Today Steamer Lane (Santa Cruz Westside) was pumping but was shut down for a surf contest so I headed to the East side. I paddled out at Little Windansea. Two guys were out. I got a few good sets that went all the way down but it was very inconsistent. About 20 minute waits for the overhead sets. One of the guys caught a smaller chest high one and I watched him ride it to the inside. I noticed a big body further toward the reef.
An adult Sea Lion had a 3.5 foot Silver Salmon in its mouth which he just caught. It brought the still-living salmon all the way to the peak and swam around with it right in the take-off zone. The Sea Lion flipped it into the air like a dog playing with a toy. I talked with him a bit because the other surfers were down the beach and he was very close, about 10 20 feet away. I missed a couple waves because he was blocking the peak. It got bored with the tossing and splashing and started tearing the salmon apart.
Pink chunks of fish were flying all over while some gulls showed up and started taking scraps. I was basically sitting in a big pool of chum, plus one of the other surfers had a pretty good cut on his finger, which I didn't know about at the time. This went on for about ten minutes and then the Sea Lion moved down the reef, towards ###### where they usually sit in the sun. I missed another set and was getting pretty desperate for a wave and started looking at a smaller one that was coming in. I'm watching it as it rolls closer and starts to feel the reef, then noticed an abrupt discontinuity in the scene: a big, straight, vertical pole was cutting through the blue water to the West of the kelp line, about 10 meters behind the set wave which was about 10 15 meters from me.
It was so tall and fast that I could hardly believe it was a fin. But it was coming at me like an arrow, so I spun and paddled for the little chest high peak. I stood up and started pumping down the line and yelled to Rafael, Shark, Shark' while making a cutting fin symbol with my arm. But he'd already seen it and was freaking out, paddling for the rocks. Rafael later said it looked like a hundred gallon drum or one of the big break wall rocks. I didn't see its body, though, just its massive fin coming at me. The other dude (with the cut finger) paddled in too and said he saw it heading further East, but no one at Pleasure Point reported a shark.
Content courtesy of the Shark Research Committee. Please report any shark encounters using their reporting forms.
