My pucker up moments on the big blue

Over 20 years ago I bought my first sit on top and my kayak fishing crazy took over from there.  Over the years I have had many pucker up moments on the big blue and here are a few:

Navarro River:  It was in late November when my brother, his friend Stan and I venture out on a 3-5' swell day.  On the launch the waves were chest high and I knew I would have to take one going over me on the way out.  All three of us successfully launch.  After 2.5 hours we head back in and now the swell had picked up to about 7" breakers on the beach.  We put our chances of anyone of us making a clean landing at 10 percent.   Stan  goes first and times it perfect and lands safely, I am next and I miss time it and end up coming in sideways where I immediately point my feet towards the shore and lean back and land safely,  now it is my brothers turn he miss times it and has a major yard sale.

Shelter Cove:  It was a few years ago in August and my brother and I were fishing the inner reef when a shark swims between us investigating my brothers yak.

Elk:  I go on a solo trip in early June a few years back and head south about 3 miles.  I start fishing on the side of a big rock with seal lions on the rock and in the water on both sides of me.  All of a sudden I see a large pack of about 75 sea lions swimming very fast in my direction and when they get right in front of me one comes about ten feet out of the water and when it lands it is devoured by 4 orcas.  Seal lions to the left of me, sea lions to the right of me, a big rock behind me, and a pack of orcas in front of me.

Sea Ranch:  I launch out of shell beach on a 2-4' swell and I am what I believe to be a good 100 yards past where the ocean normally breaks when out of nowhere I am hit by a set of sleeper waves.  After 6 sleeper waves and over $500 in lost gear I safely make it back to shore.

Sea Ranch:  In the past 6 weeks I have encountered the landlord twice.  The first time it was just outside the mouth of the launch at shell beach in about 30' feet of water.  As I am paddling out I see all of these birds going on a feeding frenzy I get wihin about 25 yards when I see somethig big, really big and grey.  I did not need to investigate any further to know what it was.  The second time was about 4 weeks later when I am in about 80' of water and I see a big splash in front of me followed by the birds going on a feeding frenzy. 

Ive seen one shark since 1974. A big blue that came up to my Achilles off Stillwater North. It circled the raft and left. I got blown off my Malotte at Stillwater in 1976 by a 8ft sleeper on the south point between the outside rock there. Fun man, Fun Fun Fun. I want to se a GW. Congrats Terry for seeing it and still going for it. I need to fish with you more I guess.

Awesome experiences!  But don't think this will stop me from following you.

My scariest was a yard sale in a cave at Van Damme.  Avoid them when there is a long period south swell. 

Nonyak scariest was being caught in the kelp just a couple feet from the surface while Ab diving.  I simply reached down and untangled, but it was tough to fight the instinct to fight for the surface.

No tax man...yet!

Thanks for the post Terry! You've been in some gnarly situations. Most of my pucker up moments on the big blue are from surfing. Mostly repeated long hold downs by heavy waves. It's 'easy' to hold your breath for a single hold down. But when it's a ten wave set and each wave is pushing you closer & closer to rocks or shallow reef, like Salsipuedes rights, that's no fun at all. Been 'chased' out of the water by white shark sightings at a few places. San Gregario, Point Reyes, Doran Beach, etc. I think the worst was while ab diving with a friend I lost track of where he was. His wife had just given birth to twins & I decided to carefully watch him make his dive before I made mine. What happened was he came up got a quick breath and went right back down behind me. He did this several times in a row & my back was always turned in the wrong direction & I didn't see him come up. My heart was racing when I finally saw him. Damn that sucked & talk about major pucker.

Several years ago my little band of divers (3) went out with another other larger group, one of us knew one of them and we decided to tag along with them.  They were used to a little rougher spots than we were.  We ended up diving in an area with a strong southward current.  It was allot of work to stay together in a reasonably small area nothign dangerous just allot of exertion.  14 guys went into the water and only 13 gathered at the top of the cliff after the dive.  After much scanning of the water and shoreline one of their guys was nowhere to be seen. It was the most horrible feeling in the world.

Good ending tho, the 14th guy had decided to let the current take him far south to another area with a decent exit spot in a cove we couldn't see (without letting anyone know).  His buds really let him have it when he came walking up the trail from about a 1/2 mile south.

Ravensback we still need to hook up and go fishing at the Ranch,  Just waiting for some good water on a  weekend.  And yes I did continue on with my fishing after seeilng the GW, figured it was going to be full.

Abman if you can find me on the water you are always welcomed to tag along.  I do have lots of good spots on the north coast.