VANCOUVER ISLAND WINDTALK

otherside wrote:http://globalnews.ca/video/2009553/orca ... dle-board/

"what beautiful, playful, gentle creatures"

I am reminded of a buddy's summer spent as a deckhand on a Tofino whale watching boat. One day they come across a pod of transients hunting a seal. The orcas played volleyball with it a while, then proceeded to tear it to shreds, with a blood red cloud, intestines hanging from their viciously sharp teeth, etc. The tourists were aghast, kids crying, people puking. A nice little nature reality check!

Now flash forward to this ... when this playful creature comes to check out you, consider it's a meat eating apex predator and we are made of meat. And we have no natural defence other than our abnormal brain size. No recorded attacks of orca on surfer ... but who wants to be the first? I got chased in by a pod at Gordons a couple summers ago....started out as "cool, whales!" and then became "holy crap, they are following me". Food chain! YIKES.

PS for real "surfer in the food chain" nightmares, check out the croc story in oz http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northern- ... 7358111849

I ended up in the middle of a pod last summer and on my tack back in, 4 of them broke off and followed me. While i didn't feel threatened and though it was pretty cool, i really felt it to be best just getting out of there.
Apex predator. Me, not so much.

I can relate. I was strolling in Beacon Hill Park a while ago eating a nice pain au chocolate while sipping my triple Americano. Some crumbs dropped innocently on the ground and BAM! Full on feeding frenzy. Pigeons, seagulls, and ducks everywhere. A storm of feathers flying, beady eyes fixed on the kill, bills and beaks snapping like crocodiles, and the quacking. God, the quacking! I didn't know where to turn. I just screamed windmilling my arms, spilled my coffee on my crotch, dropped my nice pain au chocolate and darted out through a gap between a glaring mallard and an amped-up dove. I just managed to escape. Spooky.

Hate wasting nice pain au chocolates!

Darwinian roulette!

how many times have the men in grey suits been just below you along the cost of Washington and Oregon and you've never had the slightest idea?

Luckily you don't hear of many shark attacks on windsurfers. We don't spend as much time in the water as surfers, and when water starting our sail makes us look bigger from below.

Beasts. Did you get the stains out of your slacks ?

juandesooka wrote:

otherside wrote:http://globalnews.ca/video/2009553/orca ... dle-board/

"what beautiful, playful, gentle creatures"

I am reminded of a buddy's summer spent as a deckhand on a Tofino whale watching boat. One day they come across a pod of transients hunting a seal. The orcas played volleyball with it a while, then proceeded to tear it to shreds, with a blood red cloud, intestines hanging from their viciously sharp teeth, etc. The tourists were aghast, kids crying, people puking. A nice little nature reality check!...

We had a pod of transients come in and do the same thing to a seal just outside the break when we were surfing in Tofino.
We got out of the water pretty quick! The ones we saw it looked like they were teaching a juvenile how to hunt/kill or something (the big ones would punt the seal to a little one, every time the seal tried to get away they would toss it back). Neat to watch, not so much when you're in the water dressed like a seal.

There is only a single record of an Orca attack on a Human in the wild, in 1972, and the guy didn't even die. Every headline around this has been for an Orca in captivity.

Keyword: recorded attack...

nanmoo wrote:Keyword: recorded attack...

That's two words

Yea Orca's are smart, they disguise themselves in grey coats, flip their tail sideways and pretend to be sharks.

What comes to mind was two experienced kayakers that put out of Sooke a couple years back and then never returned, their kayaks were later found though I believe. It was a calm day if I recall. A playful Orca could cause that and no one would know the better.

If thats the incident I am thinking of Moo, they were IN-experienced young male kayakers, no immersion or other survival gear, accidents-waiting-to-happen. I think an orca attack would leave splintered kayaks or at least some evidence of a violent attack. I'll leave that for the great whites that decide to come around the corner from Flattery in the warmer water this year ;)

If i recall correctly, that swell was massive too with big winds. I recall wiffin spit being overhead that swell.