crazy animal encounters

Late September a couple years ago - surfing near 2nd Light just south of Cocoa Beach. The water was alive with all kinds of everything. Little baitfish jumping constantly, dolphin chasing the baitfish, small sharks that you pretended not to notice. One of those days that you'd be out of the water instantly except...tropical storm swell. Just too good to get out.

Sitting on my board waiting for the next awesome ride and a massive tarpon jumped and cleared the water completely. About eight feet directly in front of my board. It looked like a 6 foot long 200 lb fish. Perfect view of an airborne tarpon. If I hadn't been so freaked out I'd have appreciated it more. Splashed back into the water like a fat guy doing a cannonball off a diving board.

 

A few surfing with animals experiences stand out.

1.) Was surfing assateague island at dawn with no one in sight. Perfectly glassy ocean with chest plus peaks rolling through. The sunrise was stunning; iridescent reds and purples reflecting off the plate glass ocean water. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better a pod of about 20 dolphins appears. They were hanging out on the same stretch of sandbar as me. The dolphins were legit riding waves with me. Caught a bunch of waves with 2 or 3 dolphins cruising in the shoulder of the wave. Almost ran into a dolphin and it made a funny squeak. Even paddling back out there would be a couple dolphins swimming with me in the same direction. I felt like I was accepted into the pod. This went on for at least 30 minutes and caught 4-5 good waves with the dolphins. Probably the coolest nature experience I've had.

2.) Seen at least 5 sharks; one big fin came within 20 feet of me at obx (didn't look like a dolphin). Scared the shit out of me. Saw a blacktip shark's fin 30 feet away. Didn't scare me, stayed out. Sharks less than 5 feet long don't really bother me.

I have too many other stories to list here but those are the top ones.

 

Posted this before somewhere so I'll keep it short. I was surfing with about six other guys. I went to paddle for a wave and saw another "guy" in a grey and black hooded suite out of the corner of my eye on the peek in a better position. I pulled back and watched a dolphin surf my wave.

 

1. Summer 2009, LI: I got home from an evening session at around 9 PM, and I realized that I left my wetsuit in the showers in the beach shack area at my local. Drove back down, parked across the street from the entrance, and walked through the parking lot since the gate was locked. As I was walking up the wooden walkway spaced out in my own world, I see at least a half-dozen raccoons tearing through the garbage and perched on the wooden railing, and I stopped dead in my tracks and jumped in shock. They all stopped what they were doing and stared at me, and I stared right back and walked by slowly, maintaining eye contact the entire time. Once I rounded the corner to retrieve my suit, they got back to business. Came back around the building to leave, and the same thing - they just stopped what they were doing and stared at me as I crept by them. Creepy in the moment, but funny in hindsight.

2. Another summer LI story: I took my buddy (Mike) surfing, even though he's scared shitless of the ocean, figured I'd try and snap him out of it. We're out in the water with very few people around when, all of a sudden, he says he saw a fin and booked it back to shore. I followed him, got out, and looked out in the water. Didn't see anything and said, if anything, it was probably a sun fish. Paddled back out for a few more, and he stayed on the beach........... Fast forward 2 days. Take my other buddy out to the same spot with not many other people around, didn't tell him anything about what happened 2 days earlier because I figured it was inconsequential. He tells me the same thing, that he saw a fin. This time I got out and called it a day because it seemed like it was more than just a coincidence......... Two hours later, I saw a picture on Instagram of a 7-foot thresher shark washed up about 1000 yards from where I was on both days.

3. My pussy friend Mike and I were in SF visiting his cousin who, fortunately, surfs. Pussy Mike's cousin (Trent), one of his friends, and I drove 30-45 minutes outside of SF to this remote, hazy, overcast, gloomy spot to paddle out in Great White territory because, you know, why not. Instead of running into a Great White, we run into and are almost attacked by the sharks' dinner - a giant f'ing seal. The thing pops its head out of the water, barks thunderously, and then immediately makes a beeline for us from about 20-25 yards out. Being the artard that I am (also half-baked from a pre-sesh sesh), I turn to Trent and ask, "What do we do?", which prompted an even better and genuine response, as I saw a look of fear and perplexity in his eyes, he answers, "I don't know, I'm from LA." So Trent's friend - Stanford educated, mind you - who's behind us watching this go down, beckons us to paddle towards him. The seal disappeared before it could do any damage, we waited on the inside for 2 minutes or so, then paddled back out to get pounded into a 1-2' sandbar for the next hour.

Honorable mention: A 20-pound striped bass jumped out of the water next to my friend and almost landed on his board and, needless to say, scared the shit out of us.

