i went wakeboarding again today. it was much fun. there were 1-2 foot waves which was enough to play around with and an occasional 3 footer. i rode a couple waves at least 50 feet into shore. wheee. the oregon coast doesn't have mammals that you run into while in the water. its different here. yesterday i saw a sealion 200 or 300 feet away from me. it was amazing. today i was actually freaked a bit - i saw a fin. a tall, black, dorsal fin about 300 feet away. i stopped playing around and just watched the fit appear and disappear amongst the swells. then i got a partial body view through the water. this thing was big! on the land, at least in cities, you never run into wildlife that is physically larger than yourself. this thing was clearly larger than my body. my inclination was shark but the fin was very black and that didnt look like anything id seen in movies. after watching it swim away i returned to playing around but kept a weary eye out. scenes from Jaws would occasionally play out in my head.

after i was done and back on the beach i saw some people point out the same fin, except there were two animals. i walked over to ask him what the were and he said dolphins. then there were three of them and they jumped just a bit out of the water. it was incredible.