Giant Sea Bass

I really don’t have time to be swimming today and writing this post and editing all of these photos. However, I have not swam in 4 days and I am looking out my windows and I see a beautiful blue sky and a lovely soft pink horizon and it becomes clear that I don’t have time NOT to be swimming today.

I really had hoped that I would have been able to get out yesterday but work tasks just kept mounting and I ended up working all day without any form of a workout. It was super productive though and I felt good about it when all was done. So fortunately I got the things that absolutely had to get done out of the way yesterday which gives me some breathing room today but not much. My last meeting ends at 7:30 and no one seems to be depending on me for anything in the immediate future so I head out the door at 7:45.

What a beautiful day. Last week was gray all week long and this sunshine is a sight for sore eyes. I can’t wait to get in the water. On the drive down Selva, I can see the haze of the receding marine layer a good distance away near the horizon. I park and get out of the car and the sun feels warm on my skin. Oh man this is the stuff!

I see JJ at the top of the stairs and say hi and we chat for a minute. She is a delightful woman with a very pleasant demeanor. I don’t know her well but I always enjoy seeing her. She writes a substack that is super interesting and enjoyable to read. You should check it out!

I reach the beach and the tide is super low and the shore just looks incredible. Everything looks larger than life here. I don’t know why but as I look north to the cliff that stands beneath the Ritz, it looks huge. And it’s all good. If I want anything to look larger than life, it’s this! The sand is still fairly undisturbed by human foot prints but I expect that will be changing soon if this day continues as it has started.

There is a group of swimmers just coming to shore as I am getting in the water. We briefly chat and they claim the swim was great. That seems to align with everything I am seeing so far. The surf is a little larger than I anticipated. These surf reports never quite tell the whole story. It’s just magical here - these waves, the sun and all this water in the water. I get past the white water and then a new set of waves comes in that break further outside. I dive under the first just after it breaks. I am emersed in the water now and the sandy bottom is just inches from my face. I watch the grains of sand fly like dust after an atomic explosion (not that I know what that looks like first hand). The water feels cool but in just a few minutes, it feels warm.

The entire swim is absolutely delightful. Towards the south end of the beach, the water’s surface is smooth and looks nearly black from the shade of the headlands. While visibility over much of the swim was not very good, it is quite clear right here and there are several stalks of kelp glowing golden from the shining sun above.

On the trip back north I see pelicans and gulls circling over the water just about 75 feet southeast of me. The pelican dive bombs the surface a couple times. I wait to see if they might come closer but they don’t. Then further up the beach I hear this splashing sound that I know wasn’t me. I stop and a pelican is super close and flying south. I snap a photo but he is already a good ways away now. Then totally out of the blue, a cormorant flies right in front of me and I just so happen to have my camera ready. So cool!

But now for the highlight of the entire swim. I am continuing north and getting closer to the Ritz. I suddenly have this sensation that makes me think I have collided with a smooth but firm rock. However what rock could that possibly be here in 20 feet of water? Then I see a brown mass proceed from under my torso until it is right in front of me. It is a HUGE fish. It’s not a dolphin or a shark. Or is it?! It must be 2 to 3 feet long. It looks bassish but it’s much much larger than any of the 10 inch calico bass I usually see here. By the time I have my camera, it is about 15 feet away and below me. It KIND OF looks sharkish now? I don’t know. I’m self aware enough to know that my mind is likely filling in a lot of gaps with its own imagination which I might add is quite rich and vibrant!

So I am thinking, “do I just keep swimming like nothing happened?” Or should I swim to shore and run home. Should I ever come back again? Logic keeps telling me that if this were a shark, it would not have just bumped me from underneath and ran off but what do I know? I think about this for about a second and then I proceed with my swim. I can’t let this stop me. I can’t be deterred by the fact that I THINK I saw a shark and let that steal this wonderful hobby of mine that gives me so much life. I have to keep swimming.

Well needless to say, my attentiveness over the remainder of the swim is on high alert. I am looking all over and around me for potential predators. I soon reach the northern bathrooms and then turn around and swim back to where I started. It’s all so beautiful but what the heck was that fish?! Was it a shark? I just can’t stop thinking about it.

When I get to my car and download my pictures to my phone, I see the picture of that fish. I wasn’t sure if I had managed to capture anything, but it did not come out all that bad. I zoom in and it is immediately clear that it is NOT a shark. Whew! I am so relieved. I’m also so glad I had a camera and was able to take a picture not only so I could assure myself it was not a shark but also because it was cool! At this moment as I am realizing how safe I was (even though how do I know there wasn’t a Great White just a few feet away), I am overcome with emotion. It’s like all the joy I had held at bay between now and that fish encounter was suddenly free to embrace me. I am overcome with the awesomeness of everything I just experienced - not just that fish but the birds and the sun and the water and everything that is and isn’t out there.

You may be wondering, what was that fish? I certainly was. According to a Facebook chat group of Orange County divers that fancy themselves keen fish identifiers, it was a Giant Sea Bass. Giant is for sure.