 

1 - I was walking (stumbling) back to my room in El Salvador after a late afternoon boozing session. I was in a tight walkway with the rooms to the left and a wall to the right. The wall is about 8' high and above it is a hill with trees...
As I'm walking I hear a noise in the brush above the wall.. I look up and see a giant iguana in the air right in front of me. It made the loudest slapping noise when it landed on the concrete. It bowed up and hissed at me. This thing was at least 5' long and pissed. The alley was only a few feet wide and all concrete, so it seemed so loud.
I ran back to the pool and told everyone what happened. The bartender said "you met Godzilla. You're lucky he didn't fuk you up. He scratched the shit out of a dude a few months ago"

2- Another time in El Sal we were taking the boat to a beach break a few miles away one afternoon. On the way over we saw another boat, from our camp, going back to the camp. They waved and we waved and though nothing of it...
When we got there we anchored up 50 yards outside the lineup. I wast last off the boat (making sure my leg rope knot was properly tied). As I'm paddling in I see a fin to my left about 20 yards away. It moved slow and was obviously a good size shark. I kept paddling in because the shark was in between me and the boat.
When I get to the lineup I tell my friends and the call me a pussy and say it was a dolphin. I knew it wasn't and didn't see it again. We surf a couple of hours and it was firing.
When we get back the the camp the dudes on the other boat asked where we surfed and we told them... They said they were there and left because a 10' tiger shark was cruising around the lineup.

3- In Moorea I was staying at a hotel with a reef pass... You can take a kayak out to it or paddle the 1/2 mile... I paddled one afternoon. There's black tips everywhere and they are not intimidating at all. It's awesome to see them in crystal clear water.
The surf was super fun and I probably stayed a little longer than I should have. It was just hard to get out with the sun setting and being the only one out. 1/2 way though my long paddle in it was completely dark. Now those non intimidating black tips felt like man eaters to me.. Definitely the sketchiest paddle I've ever had.

4- On the same trip me and the wifey went on a whale watch trip. It was fuking sick. They don't give a shit about safety regulations the way we do in the US. We came up on some humpbacks and the driver says jump in. A couple of us get in with snorkels. Then the boat drives away so he doesn't spook the whales... For a minute I was actually tweaking a bit. We were in 2000' of water and now everything looked like a great white to me... Then I see a huge black shadow coming up from deep below me. A humpback and its calf came straight up to me and swam around close enough to touch them for 5-10 min. It went from being terrifying to one of the best experiences I ever had.

 

whales are a lot more scarier than sharks imo.sharks have teeth and can rip u apart,but u can punch them in the nose or pull on their gills,etc.a whale can murder u without even knowing its trying to kill u lol.its like getting hit by a Honda or getting hit by a tanker.that thing jumps out the water and lands on top of u ur gone!!u wont even have enough time to get out the way.

would be pretty cool tho to see in person,id just rather see them from the sand then 10ft infront of me

 

Dude people laugh at me all the time because of this. Mostly non surfers or water people. We all get asked the dumb questions about sharks. Aren't you afraid of sharks? My response is always I'm more scared of whales. I got this completely ridiculous fear that ill be surfing one day and a dead whale will be in the process of washing up on shore without me knowing and squish me

 

I used to SCUBA dive around there in the mid 80s. I lived at the Oxnard Shores mobile home park after leaving the Navy and before getting married. If I wanted to get wet and wasn't going out to the Channel Islands or up the coast, I'd throw one of my tanks and dive gear in the car and make the quick drive there. I don't think the fishermen cared much for us divers.

 

I've seen dolphins do all that when they're in a group feeding.

 

I worked at the Port Hueneme base 1984-97 before moving to VA. Used to windsurf around the Channel Islands Harbor until the Ventura County Harbor Police, or maybe it was the Coast Guard, told me I couldn't.

 

Two decent encounters in the water:

First - the scariest. New Smyrna inlet. Was surfing the day before my brothers wedding. People were getting nipped weekly. I am sitting there then all of a sudden I lose boyouncy and feel a massive rush of water. I thought a bull shark was coming in to f me up. All of a sudden a gigantic manatee pops up literally right next to me. Rolls on his back, looks at me, then disappears. Freaking awesome experience.

Second - big shark. Surfing in KDH OBX. Late season tropical storm surf. Not big but super fun. Surfed for maybe 5 hrs when I am paddling out I see a dead dolphin. I am sitting maybe 30yds from it when I notice it starts bobbing up and down. I thought - gee, that's weird. Then a massive tiger shark swims up and gets partly out of the water to get a good bite. Full sprint back to the beach. Waves were breaking out far. Get to beach, there are maybe 10 surfers out of breath. We are all looking at each other and laughing. Not one word was uttered, we all knew the crazy scene we just witnessed.

Third (lame encounter). I surfed with one of the semi-tame hammerheads off Mel Beach Fl for roughly 10 mins during fantastic hurricane surf. Wife on beach freaking out. Those hh got huge dorsal fin. It was chasing stingrays so nobody, I mean nobody got out of water. We watched when it got close but it swam off. Wife wanted to kill me.

 

giant squid and a stand up paddler

 

When feeding humpback whales come to the surface with their mouths open, you don't want to be in the middle of that. Everything gets sucked in.

 

Pelagic sunfish while on a Catalina dive trip. I wasn't in the water at the time. A strange but remarkable fish.

 

AKA the fake shark seen sometimes clearing New England beaches when the fin appears offshore.

 

DosXX just reminded me about a huge sea sunfish that washed up dead right next to Avalon Pier. I was probably 12 YO. I had never seen or heard of it as a kid until I saw one. It would have covered the bed of a small pickup truck.