The Dolphins

 An afternoon session at Masonboro yesterday turned into an experience most people will never be able to relate to, for a lucky few. Nick and I took the jet ski over, walking over the dunes we saw 4 waves lined up all in the chest to shoulder high range. Something was weird though, there was only 5 guys out! Generally you are surfing with at least 200 of your "closest" friends when it looks this good. Clean A-frames were littering the sandbars, the way the rest of the world was littering bar floors with empty beers! Ahhhh St. Patty's Day!

 We paddled out on the peak to the North of the 5 guys already in the water, kind of the unwritten rule, in my world anyway! After stumbling on the first few waves, I blame the sick new booties I just purchased, I finally got things going. I haven't had new booties in years, these things were awesome, I could actually feel the board. I had several fun waves in a row and was super stoked to not be wearing a 5/3 anymore! ( that would change about 2 hrs later though!)

 We saw another set peaking on the shoals of the inlet and scratched for the outside, at the same time we saw the first couple of Atlantic Bottle-nose Dolphins. We actually started splashing a little bit, the pod headed directly at us. More were visible now, There must have been 30 dolphins around us. One swam right between us and we were about 20 feet apart. I love the sound they make as they exhale when they surface!

 There were 2 separate pods of them, they swam down to the jetty and made their way back towards us. The most perfect wave I have seen in a long time was standing up in its classic Masonboro way. I was paddling out and north trying to cross paths with it, nobody was around, it was all me! I was about to get really tubed, then about 8 dolphins appeared in front of me. I just paused and watched them gracefully glide through this perfect head high peak...

 Other waves will come I thought to myself, let's just enjoy the view. I never saw another wave that good, it started closing out and about 30 people showed up. Maybe I should have took off on that wave with the dolphins? Maybe not? I have had way too many dolphin encounters to remember over the years. I have never seen this many together and definitely never saw that many on one wave, they were only about 10' away from me. I will never forget this encounter, it was a special one!

 Stories like this is what surfing is all about to me. It doesn't matter how many turns you did, or how deep that tube was, and it most certainly doesn't matter what sticker or how many you have on your board. What matters is the bond we have with ocean!

Keep Our Beaches Clean!

Thanks For Reading!!