Thursday, July 19, 2007

Here sharky, sharky....

So we started ocean swimming as a team, complete with our nifty, TNT-branded wetsuits (logos on the inside and out, so when you peel it halfway down, they still know where you got it.). We swim from La Jolla Shores, as opposed to La Jolla Cove, where the tri club and other people swim. This is good, because we get to practice surf entry and surf exit, which we apparently won't really have to deal with in Pac Grove. Makes sense, right?

Even so, it's cool. It's high summer here in San Diego and there's sea life a-plenty even in the shallows. Guitar fish, stingrays, bait fish, leopard sharks. Yes leopard sharks. They're not real big and they're bottom feeders, but still...friggin' sharks! How cool is that?

I almost grabbed one last night by accident. I was just charging along, trying to catch a wave in to shore and I looked over at my right hand. Not a foot away was a leopard shark. A couple of feet long, just darting away. So awesome.

At about that point, I looked down and through the sediment I could see all these stingray wings flapping away. I couldn't really see the rays, just their wings moving. It looked like the ocean floor was the skin of some giant fish, all scaly and rippling. Never seen anything like it.

Apparently, when you go out from the shores and you get into the deeper water, if it's clear enough you can sometimes see schools of leopard sharks and even the occasional dolphin. Can't wait to find out. And me in my wounded seal costume....

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