Wondering what creatures you may have seen. At certain spots in Maui you almost see too many turtles but they are still cool. Until they snake your wave

The only relevant water creatures around here are some wingfoil beginners

Got hit twice yesterday by flying fish! Lots around at the moment

Flying fish, seals, dolphins, penguins..

Friend of mine saw bull sharks.

In Florida I have foiled into or close to....Bull shark, Lemon Shark, Tiger Shark, Hammerhead, Stingrays, Dolphins, Turtles and Manatees...
Also, on the intercostals we also see gators.

When I was in Texas, snakes and lots of them!

We see seals round the Thames Estuary and the od porpoises

In Georgia: juvenile loggerhead sea turtles and lots of dolphins. On the rare occasions when windsurfing in the ocean, I've seen the occasional shark, and on one memorable occasion I saw a shark chase the wake of my fin/board which scared the **** out of me.

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CoreAS said..
In Florida I have foiled into or close to....Bull shark, Lemon Shark, Tiger Shark, Hammerhead, Stingrays, Dolphins, Turtles and Manatees...
Also, on the intercostals we also see gators.

When I was in Texas, snakes and lots of them!

Yikes, ever any incidents with the gators or snakes? Are they closer to shore?

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lao shi said..
Got hit twice yesterday by flying fish! Lots around at the moment

I have been told there are a type of flying fish that has a sharp nose that can stab folks. Have you heard of any like this? The only ones that have hit me have a blunt nose and are pretty cool to foil through.

Jelly fish. Hundreds of the slimy bastards!

I hit a turtle in Sydney sorry dude
shark once in Sydney and once in Brisbane
Dolphins at Sydney (Kurnell) and Jervis bay all a bit distant mostly.
Penguins at Nelson's bay

oh and kiters

In about 35 windsurfing: blue whales (really close to shore) 3 times, dolphins, flying fish, jellyfish, tuna. We also have several types of sharks (including white shark) but LUCKY I never noticed!

In Florida:
Stingrays, Leopard rays, Manta rays (which are HUGE)
Leopard sharks, Blacktip sharks, Hammerhead sharks, Bonnethead sharks
Manatees, Sea turtles, Dolphin, Mullet, Tarpon, Redfish, Bonito
Anhinga (A kind of cormorant which swims along and harvests the crustacea the fin kicks up.), Bald eagles, Osprey

In Massachusetts:
Whale shark, White Sharks, Grey Seals, Bluefish (vicious f&%#$ers!) Striped Bass, Minke Whales, Dolphin, Grey Whale, Humpback Whale (very rare). Oh, and I did get attacked by a flying swan once - went after the sail.

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Awalkspoiled said..
In Florida:
Stingrays, Leopard rays, Manta rays (which are HUGE)
Leopard sharks, Blacktip sharks, Hammerhead sharks, Bonnethead sharks
Manatees, Sea turtles, Dolphin, Mullet, Tarpon, Redfish, Bonito
Anhinga (A kind of cormorant which swims along and harvests the crustacea the fin kicks up.), Bald eagles, Osprey

In Massachusetts:
Whale shark, White Sharks, Grey Seals, Bluefish (vicious f&%#$ers!) Striped Bass, Minke Whales, Dolphin, Grey Whale, Humpback Whale (very rare). Oh, and I did get attacked by a flying swan once - went after the sail.

You've seen whale sharks out there? That's incredible. And anhinga are some of my favorites. One hangs out by a pond near me that I see all the time

In Baja a huge herd of manta rays, about ten feet down, just minding their own business, but certainly gave me a start.

Also, in Baja in 1997 a needlefish jumped and went through a windsurfer's thigh. She limped in and got flown to the hospital. She was back the next day, sans fish and with a big bandage.

In Florida I was formula racing a long distance race on the Banana River. On a starboard reach I was hiked out cutting it hard upwind. I looked down and saw a big dolphin cruising along right under my butt. That also gave me a major start.

A pod of Dolphins, quite a few (some huge) Turtles, Jelly Fish (thousands of them), Flying Fish and I kid you not, a swimming pig far out to sea ... all in various different magical surf spots.

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aeroegnr said..

Awalkspoiled said..
In Florida:
Stingrays, Leopard rays, Manta rays (which are HUGE)
Leopard sharks, Blacktip sharks, Hammerhead sharks, Bonnethead sharks
Manatees, Sea turtles, Dolphin, Mullet, Tarpon, Redfish, Bonito
Anhinga (A kind of cormorant which swims along and harvests the crustacea the fin kicks up.), Bald eagles, Osprey

In Massachusetts:
Whale shark, White Sharks, Grey Seals, Bluefish (vicious f&%#$ers!) Striped Bass, Minke Whales, Dolphin, Grey Whale, Humpback Whale (very rare). Oh, and I did get attacked by a flying swan once - went after the sail.

