“All day long in fog and wind,
The waves have flung their beating crests
Against the palisades of adamant.
My boy, he went to sea, long and long ago,
Curls of brown were slipping underneath his cap,
He looked at me from blue and steely eyes;
Natty, straight and true, he stepped away,
My boy, he went to sea.
All day long in fog and wind,
The waves have flung their beating crests
Against the palisades of adamant.”
-Carl Sandburg “All Day Long”
A Day in the Brine 
Wonderful images – the gesture of the surfer is terrific!
Thank you! That surfer is very talented. He appeared and entered the water, and suddenly the sun came out and every shot I got of him was in sharp focus haw haw. Wonderful surfer, always fun to watch. Cheers,
Autumn Jade
WOW! Great shot, Autty. That’s a winner! No wonder you’re exhausted after your swims. I’d be exhausted just watching this guy!!! Lots of love, ML 🙂
Oh he’s fantastic, one of my favourite surfers to watch. The sun at last had come out that cold, bleary morn when he appeared on the beach, donned the seal-black wet-suit, and paddled out. He is a brilliant surfer…watching him is like watching a ballet, absolutely beautiful.
Haha I think I get drained from the miles I cover in cold water. When the surf is excellent, I’m out there all morn snapping away with my bag contraption. It is glorious. I keep hoping one day to capture a shark breaching….one day!! Surfers make excellent practice for that- I am afraid this surfer here pales in comparison to the aerial ballet of a breaching shark….oooooo that’s what I dream about 😉
Thank you for dripping by! Glad you liked it. To me, it looked like he was playing an air-guitar, rocking out. Can almost hear the mustic.
Love, cheers, and gaping grins, dear lassie,
Autumn Jade
He does look like he’s playing the air guitar. Maybe he’s hearing the music in his brain!!! Maybe a shark will be your Christmas present. I don’t think your air guitarist would like being compared so negatively to your love – the shark! I’m not even sure he would enjoy sharing the wave with a breaching shark! In fact, I don’t really think being out in the water at all with a shark is a great idea, although I know people do swim with them sometimes. Be sure to stay in your cage. A lady got bit pretty badly at a beach in HI that we visited the day after we were there. You never know. Had you been with us, and we’d had to wait one more day for you to get there, you might have at least seen a biting shark!! Marsha 🙂
Every morning, the first thing I do is “read the water”, scanning for diving birds, disturbed, churning water, etc. If I find a spot not miles offshore, I go right for it, and hope to witness the breaching spectacle. Surfers sometimes are oblivious, until a breach, and often will paddle a little distance away. Lately, I’ve mostly been swimming with cormorants and have not seen as many sharks. It is a strange feeling indeed to bump into a diving cormorant. Cormorant becomes very startled. We both love to nestle with fish (only I don’t put them in my bill). I have discovered them beneath overhangs of coquina coral. It’s so fun to pop down and gawk (upside-down of course) at them through my shimmering goggles, beautiful schools all clustered there, hoping they shan’t be noticed.
Yes, FL waters are supposed to be the bitiest of all the beaches in the world, I believe, but definitely not the most lethal. Nips on the ankle mostly, and often bull shark is the culprit as you probably are aware. Has not happened to me yet. I have swum with 12-footers knowingly just a couple times (I’m thinking young tiger sharks). Mostly I am here with spinners, black tips, lemons, and bull sharks. Knowingly. 😉
HI and there in CA, OR, WA, abide my beloved white sharks. And the “Devil’s Teeth” thirty miles off the coast of San Francisco would make a nice nest for this briny lass, out on those surf-lashed, salt-encrusted spires of rock stabbing the granite sky. Rugged, remote, dreary, briny, and rife with sharks by September. Well you know about their migration! White sharks!! None of the scientists dive out there, due to the danger, but there is a lone crabber named Paul that dives every day. I hope to one day go down and dive, observing the sharks from a different perspective- not just their killing habits, beheading elephant seals and so forth. The Farallon Islands are the only place in the world where white sharks can be observed without human influence (no chumming, or other human activity to interfere with natural behavior). Well, you are probably brimming with all this information already and I’ve yammered on too long, but you can start to see why I find Berkley so precious, close to my great whites!!!
