Surfing Waves

Was watching three local beach lifeguards exercising and training at Hendy's beach, Santa Barbara, on Friday morning. They were about 0.4 m (0.25 mi) offshore. One of the life guards got a bit of a fright. He looked up and saw a large grey fin coming straight toward him. Because it was coming directly to him, it was not possible for him to determine the fin shape. It wasn't until the animal surfaced to dive under the life guard that he could see the characteristic head and fluke of a dolphin. The view from the shore that the on-duty life guard and I allowed us to see the fin in profile. We knew from the moment the fin surfaced that it belonged to a dolphin. Bully for us, though. We weren't the swimmer in the water that did not have the benefit of this information.

I've done this several times

The first time I saw a dolphin in Australia while I was in the water, my first thought was "SHARK!", shortly followed by "LOADS OF SHARKS!! ...oh, hang on..." as a large pod of dolphins swum around and underneath my board

The questions is, did you soil your shorts?

dundundundundun oops sorry Flipper theme!

I've always assumed if the fin is going up and down on a rounded back, it's a dolphin. There are lots around where I surf. Never really paid attention to the fin shape.

Anyway, sharks don't need to breathe and are sneaky buggers so will attack without showing you their fin...

dtc wrote:I've always assumed if the fin is going up and down on a rounded back, it's a dolphin.

I've heard it said many times that dolphins bob and sharks cruise... but I've seen dolphins that are sneaky little buggers and have cruised straight at me without the slightest hint of up and down or bob just to fool the hapless surfer

Some sharks, I think a type of hammer head has a fin quite similar to a dolphin but I pretty much rely on the shape as to Identify what they are....so far so good