Yesterday (monday) I had promised to take my son to the beach before going to Capoeira class, we ended up bringing my mom along so I packed my gear in the car and off we went.
The sun was out, tide going up and a small swell was building up but viz was pretty decent.
I went out looking for White Sea Bass and shortly after getting to the spot I have been seeing them I see a few cruising the bottom but all were small so I kept waiting at the surface and laying on the bottom waiting for something legal to show up but no luck.
At one point, I was crawling along the bottom and as I am heading up for air, I notice a little patch of sand and what could have been a buried rock but it was wide enough that I was pretty sure it was an Angel shark so I decided to come back down and inspect it a little more since i could not see a head or tail but was "sure" it was a shark, once down, I locate the spot and my face is just a couple of feet from it when very casually the biggest Halibut I have seen pops out and swims away in no hurry.
Even as it was bolting out of hiding, It took me a couple of seconds to realize it was NOT a shark so I swim after it to see if it was going to settle but I missed my chance.
That encounter was enough to make my brain switch from WSB to starring at any patch of sand for the next few minutes. no more than 5 minutes later as I am in about 10" of water, half way down looking for my missing fish, from the corner of my eye I notice something approaching me from the left and as I turn my head I realize that it's a bat ray about 4' to 5' across about to bump me, literally. We were inches away from each other...
I don't know if the ray was drunk or stoned but it did not move away until we looked in each others eyes, as soon as I turned my head I almost jumped out of the water and I must have awaked the beast because it too almost jumped out of the water...one of those movie scenes where both stare at each other and scream like little girls!:laughing3:
I dove for a little longer but no legal WSB crossed my path...:(
I swam in, grabbed my kid, mom and went to class...great day for all!:thumbsup2:
