I received a rather interesting email this morning from San Diego. Dan, a surf buddy of mine and former next door neighbor in Mission Beach, shared this account of his brush with greatness. Thought it might be a nice tale to share.....
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Hey man, I was out surfing today in front of Kingston catching a few lefties. There were two other guys out about 60ft away from me to the south, one of these guys who I learned later was named Carlos, he happened to have his girlfriend on the beach taking pictures. Anyway, as I had just paddled back out to the lineup and sat up on my board for a few waiting for the next set, I heard a splash behind me and felt a small wave bounce off my back and at the same time Carlos was trying to get my attention and pointing at me or just behind me. Immediately, and before I could look over my shoulder and see what it was, I noticed beneath me and my board was what I thought was a dolphin directly below, moving away from my line of sight, well, the dolphin kept getting longer and larger and longer and larger from nose to tail there just was no tail!!! It kept going on and on!!! (sort of like a scene from Star Wars when they're filming the belly of the mother ship up close and the whole of it's enormity goes by forever and ever, actually no, I think Mel Brooks did this in Space Balls to a much funnier degree, anyway....) So, a "dolphin" it was not! Furthermore, I was being buffeted by the water boils that is was creating as it swam right beneath me! "What the?" Then I saw one of it's flippers as it rolled and flapped it's wings through the water only a few feet below my own. Then what seemed like a full minute (think Space Balls scene) and after a few "HOLY *#&@s" and all the while trying to lift my feet up as close to the surface as possible in order to try and prevent accidental ride on it's back and/or possibly losing a leg to Mr. Whitey!!! And finally, finally!!! A horizontal tail fin!!! Ahhh, Yes!!!!!!! "It's a Baby Whale!!!" I can breathe now. Really no joking!!!, Carlos later told me that it spy hopped (placed it's head out of the water for a look) right behind me! I am hoping that Carlos' girlfriend on the beach has a few photos of the whale. At birth, gray whales are about 15ft long, so maybe this one was 18ft. maybe 20ft? It was one huge mother ship!!!
Anyway, a Whale of a story! And I caught a few nice waves too. I'll try and get some photos.
Dan
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Hey man, I was out surfing today in front of Kingston catching a few lefties. There were two other guys out about 60ft away from me to the south, one of these guys who I learned later was named Carlos, he happened to have his girlfriend on the beach taking pictures. Anyway, as I had just paddled back out to the lineup and sat up on my board for a few waiting for the next set, I heard a splash behind me and felt a small wave bounce off my back and at the same time Carlos was trying to get my attention and pointing at me or just behind me. Immediately, and before I could look over my shoulder and see what it was, I noticed beneath me and my board was what I thought was a dolphin directly below, moving away from my line of sight, well, the dolphin kept getting longer and larger and longer and larger from nose to tail there just was no tail!!! It kept going on and on!!! (sort of like a scene from Star Wars when they're filming the belly of the mother ship up close and the whole of it's enormity goes by forever and ever, actually no, I think Mel Brooks did this in Space Balls to a much funnier degree, anyway....) So, a "dolphin" it was not! Furthermore, I was being buffeted by the water boils that is was creating as it swam right beneath me! "What the?" Then I saw one of it's flippers as it rolled and flapped it's wings through the water only a few feet below my own. Then what seemed like a full minute (think Space Balls scene) and after a few "HOLY *#&@s" and all the while trying to lift my feet up as close to the surface as possible in order to try and prevent accidental ride on it's back and/or possibly losing a leg to Mr. Whitey!!! And finally, finally!!! A horizontal tail fin!!! Ahhh, Yes!!!!!!! "It's a Baby Whale!!!" I can breathe now. Really no joking!!!, Carlos later told me that it spy hopped (placed it's head out of the water for a look) right behind me! I am hoping that Carlos' girlfriend on the beach has a few photos of the whale. At birth, gray whales are about 15ft long, so maybe this one was 18ft. maybe 20ft? It was one huge mother ship!!!Anyway, a Whale of a story! And I caught a few nice waves too. I'll try and get some photos.
Dan
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