Another Cool Surfing Day

I hadn't been surfing since I started my captain's class, but with only my Bartending school left for 'structured' life right now, I decided to get some time in the water today. Sunday is not usually the best day to pick to go surfing because it's usually very crowded with all the locals at the beach in addition to the tourists, but being such a hot day coupled with a reasonable surf report, I loaded the longboard up and headed to the beach.

Indeed it was crowded and I had to park a little further away from my surf spot than normal, but by no means was it a serious hike. After waxing up the board, I headed into the water which was a little cooler than normal for this time of year. It was in the mid 70's - where it's normally in the mid 80's. With it being so hot outside though, it was quite refreshing.

As soon as I paddled out to the lineup, I noticed a bit of a commotion with a number of people pointing into the water and I could see a large 'shadowy' area moving toward a group of us - but at a very slow rate. I could hear people saying it was a manatee and as it passed by me it proved to be 2 manatees - an adult and a calf. A number of people were touching them as they swam slowly by, but not knowing enough about the temperament of these mammals, I decided I could do just find without touching them.

It was another cool experience related to surfing. I had a generally good day surfing and was very glad to be back in the water. I'll probably surf a little more often now - local kids start back to school tomorrow, so they'll be more 'room' at the inlet.

Here's a photo I got off the web of a couple of manatees in case anyone reading this is not familiar with what they are.