Corky's Corner

The Barrel of Hissing Fish

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 10 December, 2008 : - - Over the past half century that I have been surfing there have been many crazy things that I have seen, or have been a small or large part of.  But one of the most unusual things that I have ever witnessed happened a few days ago while surfing out in front on my house in deep dark mainland Mexico. 

As some of you know I am lucky to be able to commute between the wilds of Orange County and the tropics of the southern coast of Mexico.  I do surf adventure trips to the Mexico house in the winter when the water is freezing up here and it is 80 degrees down there.  People come and stay with me for a week, get some surf coaching if they want it, surf their brains out and relax in the tranquility of  paradise. 

Its an affordable trip for the average person and gives me the chance to feed my family and surf at the same time.  One of the downsides of Paradise is the rainy season, which we are just getting over with.  And during the rainy season it rains.  HARD.  So, due to a monster storm inflicting some damage on the casa I went down early along with my partner Blue Dog to do some repairs. 

It wasnt anything serious but just stuff that needed to get done before my guests started arriving in mid October. While there I was standing on my front deck checking out the surf down at the point when my neighbor, the Iguana, came walking over and pointing out toward the outside reef straight out and just to the north of the casa.  We call that reef “Corkyland.” 

This is because it is in front of my house and the only people that surf out there are myself, Blue Dog and the Iguana.  I won the tortilla flip with the Iguana or it would be called “Iguanaland.”  Blue Dog was not present at the official naming ceremony held on my deck late one night while consuming industrial amounts of personality.

Well Corkyland was looking pretty big and pretty surfable.  It can be very fickle out there but on this day it was looking clean and good.  So the Iguana and I grab out boards and head on out.  Blue Dog was taking a nap and, using the “more waves for us” method of determining what to do, we decided not to wake him up.

The reef is pretty far from shore and it takes quite awhile to paddle out there.  The Iguana mentioned something about seeing a large shadow swim under him but figured that he was actually pretty safe seeing as how I was the one on a board airbrushed just like a cow.  If anybody was gonna get chomped on it would be me. 

When you are surfing outside reefs far from shore and miles from nowhere all by yourself or with just one buddy those little details seem more important than at the average day at San Onofre.

Anyway, on this day the waves were excellent and we where getting all we wanted.  Some really big sets broke outside of us and we had to dive under a few mackers, but no big deal really.   We were sitting on a shallow part of the reef, which is really an oyster bed, where the takeoff was steep and the wave barreled off in both directions. 

I guess the tide was getting lower as we were out there and the shallow spot seemed to be getting shallower all the time.  Then this one wave came in that just sucked out like a total A-frame right in front of us.  And right in the barrel of this beast about a zillion little tiny fish, maybe the size of goldfish but silver, came jumping straight out of the face.  And the sound was like this loud hissing noise.   Scared the heck out of both of us. 

What in the heck made all those little fish jump out of that wave face?  And why were they hissing.  Maybe they were screaming?  I dont know what they were doing but I do know that I distinctly heard the Iguana let out a little scream, or at least a yelp, of his own.   We now describe that experience as “The day of the barrel of hissing fish.” 

www.corkycarroll.com

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Corky Carroll

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