefts coming off a small coral island, the exact opposite of La Ocho. I have seen La Cinco break at over 35 foot faces, easy. Huge, but then, nobody gets out, not even with a jet-ski.

 

Isn’t the bottom in that area pretty sketch???

 

No.not really. The coral reef is all 6 ft below, for 12 foot faces. Very manageable--I never hit bottom there, and believe me, that was my "go to" place if there was a swell. Great wave. But, as I said, something may have changed in the 45 years since I left there. I do, however, check it every time I go to PR, just for old times sake.

 

Both Cinco and Ocho or just Cinco? I think I recall reading something about La Ocho being a little sketch, can’t recall why. Is it a long paddle out? I forget... (smoke some more right?)

 

Both are quite a ways out. In both spots, there are sketchy areas, but one learns to stay away from them. As a kid, neither I nor any of my friends had a problem there. But a lot of people whine about the place--they are snowflakes.

 

Gotcha, I don’t mind long paddles, kinda use to that. Though in a foreign place for the first time it may be a little intimidating if there are other hazards to navigate in addition to the long paddle. Having someone to point you in the right direction is always helpful.

 

All. The. Time.
I swear, I’m the fucking animal whisperer.
I surf MB alone, a lot. The family of dolphins almost show up like clock work every morning around sunrise.

 

Yeah I was gonna bring up another old SD surf story but blew it off.

Dolphin pods? One word: "Blacks".

Heard recently that you guys have been getting a decent run of surf lately

 

Nice, it’s always good to see them around. Except that one time I almost got killed by a huge bottle nose that came flying out of the face a 6ft wave and nearly landed right on my head lol

I’ll never forget the sound he made as he broke the water surface with such speed and ferocity! My eyes were like saucers and I froze just waiting for impact. And then he was gone...

 

I seen dolphin leap out of a wave once with his Cocque out. It looked like a human arm jutting out of his naval. Although I'm not ghey, I was impressed.

 

When I was in the 7th and 8th grades, my family was stationed in Medan, Indonesia. There were not many activities for teens so my Dad let me join him in the Hash House Harriers. For those not familiar with “The Hash”, it is best described as either a running club for drinkers or a drinking club for runners.

The group met once a week in a pre-determined desolate location to run an obstacle course. Three or four members were charged with setting up a run through the jungle. Confetti would be laid at 200-400 yard intervals along bush trails. The idea was to follow the trail and ultimately meet back at the “Bemo” which was essentially a truck full of cold beer.

Naturally part of the fun was that false trails were laid which would lead to much confusion and being completely lost. As members negotiated the trails we would communicate to indicate if you were “looking”, “turning back” or the glorious “On On! Of course part of the insanity was you were expected to scale cliffs, ford rivers, cross railroad bridges, wade through swamps etc. The dirtier and more leach-ridden the pack became the better. The locals we would encounter of course thought we were completely loco.

One evening as the sun was setting yours truly had become separated from the pack. I was lost and battered so when I began to notice large objects moving in the canopy of trees over the trail I was more than a little alarmed. Every time I would look up it seemed that I was always a little late. Finally I realized what was going on. It was Orang Utan as the locals called them. In Indonesian orang is “man” and utan is “jungle”. We call them orangutans.

As we acknowledged each other’s presence, the 4 or 5 beasts became emboldened. They swung lower and would hang overhead as I passed. These things were huge and intimidating and I was an interloper on their turf. Did I mention the sun was setting? The noises they made to “communicate” became louder and more strident. Needless to say; after staining my britches I began to run as fast as I could. As I finally came out of the bush and fell headlong into a rice paddy, the SOB’s were laughing at me! Looking back, I feel as if they were just playing but that wasn’t how it seemed at the time.

Eventually I found my way back to the Bemo and the safety of the group.

I have many fond memories of the MH3 but that night took the cake.

 

Sounds awesome! Hahaha

 

Officially close this thread, we have a Winner.

 

Not sure what thread this belongs in, but I just watched one of my autistic students do an impromptu soft shoe dance to Mancini's, "Pink Panther." It was pretty fucking epic...