seal encounter

[KevinJFina]

Hey everyone-thought i share this evenings most interesting jeff corwin adventure. Seems Anthony A an myself were the only ones out at Malibu(my usual afterwork respiite after mixing many a batch of the ye ol epoxy for the surf thing i call making a living. It was a trade off of boards-i rode his new pat ryan 5'8" he rode my 6'0" flashpoint-lots of great waves in epic 1-2 foot high tidepeaky windswell(yes it does break there on windswell*made the call it would be ridable while everyone else must have gone home to drink or something* and with no wind -pretty glassy, the lefts and the rights are machinelike).

Along comes a grey sea lion-the big ones-like 250# and i yell after i see only a glimpes of grey sillouette(which of triple take realized it was only a cute sea lion -or so i thought..."Anthony-hey ANTHON...And the things corners Anthony-i thinkin now what????? He jumps back like five feet off his board and the demon seed chases him like a rothwiler-it was pretty intense as they can be dangerous-as He tried to surmise-ummm should i hit with this ginney with my nice new shield(they are protected as everyone knows) or bale????? the animal of the sea who actually presumably belongs there-his habitat,his home ,his food source etc... was pissed! the sea lion after gentle talking at a high rate of chatter (what dogs hear or inthis case what sea lions hear..nice seal er sea lion nice...)finally backed off when board and rider went seperate ways.

So the moral of this brush with potential disaster on a small but pristine window of opportunity-malibu with nobody out in June, ridable ,and pretty fun would be:dont feed the bears and DONT FEED the SEALIONS!

Peace,
Kevin-

[surfhorn]

Maybe Anthony was just too cute to pass up..........lol

I'm heading down to Sta Monica next Weds for a few days. Maybe a surf?

-Dan

[K-man]

They can get nasty,especially in the summer.Peak breeding season is about july,when their male juices are flowing.They come by,don't make direct eye contact,that's like saying I can kick your ass...ya cant....
There was a situation at steamers back when.Surfer was barking and chasing A lion around,and the thing came from under him,grabbed his arm and rag dolled him pretty badly.Never found out the rest of the story,or his name.


cheers

[SFKneelo]

Spot on, K-Man!

Summer stink-eye?

That, bait balls and dead whales add to the summer wildlife 'experience.'

On the plus side, I did have a good-sized crab surface once onto my board. I had just paddled out, so I decided to release rather than call him 'dinner.'

Geez, between this and the other post about the winds, you'd think I'm bitter...

Nah... but I need to follow Syd's lead and get me one of dem dare shiny bikes!

[ScottMac]

..

[DEZDIG]

Thanks KJF for bring the whole encounter back up again. Still kind of sketched out from it. Even though the whole ordeal lasted about a minute, the sealion I think was more after my board than me. At the end, after putting my board between myself and the sealion, the sealion checked out my fins on the board and the board itself, and than bailed down the coast. I know it is there breeding season, but I've had a lot of encounter this spring with seals and sealions compared with others years. Surfed Zuma Saturday morning, sitting out waiting for a set to come in. I felt like someone or thing was watching me, as I turned around to look, right at the end of my board was a very large seal head and neck out of the water just staring at me. Scared the &*%#$% out of me, when I jumped it spooked him out also and he chased me to shore barking the whole time. Anybody else having seal encounters like never before? Anywho KJF you got it right DONT FEED THE SEALIONS!!!!


GETWET
Degdig (Anthony A)

[Mike Fernandez]

I caught a seal out of the corner of my eye staring at me from about 5ft away one time in Baja. Scared me too
It's tough being a kneelo these days, the freakin sharks want you because you look like a seal, and the seals want you because your another flippered competitor for sexual favors.

[kage]

I get a lot of harbor seal eyeballing, especially up the coast when I'm on the paipo. I have turned around plenty of times to see a 3, 4 + following me like ducks or something. It seems like more sea lions too tho mostly at the Lane. I always break eye contact immeadiatley and paddle the other way. "I am not a threat to you".

[ross]

Hey Kevin and Anthony,
you guys are the second group of guys involved in a skirmish with sealions that i've heard of inside a few weeks!

A couple of mates were out around the mile marker on their paddle boards in the South Bay. Both expat Aussies who don't have alot of experience with Sealions and seals.
On the way out to sea they notice a sealion in the distance, a common enough sight.
On the way in one of the boys gets a couple of runs and puts about 200 yrds between them.
All of a sudden my mates board is hit from directly underneath with enough force to knock him flying in the air. He is 2/3 of a mile offshore and swimming seconds pass before the culprit surfaces and is revealed to be an amorous sealion.

I said to my mate that for a few seconds he must have thought it was a white.
He just said "mate i just looked like a fucking cat being thrown into a bath, i was back on my board that quickly"

[C J Gagner]

I have had one slam my feet while sitting waiting wishing............... guess he liked my fins a little to much or he thought I was after his girl

[Mark Ramirez]

Back during the 70's surfing at Horseshoes, there used to be a sea-lion that would harass just the kneeboarders because of our flippers, (churchills or duckfeet) must of looked like fish to him or her. It would take liitle nips at your fins just scaring the sh*t out of you until you had to paddle in from the line-up.