Paradise!

It was going on nine o’clock this morning before I got to the beach….and I had been grumping about maybe having to stay close by today since I was so late.  When I got to the beach it was just perfect!  I hurried to get out paddling and decided to go south.  A lifeguard on a prone paddle board, passed me and said hello…..then suddenly I saw a dark fin pop up right in front of him and it surprised us both!  Of course my first thought was, “Shark!”…. but then I saw about twenty other fins and then I knew it was DOLPHINS!!!!!  Oh I was pumped, so I whipped my board around and headed north in the direction they were swimming!  There was NO ONE around us and I was paddling with so many dolphins I lost count, but it had to be close to forty of them in this pod.  By the time we got down to Cove Park, other paddlers were watching and came hurrying over to see the dolphins.  Then something amazing happened….the dolphins stopped and were hanging around, swimming under us, and then just lazing on the surface right next to me and the other paddlers!  I was completely surrounded by dolphins so many times!  We were ALL pumped then, and we all just followed the dolphins around, watching them jump and splash and frolic!  There were so many dolphins that there were plenty for everyone to enjoy!  This went on for a good hour!  Then they started to move south and I started paddling south too.  I had about fifteen dolphins all around me…..just me….and they were staying with me, next to me and a couple of them were directly in front of my board!  Every time my board started to over take them, they would push forward just enough and then settle back directly on the nose of my board.  It was amazing!  There was a baby dolphin too, about two feet long, jumping and splashing!  Some of the other paddlers were trying to keep up and there were still a ton of dolphins all over.  I don’t remember how many  jumps, spins, and splashes I witnessed, but the dolphins were having a blast!  I was hooting and hollering and cheering as they showed off and some of this time I was just sitting on my board watching it all and clapping!  I could NOT believe how long this was going on, but I paddled with them down to Kam II, and then Kam III, and then back to Kam II!   A couple of times it seemed I had my own private show…..with dolphins jumping and splashing and fooling around right next to me!  One paddler that was a few yards away from me yelled, “Hey, they seem to like you!”…. and he was right, in fact, the dolphins were surfacing, making noises, swimming right under me and then they did something I have never seen before……they were shooting their fins up out of the water and tail slapping like whales do, and at some times they were just “waving” their tails at me….AND I AM NOT KIDDING!!!!!  I have never seen that out in the wild before and I was in shock!  Wow, what an experience and I never got down to the boat ramp today at all (sorry turtles!), but it was a total dolphin experience day!  At Kam II, some kayakers also got in on the dolphin action and there was one swimmer that came out, and then a lifeguard at Kam II came out on a board and started threatening people  AND spoiled all the fun!  He was yelling, “It’s a federal offense to chase the dolphins…..stay away from the dolphins!”  He was a real downer and it was dumb because the dolphins are so fast……if they had NOT wanted to be hanging out with people and felt “chased”, they would have been LONG gone!!!!!  Those dolphins clearly were loving what they were doing…..and everyone loved it too.  Oh well, he started acting like he was going to “keep” everyone away from them, so I turned around and paddled back to Kam I.  The wind had not come up at all and it was very glassy conditions going back.  I paddled in still not believing how I spent the past two hours…..and really wishing I had the camera!  The conditions stayed nice all the way through my swim and it was still nice when I left the beach.  Wow, what a day!  I hope the dolphins come to play tomorrow because I will be out bright and early waiting for them!!!