what cool sea life have you encountered over the years surfing? This has to be better than what burger you prefer! In my short 4 years, while I've been in the water I've been way too close to a feeding white shark, many seals and one big arss sun fish! Not bad for N.E. anybody ever been approached on your board????
Seals, dolphins, all kinds of fish, giant jellyfish. I've even seen a couple of rays and the like in Florida. Been within feet of all of them. They never really came at me, most swam away. I've seen some little sharks in Florida too. Have probably been real close to the big ones and just didn't know it. Which is how I prefer it!
encountered...maybe not exactly. i was with some buds in space coast for a surf trip, and decided to venture down to Sebastian Inlet. above head hi with cln conditions & sunny (right after a storm), which isn't part of the story - just providing you some scenery. the next day we found out one of the great white sharks pinged at the same time we were there. it made the news apparently because that shark was dragged down to the bottom of the sea by something
A few years back I was out surfing and when I came in, there was a cryptic text from one of my sons. "Keep your toes up. Mary Lee." I checked Ocearch.org And the ping lines for that morning had Mary Lee swimming through my condo! I'm on a little point and she surfaced on both sides of me. Had a sea turtle pop up next to me and it scared the hell out of me... First thing I thought was, "My God! A sea Serpent!" I had a good laugh and paddled over to some groms so they could have a look.
Saw some little/decent shark feeding last summer early in the day. There was that short period of a few days last summer where a lot of skates or whatever they are popped up in spring lake too. Also this past fall I almost dropped in on a dolphin in sea girt.. He was deeper tho
So much sea life... Dolphins surfing waves I've had a bull shark come after me while I was surfing on singer island. I stood up on a wave and I heard thrashing there was a bully right behind me in the wave... I took that wave all the way in.. bunch of people on the beach saw it.. Manateees I used to see all the time. I've been in when giant pods of spinner sharks migrate through.. they jump all over the place. I've had baricuda chase bait fish over my board while sitting on it. Jellys of course.. been stung a ton. Man-o-wars suck. Whales... had them come up and blow out 10-15 ft from me surfing big sur Had a pilot whale wash up on beach northern Mass. big ole chunks taken out of it. Had a big shark don't know what in Rodanthe come up fin out of water brushed my leg. Freaked me out big time. Mullet runs mullet hitting people on the head. Once on Jupiter island I was surfing with Aristotale the shaper and his crew and a pod of bulls came through with a mullet school and we all had to get out. There were patches of red from the sharks thrashing the mullet. Seals of course all the time. Seen big big Jack swimming in waves they look so awesome. Saw a school of stings once while paddling out it was weird. I'd never seen so many at once. Sea turtles! I've seen them surfing reefs in costa and in south Florida. Some big ones too. I see them when I spearfish a lot too. I love seeing all the sealife it's really cool. Just last sat there were a ton of dolphin, birds diving, a seal, and I'm guessing bluefish or striped bass is what they all were following.
Saw an older hippie guy, long gray hair, full beard, wading out at the break. He grabbed hold of a giant sea turtle's shell and got pulled out to sea.
On LI, bunch of diffrent kinds of fish. Saw a small shark once just outside the line up. Dolphins also, someone's just a few, sometimes a huge pod going back and forth jumping and playing. And bunch of seals. As far as being approached.... once. Down in OBX. Checked the surf early. Saw some dolphins, but waves were crap. Didn't the day doing family stuff. Afternoon checked again. Surfed. Riding my uncle's LB. Saw the dolphins again. Cool nothing new. Well they got close, and one swam about a foot under me. Not going to lie...i immediately brought my feet up onto the board. I knew dolphins were big and muscular. But seeing one that close got the adrenaline pumping just a bit. That was a pretty cool experience. Iv also hit what i believe was a fish once, left a mark on my leg. Was a big fish. I was on the inside (not on the board) when we collided and i felt it bounce off and swim away quickly.
I thought I saw a beautiful, pink tropical fish swimming on the reef at Marias. I dove off my board and swam down for a closer look. It was a flip flop. But in all seriousness, I've had a dolphin surface and put its bottle nose right on the tail of my board. I closed my sphincter quick on that one. I've had seals pop up right next to me in the dead of Winter with no one else around. That'll scare the sh!t outta ya. I'm sure everyone on here has a shark story or two. I found a "Mike Schmidt For MVP" baseball hat in the high tide line on Sunday. It was all rotten and nasty. Mike Schmidt was prolly last up for MVP in the early 80s. I thought that was pretty cool.
I made eye contact with a 9ft bullshark at assateague, no joke, it popped out the water 20ft away and looked at me, straight in the eye. I saw it playing 10 min prior and was hopeing it was a sand shark; but it wasn't. For real I'm like 90% sure it was riding waves, it was like 10ft that day, tropical system. Note to east coast surfers, big a$$ bull sharks will be attached to a tiny fin. Our Eastcoast bullsharks got tiny fins. So next time you see a fin that looks like it belongs to a 5ft brown shark, that might be a full grown bull. That's why poppa only rides longboards at the teague in spring. And before you criticize my story because I know it's coming, remember it's the freaking ocean and oceans have sharks in them, plus last couple of springs it's been real sharky. Normally they stay in Virginia, but it was above average ocean temp. P.S. the shark looked healthier than me with a big a$$ smile on its face.
This was in Destin a few summers back. This Tommy Chong looking mf spotted a turtle, grabbed him by the top of his shell, and just got pulled out. The turtle kept him above water for a good amount of time for some reason. Maybe he was just so "one with nature" that the turtle didn't care. I don't know how long he was able to stay with it, but I also don't remember seeing him after that. And he was never heard from again.
Once north of Ocean Reef on Singer Island, a tarpon slammed the bottom of my board while I was laying prone. I bounced about six inches in the air and landed flat on the board and was totally freaked. I layed there with my legs up for a minute trying to assess the situation. The water was super clear and sun overhead, so I'm like WTF? Of course it always goes completely flat whenever I see a big one, and this time I did the finger tip paddle in. Looked out at the surf zone and I see a school of 150 lb tarpon rolling around. The waves weren't good enough to go back out. Guess what likes to eat big tarpon.
Dolphins, all types of fish, sea lion, some kind of small whale, blue crab, birds. Had a chick last summer swim out and was just swimming around near me talking to me. She wasn't in the way and made sure she stayed clear when a set came through. it was kind of funny.
Great tread so far! One time back in the 70s, during the Cuban boatlift, me and some friends were up at Double Roads in Juno Beach smoking and drinking late at night. We saw what we thought was a Cuban mini-submarine coming ashore, and we grabbed our Heinekin bottles, ran down the hill to defend our mother country from foreign invaders. It was a gianormous sea turtle the size of a smalll VW. Why do you thnk they call it dope?
