Hit and run, OC 09.27.15

Dang, dude!  I'm glad that you are OK.

Here is my report from another thread from Saturday.

I had a little scare yesterday at OC. ATD and I were fishing north of OC when out of nowhere there was a boil/swirl about 10' behind me. Big with a lot of power if that makes sense. Close to 10' in diameter too. Adam was looking right at me when it happened and saw it going on, but no fins or fish were seen. We had not seen any fur bags around or anything else to explain it. After that I had a pretty uneasy feeling for quite a while. Shark, whale or ????

F$%^. I guess it was what we thought it may be. Shit! Just reading your report makes me feel it again.

Glad your experience turned out well.

I was lookang at Rob when this happened, and nothing broke surface.  All I saw was a violent swirl right behind Rob.  We waited for a min or two listening for mammal sounds... nada.

It could have been a whale. Earlier this year I was reeling a fish up at TC and then there was a huge line rub. Then 10 feet away the whole surface was boiling. I heard it before I saw it as I was focused on where the line was entering the water. It was a huge swirl. Maybe 25 feet in diameter. I never saw the tail at all. If you were hit by a shark I would think there would be teeth marks as sharks don't head butt. Damn scary though. Super happy you recovered and got on board with out further issues.

Another time at Pt.Arena a bull seal charged up from the depths and went airborne not 15 feet from the kayak. If that sucker hit the kayak I would have been in the water for sure.

If it was a whale wouldnt it not have been such a fast yardsale? I mean the guy didnt even have time to not faceplant in the water. That takes some serious force. Confusing as hell though there were no teeth marks. Wtf.

Can we rule out it wasn't the landlord since there were no marks? it has to be some sort of whale or a big 500 lbs sea lion?

Thanks for sharing your experience Gary.  Glad you're OK.

Still thankful you're ok, Gary!  Definitely not the call a kayaker wants to hear coming over the radio...

I've been thinking about the incident. I think it was a Polaris attack that the shark aborted.  That makes the most sense to me. It started the launch, then veered off when it recognized you weren't a prey item/threat, but the momentum carried it into you.  That explains the impact but no bite.

I remember reading someone else's similar story on the forum... except they saw the shark.

I dunno what else it could be to flip a Hobie with Kayaker, ass over tea kettle so violently.  Nothing else really makes sense. 

Also, can you measure the distance between your wounds? It occurred to me that you might have headbutted your fishfinder. 

Glad you're OK buddy.

This is crazy.. i'm more and more thinking about shark shield.. do they do group buys?

Glad you are OK,  Gary!

I would imagine this kayaker would have flipped up if he had been in a slightly different spot. Could the boil have been a disturbance from a whale's tail as it dove before breaching? Scary shit either way. I hope you are able to put this behind you and get comfortable with kayaking on the ocean again.

Glad your ok man. That's nuts! Vey happy you walked away.

GD that sounds like a scary situation to be in.  Glad your unhurt and your kayak still intact.  Whatever it was, glad it didn't stick around... 

wow, that is a big impact to cause the kayak to go airborne like that.
Very glad to hear that damage was only a few scratches and nothing more.

Weird. Glad you weren't seriously hurt.
I got up and saw it was fogged in. I was thinking dang, I haven't seen fog like this since our 2012 GWS experience. Because I hadn't set up with a fishing partner and I didn't have my GPS with me, I stayed on shore. Sometimes it's good to trust ones instincts.

Wow ! Glad ur ok and thanks for sharing.

That is crazy!  Glad you are ok.  I did see the sea lion several times and I heard what sounded like a whale a couple times as well, but never saw it.  There were some crazy swirls and boils out there but I couldn't tell if it was just the swells and wind or something more sinister.  honestly, I probably didn't want to think about it!

Everyone knows GWS don't go north of Bodega Bay, must have been a sea lion.  I'm sure a sea lion is strong enough to flip a kayak over its front bow...

Just a reminder that if you own a SS, you should use it every time in the ocean, not just in the notoriously sharky areas...I'm guilty of that but I'll be rectifying it soon.