You've seen whale sharks out there? That's incredible. And anhinga are some of my favorites. One hangs out by a pond near me that I see all the time

The whale shark was in Boston harbor off Nahant. Huge thing.
Hugest thing I ever saw while windsurfing though was a nuclear submarine which surfaced about 400yd from me off New London. It's nice that wetsuits are relatively easy to clean.

over here bloody pests everywhere !! :
sea snakes/sharks/dolphins/dugongs/turtles/flying fish/needle fish and the odd whale not to mention kiters

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Hess said..

CoreAS said..
In Florida I have foiled into or close to....Bull shark, Lemon Shark, Tiger Shark, Hammerhead, Stingrays, Dolphins, Turtles and Manatees...
Also, on the intercostals we also see gators.

When I was in Texas, snakes and lots of them!

Yikes, ever any incidents with the gators or snakes? Are they closer to shore?

In Texas when the covid shut down our park to launch the only area we had to walk through was called "Snake Pit" because nearly
every session you would see snakes.

Florida they're gators everywhere on the intercoastal but not normally out where we foil, they tend to keep away in inlets and creeks.

I had a 6ft gator under my car a few weeks ago and couldn't load up until the gator catcher came out to capture him.

Harbor seals, sea lions and once or twice a school of orcas. Nothing as exciting as you folks get.

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Hess said..

lao shi said..
Got hit twice yesterday by flying fish! Lots around at the moment

I have been told there are a type of flying fish that has a sharp nose that can stab folks. Have you heard of any like this? The only ones that have hit me have a blunt nose and are pretty cool to foil through.

Needle fish can. Friend got speared in the ankle and had to go to the ER to have the snout removed. The X-ray looked like he had a railroad spike in his ankle.

Awalkspoiled is like the Jacques Cousteau of foilers. Very nice guy but I think I'll stick to the beach if I see him out.

In Nova Scotia Canada we regularly see seals and porpoises. Occasionally we see bluefin tuna and sunfish. Lots of mackerel schools. As a probably once in a lifetime event two years ago my windsurfing buddy and I found ourselves in the middle of a pod of pilot whales. They are the smallest whales but still huge compared to anything we had ever seen.

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Paducah said..

Hess said..

lao shi said..
Got hit twice yesterday by flying fish! Lots around at the moment

I have been told there are a type of flying fish that has a sharp nose that can stab folks. Have you heard of any like this? The only ones that have hit me have a blunt nose and are pretty cool to foil through.

Needle fish can. Friend got speared in the ankle and had to go to the ER to have the snout removed. The X-ray looked like he had a railroad spike in his ankle.

Awalkspoiled is like the Jacques Cousteau of foilers. Very nice guy but I think I'll stick to the beach if I see him out.

Yeah, good call, and it reminded me that last time I was at Kalmus there was a Portuguese Man o'war another foiler tripped over. I mostly just ignore jellyfish - we get them in Tampa Bay too, but not those things.

Salt water creatures sound scary.. I hit fish from time to time and the occasional duck. Only thing I hit that cause a crash was a large alligator garr (gary) that's always around my boat dock. Hitting him is like hitting a rock.

In Moreton Bay, turtles, dugongs, bull sharks, flying fish, sting rays and jelly fish

I already saw naked girls in the near of the beach of my hometown lake

Dugong, sea-snake, rays, turtles, dolphins. (Hit the sea-snake and towed it 500m on my fin).

On a regular basis. Dolphins in the Red Sea, west side of the Sinai. Some cruising below, alongside with you. Guessing young male groups. Trying to out jump them is a humbling experience. Whales and turtles off Maui. Apparently sharks, but I didn't see any. Flying fish off El Yaque, Isla de Margarita. Pretty little fish until they scare the poo out of you when they unexpectedly hit your sail. And... the worst. Needle fish. Though they were cool. Until I got impaled by one. Luckily 2nd to last day of the trip. Luckily at a shallow angle of penetration resulting in a souvenir stuck in me, wound, and torn MCL.

I'll add jellyfish to the list. Wait, no, because technically I didn't SEE it.

I just felt an amazing amount of pain coming from my foot suddenly. I have hardware in that area from a leg break and I seriously thought I had somehow broken my foot due to that, even though all I was doing was stepping on the board to beach start after talking to someone on the shore. Kept flexing it and seeing if it caused more pain to put weight on it, it didn't. Then I saw the rash forming and realized what it was.

Intense electrical/hot pain that probably felt worse than breaking my leg at first. Only thing that felt more powerful with pain was a kidney stone, where I actually blacked out.

Apparently in the mediterranean they have a few types, I think this one was called a mauve stinger due to the symptoms they report for that. Too bad I didn't see it because they look kind of pretty.

North Puget Sound has orcas, seals, and dahls porpoises. Also nuclear submarines, but the accompanying zodiacs keep you far away from those.

On the Columbia River the worst things are the barges, and the odd salmon.

I chase Baby Ducks and Geese on my lake.

I once sailed a kiteboard through a mob of large stingrays which were sitting in the shallows at the beach with their backs humped up above the surface. Looked like a patch of boulders. with eyes!