A close encounter for Ray

[Weasels wake]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZV2aswhdKI

[SUPcheat]

Guess the guy was trying to disguise his SUP as a ray by letting the leash drag in the water behind him.  Don't think I would want to get humped by a Manta Ray.

[JayInSoCal]

That's awesome!!  This is why SUP is the best!  I had a similar (but very brief) encounter with a beautiful 7ft white shark last weekend at Trail 6.  Ocean wildlife encounters are always amazing. 

[OUTSIDEWAVE]

I had a similar experience a while back paddling out cool clear water and this little guy  started to fly away from me just off to the side about 3 foot in front of me and 3 foot of to the side he /she was small maybe 18 inches across but it was such a trip to watch him fly through the water just flapping  slowly  not ia a hurry not scared just cruisin

[Subber]

I had a huge bat ray come up to see me out
of the muck just east of Capitola a couple of years ago.

There was a wave breaking over there (maybe someone knows the name)
and no one on the peak.  So I paddled over to try it.
It was kelpy and the water was really brown.
I was looking down...I had to blink my eyes twice -
at first, I wasn't sure I was seeing what I was seeing.

Anyway, it came up under my board, which is 30" wide.
It was about 2x as wide as my board is - wings on both
sides!

I think it came up to see what was making the noise in
the water - my paddle - maybe hoping for a snack?

Ooooh - it was kind of spooky at first - not ready for it at all - lol.

[SUPcheat]

I saw a couple of small rays flipping at the surface a couple of weeks ago at Shark's cove.  I now recognize their surface flip sound, I think.

Almost wish I didn't know they were down there, but what can you say about a place called Shark's, it's finally dawned on me, Duh!

[Weasels wake]

Figuring that board is about 30" wide, that Manta has to be about 5' across, not even full grown yet.

[Board Stiff]

Are those actually dangerous to humans or just scary looking?

[PonoBill]

Wow, that's a really beautiful ray. I've never seen one with such distinct and symmetrical marking.

Not dangerous at all. wonderful animals. I had two of them criss-crossing under me on a southside downwinder two years ago. Clearly I was part of a game for them. Both smaller than that one. There's a Manta cleaning station at Thousand peaks, and they're pretty common all along the southside. Last winter I thought one of them was a tiger--it was pushing one wingtip way out of the water. I pointed it out to Covesurfer who said something like "Where? I don't see anything, you're just f*&#ing with me Babcoc...Whoa, holy shit, IT"S A SHARK!!!

At precisely that moment I realized it was a Manta wingtip, but I didn't bother to tell Greg for a while.