Santa Barbara Area Surf Reports

An uncrowded session at Stu Peak at Sands. Uncrowded because this should be the smallest day of surf for the week so most were resting. The sets were waist high, glassy, and fun but they were inconsistent. Lefts were better than rights, but I pulled the best floater in the last two weeks on one of the waist high rights.

After 45 minutes out there we were getting ready to catch a last wave in. A couple more guys were sitting near us. I caught a fun thigh high right and as I was heading towards the cliffs I saw what at first looked like a smooth rock with holes in it down the line. As I pulled out, it disapeared back into the water, leaving a giant boil behind it. I thought I had imagined a Mantee or some sort of ugly dolphin. I sat there, about 15 feet from the boil, in thigh high water waiting for this dolphin to pop back up again. I whistled to Kyle who was outside in the lineup, so he wouldn't miss it when this ugly dolphin came back. It never appeared so I paddled back out, and this time Kyle took a right. As he was going down the line, it popped up again, and it became clear what it was, a huge male Elephant Seal, staring him down. Kyle popped out and scrambled to the lineup. This thing then watched us for 10-15 minutes, he was inside of us and to the East, big giant nostrils, very deep eye sockets, and a giant snout. No doubt it was a male elephant seal and it weighed over a ton. It's head was much bigger than a 5 gallon paint drum and it's body from nose to tail was perhaps 10 feet long. It kept watching us, sometimes submersing itself for awhile, but always coming back up. I then caught a wave which put me in-line with it but 100 feet or so up the beach. It now started to watch me, so I took some whitewash in to chat with some onlookers on the beach. Soon the seal was nowhere to be found. This is the first time I've ever seen an Elephant Seal while surfing, and the first time I've seen an Elephant Seal in Santa Barbara County.