RikRaeder
Contributor
Have you ever got that feeling in the ocean? You know the one I mean. Some people (like me) call it instinct. Some call it the heebie jeebies. Others call it...something else. I know you have. You know you have. What do/did you call it and what do you think it is? A couple of examples:
I remember wading in the surf in Santa Barbara when I was a kid. Out of the blue (clear blue sky, not deep blue ocean) I paused and felt like I had better step carefully. Was it an indistinct tremor in the waters caressing the fine hairs on my feet warning me of a stingray or similar beastie that I was in danger of stepping on, or was I just suddenly freaked out?
Last winter in Subic, I suddenly had a feeling that something was checking me out in the two-meter-visablity green waters as we circled the New York and what an easy chomp my outboard leg would make. It quickly passed. Was it some top predator like the two-meter Spanish something-or-others we spotted a few days later or possibly a rare bull shark encounter...or just the heebies? I saw nothing, it was just a feeling.
I've spent a lot of time in the ocean and while of course I THINK about stuff, I never feel freaked out about it (with the two above-mentioned exceptions). I THINK about equipment failure (that scares me) and of course sharks (that thrills me) as well as the occasional giant octopus or sea monster (too much HP Lovecraft during my formative years). Those don't freak me out though.
I tend to think of those funny feelings as instinct, but what do I know? A fun experiment: try staring at someone from across a crowded room. You'll be surprised at how many people start looking around to see what lion/cheetah/cave bear is stalking them.
Your thoughts?
I remember wading in the surf in Santa Barbara when I was a kid. Out of the blue (clear blue sky, not deep blue ocean) I paused and felt like I had better step carefully. Was it an indistinct tremor in the waters caressing the fine hairs on my feet warning me of a stingray or similar beastie that I was in danger of stepping on, or was I just suddenly freaked out?
Last winter in Subic, I suddenly had a feeling that something was checking me out in the two-meter-visablity green waters as we circled the New York and what an easy chomp my outboard leg would make. It quickly passed. Was it some top predator like the two-meter Spanish something-or-others we spotted a few days later or possibly a rare bull shark encounter...or just the heebies? I saw nothing, it was just a feeling.
I've spent a lot of time in the ocean and while of course I THINK about stuff, I never feel freaked out about it (with the two above-mentioned exceptions). I THINK about equipment failure (that scares me) and of course sharks (that thrills me) as well as the occasional giant octopus or sea monster (too much HP Lovecraft during my formative years). Those don't freak me out though.
I tend to think of those funny feelings as instinct, but what do I know? A fun experiment: try staring at someone from across a crowded room. You'll be surprised at how many people start looking around to see what lion/cheetah/cave bear is stalking them.
Your thoughts?
