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uswine



Joined: 07 Aug 2005
Posts: 9

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 3:11 pm    Post subject: Close Encounters Reply with quote

I am curious how many other people have had similar experiences. I used to sail a lot at Leo Carrillo and one day I had a california grey whale do a full vertical breach no more than 50 ft in front of me.... I damn near hit him as he splashed down hard right in front of me ..... all i could utter was big fish big fucking fish! not even technically accurate ... but major adrenalin.

Another time I was probably 1/8 of a mile off shore and moving fast .... and i hit something hard ... really hard like ... do i still have a fin box hard? those questions were going through my head as i was catapulted over the handlebars hard .. but I knew i would be back up in a millisecond after hitting the water.... I didnt bother to check the board as my curiosity was low at that moment on knowing what exactly did i hit. I did practically walk on water ... one of the fastest water starts ever... all I know for sure that I was in deep water and it certainly wasn't a low tide rock and whatever it was it was big as my relative mass in motion was stopped like the board was tied to a rope anchored somewhere back on shore.

Several times I have managed to catch flying fish in my sail .... surprising as they end up in your lap flopping around .... they are much bigger up close as compared to what i had visualized seeing them getting kicked up in front of a boat.

I lived in the bay area for a couple of years ... i prefer the delta to the ice cream headaches of the frigid coastal waters up there .... but regardless i did my share of windsurfing from santa cruz to pt reyes .. I liked going to pt reyes the best .... but it was unnerving ... the dark figures swimming in the waves .... so many sea lions ... and sharks... always an adrenalin rush.
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edoremus337



Joined: 27 Aug 2011
Posts: 138

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 3:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow, that whale must have been awesome! They only close encounters that I've had are with sea turtles, I used to fly by them all the time in Puerto Rico and thankfully never hit one. I can imagine that it would do quite a bit of damage to myself and the turtle if that happened.

There were a few reefs that floated about 1-3 ft underwater where I used to sail in PR. Those terrified me. I can only imagine what kind of damage would happen to my board and myself if I catapulted onto one of those. That's one of my biggest fears to overcome in order to get into wave sailing. I do not want to wipe out and get smacked into one of those...
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uswine



Joined: 07 Aug 2005
Posts: 9

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 3:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yes a reef would suck big time though i have ended up with a lot of stitches from my fin on a couple of big surf days .... i got like 30 stitches after a mast high wave session at Jalama ... fin cut my heal really bad ... but i didnt even realize it because the water was so cold... walking out of the surf with my board and rig over my head ... a friend asked what was up with my foot ... as the blood had made a bunch of sand cake about an inch thick around my heal.... then it started to warm up and the feeling started to return.


edoremus337 wrote:
Wow, that whale must have been awesome! They only close encounters that I've had are with sea turtles, I used to fly by them all the time in Puerto Rico and thankfully never hit one. I can imagine that it would do quite a bit of damage to myself and the turtle if that happened.

There were a few reefs that floated about 1-3 ft underwater where I used to sail in PR. Those terrified me. I can only imagine what kind of damage would happen to my board and myself if I catapulted onto one of those. That's one of my biggest fears to overcome in order to get into wave sailing. I do not want to wipe out and get smacked into one of those...
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outcast



Joined: 04 May 2004
Posts: 2724

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 3:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Worst scare i ever had was when a giant ray went all airborn right in front of me at Uppers. Like a truck. Exploded out of nowhere 10 feet in front of me

hit turtles Crying or Very sad , seen sharks in the curl, ran over something alive on a nite sail....whales breath, dolphins....flying fish hitting the thighs ....cruising with a frigate bird above the mast tip.....dropped in on seals

I owe the ocean so much!

Never been to the Gorge....fresh water freaks me out

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jingebritsen



Joined: 21 Aug 2002
Posts: 3371

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 4:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

i've been sailing my local beach for 29 years. a week ago last sunday while wind SUPing, i enjoyed the clearest water condition i've ever seen there.

saw 3 sharks, a dozen cobia, squillions of smaller fish. saw all the sharks i've seen there that one day. spinners don't count....

the absolutely scariest was a toss up between a huge leather back turtle breaching to breathe like a porpoise less than 10 feet away, and grazing over a manta ray, barely skimming its back with my fin 1/2 mile out.

also been under run by a huge tarpon while i was dropping in a wave. very peculiar.

btw, the waves on super fun that day, and the wind died to zero. i just pointed my nose back to shore and the waves brought me in.

