Surfing Waves

While I was getting ready to paddle out a surfer walked up to me and said "Do what you want but I saw a fin inside the meeting rock (about 200 yards out). Thought you should know."

I paused to watch the water. The waves were small with ridable faces and 5 people out. For 5 minutes I saw nothing more than people having fun and 2 seals checking them out. I decided to go figuring that the seals would not be around if there was real danger. I never saw anything suspicious but instead of hunting peaks around the break I stayed close to the crowd and spent a lot of time looking for fins.

I lived close to a break for about a year which was about a 10 minute walk to the beach but I always took my car because I was time limited due to full time job and fulltime classes in college. The break frequently had sharks sighted by their fins out of the water. This happened frequently and the locals all got out of the water and looked for fins. One of them had a watch and then when no one had seen a shark for 20 minutes they all went back to surfing. I went along with them for a while. During that time I learned to distinguish dolphin fins and manta ray wing tips from sharks. But one day I was just we always see the fins outside of the break and then when we don't see the fins where are they then? They could be here or there or right underneath me because the water is not clean enough to see the bottom. When you can see the fin outside of the lineup then you know it's there and not underneath you so it's safer to go out then. The next time when they all went in the waves were pretty good and I stayed in the lineup while they all went in telling me "Shark, shark" over and over again. I just said thanks for the waves and surfed by myself for the next half hour. They never joined me but continued to go in even though I explained my thoughts about it.

I am not sure about seals in the lineup. In Hawaii you rarely see seals in the lineup but turtles are more common. Turtles the primary food source for tiger sharks so I worry when they are near me and keep a keen eye out for sharks as it seems likely that people are sometimes mistaken for turtles by sharks. The sharks goes chasing after a turtle and ends up grabbing a human who happened to be in the vicinity. I would probably be more worried about the shark attractant value of a seal rather than the indication there wasn't currently a shark in the vicinity. I don't know but maybe if there are seals then the sharks will grab them first? I don't know but would be worried instead of relaxed.

oldmansurfer wrote: I would probably be more worried about the shark attractant value of a seal rather than the indication there wasn't currently a shark in the vicinity. I don't know but maybe if there are seals then the sharks will grab them first? I don't know but would be worried instead of relaxed.

Well my common sense isn't too keen.

Well main thing is you surfed and you're fine no worries now. It's a difficult thing to come to grips with the fact that where we go for our fun is the home to sharks, however just remember there are many other ways to die surfing that are more likely. Oh! Wait, maybe that doesn't help LOL just have fun.

I’d just paddle out on a longboard and join the pack of shortboarders. Them short boards look more like a seal from below than the silhouette that a longboard casts.

The annual posting of this photo I took occurs again