Yes, bites are worth the risk to me. Dangerous surf is also an even bigger risk, which never seems to stop this old salt, either.
Cheers, and have a happy “great white” Christmas 😉 har har haw, great white, haw haw….I’ve lost my mind….
P.S. I hear they have something called a Shark-tober Fest out there! TOO groovy!
Autumn Jade
Autty, you are going to be the death of me. Just thinking about you out there swimming with sharks give me a toothache. I hate to disappoint you, but I am not at all knowledgable about all the topics you imagine me to be. I’ve lived WAY too long to know it all! You know the old wives’ take is correct. The longer you live, the more you realize how little you know. An amazing thought that just occurred. Since God is infinite and never ending, could it possibly be that He/She actually realizes that HE has so much more to learn? What a thought. Could God still be learning and perfecting things as HE goes along???? Just a thought, Marsha
That is precisely my view on God Marsha- constantly perfecting and learning along the way!!
You mean…you are NOT a shark expert??? WHAT?! How COULD this be??
I might become someone that knows one or two things about them…one day. I love them.
As you may have figured out…
They are cute.
I love leopard seals too, obsessed with them, really.
That is so true- the longer I live, the less I know, and the more there is to learn. Haw haw, an endless learning adventure. The day you stop learning, that is a SAD day indeed…best avoided.
My mucking about in alligator territories actually is a wee bit more dangerous than my kissing sharks.
I smile away with your comments, so happy to come home to. Guess what is happening at my door right now as soon as I nestled into the blog-cavern?? Yowling at the door…the screams will start up soon…they want to be walked. All of them. Oh bother….
Merry Christmas! You have won the STAR Award ….go to my link and check it out……http://cherryberrylemonlime.wordpress.com/2012/12/22/merry-christmas-my-first-star-award-im-passing-it-forward-look-and-see-if-its-you/
Oh why thank you! Most gruntling indeed! Cheers and happy Christmas!
Autumn Jade
Merry Christmas and you are welcome
Hi Autty, You might enjoy this post. http://flickrcomments.wordpress.com/2012/12/20/underwater/
Thank you!!! Loved it, groovy thanks!!!
Cheers luv,
Autumn Jade
just love your blog…always so happy to see a new post
Oh thank you so much! I am elated to learn that!! Thank you for drifting in, cheers!
Autumn Jade
Where are you Autty? Are you having lots of fun?
My dear lass, I have missed you. Yes, it does seem some fun has been had. I hope you have been enjoying this chiming holiday season and am wishing you a most delightful, charming and terribly jubilant and exceedingly…GRUNTLING grand New Year my fine smiling chum. I shall enjoy coming visits to your delightful blog before the close of our dear old 2012. ….CHEERS Autumn Jade
Great! I just wanted to make sure. I’m glad your holidays have been fun. A most gruntling New Year to you and Sir as well!!! hahaha 🙂 Smiling Marsha Lee 🙂
love the photo of the surfer, the water splash and the ‘pose of the man’ it really works well.
Me too, one of my favourites of my surfer collection- he shall have to perch on the wall with the others. So happy he was so kind to pose so perfectly. He even brought out the sun- one talented surfer 😉
Cheers,
Autumn Jade
What a wonderful stance, that surfer boy has. Love the poem. Always something fascinating to watch at the beach. Have a great day, AJ. 🙂
Apologies for the er…rather long…wait in reply, but thank you! He was a joy to watch! Best wishes -AJ
The sea speaks to you too. Lovely~
Indubitably! Thank you for sluicing by! Best wishes,
Autumn Jade