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cgoudie1



Joined: 10 Apr 2006
Posts: 2597
Location: Killer Sturgeon Cove

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Unless you are worried about a huge Sturgeon hickey, there's not much to
fear in the "fresh" water Gorge. I agree that turtles are probably the
biggest risk at Kanaha (I've missed quite a few). I have had a Sealion
check me out at the Hatchery, and at Stevenson. That's a little
unnerving, because those things are big. The ugliest creature induced
injury I've actually seen (on the river) was a breaching sturgeon,
which caved in the knee of a fellow Windsurfer (full knee reconstruction
was necessary). That's like hitting the Oregon lottery of bad luck.

-Craig

outcast wrote:
hit turtles Crying or Very sad , seen sharks in the curl, ran over something alive on a nite sail....whales breath, dolphins....flying fish hitting the thighs ....cruising with a frigate bird above the mast tip.....dropped in on seals

I owe the ocean so much!

Never been to the Gorge....fresh water freaks me out
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uwindsurf



Joined: 18 Aug 2012
Posts: 968
Location: Classified

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 5:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

cgoudie1 wrote:
Unless you are worried about a huge Sturgeon hickey, there's not much to
fear in the "fresh" water Gorge. I agree that turtles are probably the
biggest risk at Kanaha (I've missed quite a few). I have had a Sealion
check me out at the Hatchery, and at Stevenson. That's a little
unnerving, because those things are big. The ugliest creature induced
injury I've actually seen (on the river) was a breaching sturgeon,
which caved in the knee of a fellow Windsurfer (full knee reconstruction
was necessary). That's like hitting the Oregon lottery of bad luck.

-Craig

outcast wrote:
hit turtles Crying or Very sad , seen sharks in the curl, ran over something alive on a nite sail....whales breath, dolphins....flying fish hitting the thighs ....cruising with a frigate bird above the mast tip.....dropped in on seals

I owe the ocean so much!

Never been to the Gorge....fresh water freaks me out


Was that sturgeon knee injury at the Hatchery? I recall a few years ago sitting at the picnic table at the cove and a guy drifts in asking for help getting out of the water. Of course I asked what happened and he said a sturgeon came out of the water and slammed into the side of his knee. He was in bad shape.
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amarie



Joined: 25 Aug 2003
Posts: 233
Location: Corpus Christi, TX

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 5:31 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I wish I could see a whale. A couple years ago a dolphin jumped fully out of the next wave as I was headed outbound, so close that I tensed up for a football-style full body hit. It seemed to defy physics and disappeared back into the wave inches from my board nose.

Other randomness...mullet hitting my shins, bumping over so many cabbage head jellies that it feels like riding on cobblestones, huge schools of minnows where if you fall they are flipping all over your sail. Shark fins and turtles. Sailing over wall-to-wall stingrays in a couple feet of clear water...my technique and focus got REALLY solid at that point.
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rigitrite



Joined: 19 Sep 2007
Posts: 520
Location: Kansas City

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 5:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Worst things we have are all non-living: water logged logs are the worst (lost a fin that way), chunks of ice, dead carp & catfish.
If you're at the right lake when the shad or buffalo fish are mating, it's impossible not to hit em with yer fin (thump....thump....thumpity thump thump thump). I don't know how many I sent to the bottom that day.

Scariest in the ocean was a sea snake at Bahia Salinas, Costa Rica. The pre-sail conversation with the guy renting equipment went something like this:
me - "Hey I heard there were sea snakes here. Is that an issue?"
him - "No way, you'll never see one, they're really small and very very rare."
me - "ok, cool!"
So, 10 min. later, on my very first pass, I saw THREE(!). These are the most poisonous snakes on the planet. Should you be unlucky enough to fall on one, and it bit you with it's tiny mouth, you're dead.
Cut a jelly fish in half with my fin and watched in delight as the two halves floated away (I hate jellies). Sailed over a man-o-war and made it go -pop!-

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amarie



Joined: 25 Aug 2003
Posts: 233
Location: Corpus Christi, TX

PostPosted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 6:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ohhhh that reminded me. I've seen 3 snakes. The scariest was a 4-foot-long either rat snake or rattler (I was very new here and not used to IDing them yet) and it was just as my board fell off a plane. The snake looked over from swimming and headed toward my board. I was later told that salt water is not their favorite and it probably wanted a place to get out. It was probably 3 feet from me when a little gust got me planing again.
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