RealSurf Surfers' Forum

Hi gang,

I post this because I could swear that I was out the back at Snapper and saw a Manta Ray jump out of the water. It was about 150 metres out to sea and somewhat indistinct, but I can't think of anything else with that shape.
Does anyone know if they are even around the GC?

What have you seen in the water that made you do a double-take?.. Please, no grogans, aqua-turds or brown-eyed mullets.

They are on the GC, but I'd put money on it being an eagle ray.

Saw a tiger shark eat a turtle in 2 bites, that got me out.

I've seen Manta Rays this time of year in the warm water currents, but as Boo said, Spotted Eagle Rays are far more common.

Seen Seals are few times here over the years. Thats always a spin-out.

Was out at cudgen reef years ago on my own and a small manta ray took flight quite close to me. Wondered what made it jump at the time but I think they just do.

One of the scariest was when a seal popped up in front of me at bondi a year ago. This big black eye appearing out of the water looking at you. Took a couple of seconds to realise what it was. Fairy penguins make occasional visits to bondi plus plenty of dolphins and the occasional whale.
We even had a sea lion in the kiddies pool one year. Must have been hungry.

I remember a really solid 5-foot day up at Kawana when I was about 18 and a German shepherd paddled up to me. I got no idea where he came from.

I paddled him back into the beach. We copped a few on the head. Got to the beach and he just trotted off up to the carpark.

I can only assume he dried himself off, drove past the bakery for a pie and then went to work like the rest of us.

Braithy wrote:I remember a really solid 5-foot day up at Kawana when I was about 18 and a German shepherd paddled up to me. I got no idea where he came from.

I paddled him back into the beach. We copped a few on the head. Got to the beach and he just trotted off up to the carpark.

I can only assume he dried himself off, drove past the bakery for a pie and then went to work like the rest of us.

Fong tells a good story about his dog following him out the back at Sunshine Beach on a pretty heavy day.

Seen turtle and seal in Sydney which is pretty unusual ?

saw a 5-6' bronzie at Newport on Sunday arvo.

It was a warm day but the wind had gone light s-se most of the day and blown in all the warm surface water that'd gone missing in last week's nor-easters.

A lot of people at the beach, very low tide, narrow shallow sandbar out the back then a shallowish gutter coming back to the beach, about 40m wide. Feeble 1'+ swell sucking and dumping on the outside bar. The sort of day even the most gumption-free person can walk out and have waves dump them on their bellies.

There was a good group of kids and parents from a visiting surf club, Port Noarlunga from South Oz, they were all mucking about on the bank with boards, bodysurfing etc. I went out on my racing board to keep them company.

Paddling back out at some point, I saw a pile of baitfish coming skittering in from well out the back toward the shallow bar, something in pursuit, like a tailor or a salmon or some such. But there was something else in the water too. I got out past the sandbar and sorta put my board between the baitfish and the swimmers and watched. A few seconds later the shark came up just a metre or so away and showed me its tail, really abrupt and aggro, like "Fcuk off! These are MY baitfish!"

I signalled to the clubbies, in case you want to know the shark alert signal from a board is both arms extended straight up in the air. The South Oz people knew that signal and quickly helped to get people out of the water. One of the Pt Noarlunga nipper girls saw the shark swim directly under her board. Then it just fcuked off back out to sea after the baitfish.

i saw a (that?) ray jump at snapper the other day. couldnt say what type, but def a triangular shaped grey thing. got a fair bit of air jumping into a reasonable breeze.

saw a dark grey shape in a wave late one arvo a bit later in the week. lad who was closer swore it was a 5-6ft noah

I've seen heaps of bronzies this summer. But I do every summer off the rock platforms between Byron and Ballina.


Had a good battle with some kind of whaler in the river the other day on ten pound line.

Drew quite a crowd before the knot finally slipped.

Not exactly sure what I would have done, but probably would have killed it and ate it.

steve shearer wrote:I've seen heaps of bronzies this summer. But I do every summer off the rock platforms between Byron and Ballina.

Yeah there's always a lot outside the headland lines but I think maybe this one just got sucked in by the baitfish following the warm surface water back in

loofy wrote:Had a seal surface very close to me swimming toward me at bondi on a grey murky day a few years back. Have to be honest and admit it did scare the shit out of me for a split second til I worked out what it was.

Yeah might have been the same one. The thing with this was its head was much bigger than I would have imagined from seeing them at the zoo etc.
Maybe just a big one or because it was closer. Thought it might be a sea lion at first.

There's a turtle that seems to hang around at Wetherill st South Narra. Seen all kinds of shit off the end of Long Reef too.

Plenty of seals and dolphins, a few fish

No sharks and I hope I never do

The bronzie off Newport on Sunday arvo does not suprise me. I was paddling off the North tip of Bungan on Sunday arvo on the racing board heading towards Newport. The amount of baitfish going nuts off there was amazing. No doubt the bronzies would have been loving it. The one off Newy would have been just the one that was seen.

fair few bull sharks in Pittwater atm if anyone likes swimming in there.

Saw a Dugong out at Ulus many years ago. Fat and Fkickn ugly bloody thing it was.

What sort of baitfish gents?

Long thin garfish? Slimy Mackerel or some type of pilchard?

Looked like slimies to me Steve and some Bonnies busting up here and there.

Plenty of Kings my way atm. Got stuck into a few early Sunday morning. Mainly rats but still fun.

Pilchards being chased by something else, maybe slimes

What was funny, I got pulled up by an old know-it-all bloke while walking the dog this morning, he winks at me and says: "They had another bullshit shark scare here yesterday, fcuken rubbish, there's no sharks here."

"Yeah, I was the one who saw it," I said, very straight faced and looking right at him. He hated it eh. Had a couple of his old mates with him and got called on his bs.