True Local

I surfed my local yesterday. About 14 guys out. A few nice waves coming through. It is a bit hit and miss, both with waves and atitude of the surfers in the line up. Sometimes it is quite a friendly atmospher prevailing. At other times, it is a silent place, with stares the only form of communication. A local crew, making sure they get their waves in front of blow-ins. Keeping control of their territory.

I paddled out and the first guy I came across had wide eyes and a wider smile.
"Mate, there is a crazy seal out here, just playing around, catching waves!" No sooner had he uttered these words than a grunting sound appeared to my right and the said seal poped it's head up, half a metre from my board.

For the whole surf the seal would go around and grab legropes with it's teeth, bump into our boards and catch wave after wave. At one stage it literally jumped over me as I paddled for a wave. The atmosphere grew more and more jovial, with surfers suggesting it might be trying to warn us that a big shark was around, and that we were paying no attention. We laughed as other jumped as the seal bumped into their boards, we questioned how much it would hurt if the seal missed our legrope and grabbed hold of our leg instead. We queried whether you could actually try to grab hold of it...

Perhaps he was the true local, questioning what all these blow-ins were up to!

The true local.