Surfing in the Pacific Northwest

Some years ago I had the pleasure of surfing the frigid waters of the Pacific Northwest. Many times, even in the summer, we would venture out to the coast in search of a new sand bar that would possibly create a flat shallow bottom, perfect for surfing. The swells come from deep water where the orcas live and hit these shallow sandbars and on the right day, with a good wind and swell combination you can find some of the best surf in the world.

Most surfers are not in a hurry to surf Washington State, the water being so uninviting to say the least. You will need an extreme wet suit for sure, booties, gloves and a wet suit hood would be a good start too. You will also need a surfboard with a little more flotation because you will weigh more with all that equipment on.

At most of the surf breaks that I have surfed in Washington, I have seen seals and sharks. I remember one particular day off of the Ocean Shores Jetty, it seemed as if it was just a normal day because the seals were all lined up out side of the surf break, as they normally are, I believe they are Harbor seals. They are great swimmers, very agile and the little babies remind us of little puppies. Ocean Shores is directly across the channel from Westport, Washington and while the Ocean Shores area is quite populated you seldom see very many surfers.

We watched the seals for a while but didn't notice any thing unusual, until we paddled out in the ocean a little farther where we could see huge orcas or killer whales eating the seals like popcorn. They would jump into the air with their mouth open and gulp the seals. When they reached maximum height they usually had already swallowed the seal, then they came down with their mouth open again to eat another unsuspecting seal. We were close enough that the spray from the whales, as they took their decent back into the ocean, sprayed on our heads.

Certainly, if we would have seen these huge creatures devouring the seals before we had gone out we would have stayed on the shore. They were not very interested in us though, as they had plenty of seals to eat. We noticed that the seals didn't swim away and seemed to be unaffected by their brothers being devoured by the huge mammals one after one. We observed for a few minutes and decided that we wanted to take the next wave to shore. We felt that we looked a lot like seals in our wet suits with the tight black hood on and that it would have been just as easy for the Killer Whales to eat one of us with a bonus of a crunchy surf board!

I surfed the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest for many years and was honored to have been able to see many sights such as these orcas and seals interacting, while being able to surf some of the best waves in the world.