Flippers at Magnolia - 5/22/05

I met Larry at the State Beach, just north of Magnolia Street at seven. My wife had decided that this year, she was going to take our daughter to the beach a bunch of times. As such, she had determined that she needed a state park annual pass, an expense I'd never incurred before. But, since it was her idea and not mine, I readily agreed. I knew that I stood to benefit from the purchase, as I could use the thing a couple times a week.

In my excitement, I called a few known beach pass carrying folks that I knew. Larry was the one who answered the call.

I'd brought the longboard, knowing that Larry didn't own a surfboard less than 8' 6". We paddled out into a pretty crowded line up of surfers. Water was warm, inland temperatures would hit the 90s later in the day, the surf was up, and had been for two days, so the word was out. Everyone who owned a surfboard would probably be at the beach this day. I could only imagine the crowd at Seventeenth Street or the pier.

Inconsistent set waves were shoulder high to just overhead. The lefts, I learned, looked promising but always closed out quickly. The rights were fun. Larry is a smooth and experienced rider, and pulled into a lot the better waves. I messed around with a few lefts, and finally found a right or two to be proud of.

When the clock struck 8, Larry called last wave and went in. I decided to stick around a while, and let myself drift out to the edge of the break. I figured I could be patient and picky, waiting for the big stuff.

The dolphins had been out while Larry was there. A few had surfaced right near him, scaring us both. But, for some reason, tide or swell or both, dolphins converged on the spot right around 8:30.

There were dozens of them. I was sitting on my board, looking to my left at a group of five or six dolphins, blowing steam, swirling water, and doing small jumps, when suddenly I heard the blow hole noise to my left. I looked to see four or five more. It was hard to count them, as they moved so much and the water was pretty dark. But, there were all sizes, from young dolphins only three or four feet long, to some big guys, too. Normally, sighting a few dolphins twenty yards outside of the break is just a standard morning sight. But, these guys were in towards shore, right where all the surfers were. Neither the surfers nor the dolphins seemed to have any fear of each other. It was as if we both knew that the other exists, and plays in the same pool. It was just that for one day, we had to share the same water more than usual.

A wave swelled up that looked like it had my name on it. I turned my board to shore and started to paddle. It was bigger than I had estimated, and I realized I was too late. At the last moment, I pulled back. My board kept going, getting sucked into the break. I gripped my leash with both hands and pulled it back to me, then climbed on, and turned to paddle back out a bit.

There were three guys, all looking at me like I was a ghost. Their eyes were wide and their mouths were open.

"Dude!" one of them exclaimed. "Did you SEE those guys?"

"No."

"There were three dolphins on that wave with you." he laughed, still disbelieving what he'd seen. "You were paddeling, and there was a big one right here -" he motioned down to his left "- and two more over here." he motioned to his right.

I was shocked. I hadn't seen any of them. I had no idea I was sharing the wave with a family of dolphins.

"Good thing you didn't take off." one of the other guys chimed in. "That would have been pretty wild."

"Well. I've always heard that you should let the dolphins have the wave..." I shrugged.

Actually, I envied the guys. I was the player, but they were the audience that got the show. It seemed to me that they got the better deal.

A few sets later, I saw a dolphin moment that I'll remember as well as those guys remembered mine.

I had dismounted a wave, and was paddeling out through a set of good sized breakers. In front of me, a surfer was paddeling as hard as he could. He was right in the impact zone of a rising wave of water, but looked like he could make it over if he paddled hard enough. He was working hard,and was up the face of the wave when the tip started to break. He kept up, and the nose of his board got the an unbroken bit of the top. He was going to make it.

But, right before he flopped over to the back of the wave, from just under his board came two lightening fast gray shapes in perfect arcs. From my point of view, they looked like they could have easily brushed the bottom of his board. There was a big dolphin, riding high on the wave, and a little dolphin riding low. Both dorsal fins were out of the water, streaking across the face as the surfer pushed over the top.

When I made it out, I had to ask him about it. I repeated the other's words. "Dude!! Did you SEE those guys?"

"Yea" he replied. His eyes were as wide as mine.

"Yea. I did."