I’m thinking about getting a kayak and go at least a mile off shore with clearer water to record underwater and maybe spearfish. I only wish I had this GoPro camera the time in California when I was snorkeling in the kelp beds off Zuma beach and came face to face with a WHALE not 15 feet away. I could have gone closer but I was warned a whale can break your bones with just a quick flip. BTW, the whale remained in place for at least 10 minutes so I would have had good footage. Very impressed by its big eye just staring at me.
“Very impressed by its big eye just staring at me.”
He was picturing you made of krill.
I’d have peed myself if I was snorkeling through kelp strands and came across a whale. I have snorkeled the kelp beds off of Emerald Bay at Catalina Island and have heard whales singing, so I bet they must have been close.
I can say for sure I’d have peed myself because that’s exactly what I did as a teenager when boogie boarding at San Onofre near the nuclear power plant... A porpoise family sailed under me and brushed the bottom of my feet when I was in still water out past where the waves began to break. I thought ‘white shark’ and began to paddle in as fast as I could. Even when I saw they were porpoises I just kept on coming in -— eyes tearing up, bladder drained, my stomach leaping into my throat like in a moment before a schoolyard fight, and my vision narrowed by fear like I was seeing the shore through a couple of paper towel rolls. I was never happier to stumble onto the beach.
I love the ocean, but I fear it very much. I just don’t want to encounter anything larger than a big Clownfish, even if it is warm blooded and starred in ‘Flipper’.
There’s another freeper here I know personally who surfs the big stuff off of NorCal and there’s always thought in that sport of twenty foot great whites cruising around beneath you in the best surfing locations -— even if they’ve got no immediate interest in you, it’s too disturbing for me to think about.