What animal have you encountered on the water?

[Hawaiis]

here is my encounter with an endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal. there are only about a thousand left in the world. and probably less than a hundred in the waters off Oahu.

https://vimeo.com/69030881

[plummet]

I had a similar experience once. thought it was a gumboot floating in the water. The gumboot looked around at me grinned and blasted off under the water... very cool. Yes it was a seal not a gumboot.

[Ozzie]

So far, big jellyfish. When they get you it hurts you.

[Toby]

On Isla Holbox, Mexico I had dolphins swimming under me...I had goosebumps, just amazing!

In Egypt I almost hit a dolphin, just showed up right in front of me.

In Egypt and Brazil I saw several times a turtle.

[sarc]

Hammerhead shark. At Cronulla, Australia. Almost ran it over. It was about 30cm long, must have been a newborn!

Bluebottle jellyfish. ON-MY-RIGHT-EYE-AND-EAR. Also at Cronulla. F**K Bluebottles.

[sarc]

Oh, and flying fish... they are the best! Jump out right in front of ya and glide for soooo long...

[Eurus]

Something amazing (and at times equally frightening) about kite surfing is how close we actually get to the marine life. My list so far consists of sharks, turtles, sting ray, jelly fish (Man O War are beautiful but deadly), more variety of fish than I can name, lots of dolphin, massive manta rays, lots of sharks, more sharks, still more sharks, and the occasional manatee. It's a pretty amazing sport that lets you get so close to nature. A few weeks back I kited right through a feeding frenzy of juvenile bonnet head sharks chasing down a school of sting ray on some flats. Pretty amazing sight in about 3 feet of water. Probably only about 20 sharks in the water but it seemed like a thousand at the time.

A few years back I kited directly over a 12 foot bull shark who was sitting in about 5 feet of water and it scared the living shit out of me. It was a sobering reminder that big things with lots of teeth live in the water we kite on.

[nikalaitzian]

Homo sapiens

[sarc]

Something amazing (and at times equally frightening) about kite surfing is how close we actually get to the marine life. My list so far consists of sharks, turtles, sting ray, jelly fish (Man O War are beautiful but deadly), more variety of fish than I can name, lots of dolphin, massive manta rays, lots of sharks, more sharks, still more sharks, and the occasional manatee. It's a pretty amazing sport that lets you get so close to nature. A few weeks back I kited right through a feeding frenzy of juvenile bonnet head sharks chasing down a school of sting ray on some flats. Pretty amazing sight in about 3 feet of water. Probably only about 20 sharks in the water but it seemed like a thousand at the time.

A few years back I kited directly over a 12 foot bull shark who was sitting in about 5 feet of water and it scared the living shit out of me. It was a sobering reminder that big things with lots of teeth live in the water we kite on.

*************
Can you remind me of where you kite so I can make sure to NEVER go there?

[Tone]

Egypt - Ray, dolphin, flying fish and too many jelly fish.
UK - porpoise, basking shark, lots of fish