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In 2022 and 2023, surfers in Santa Cruz, California reported, and it was confirmed on video, that sea otters were swiping their surfboards by jumping on them and swimming away. Last week, after taking a year off from their shenanigans, the sea otters returned. And they still want those surfboards.
We know this because last Wednesday, 21-year-old college student Isabella Orduna was surfing in Santa Cruz when she felt something nip at her foot. When she looked to see what had done it, she tells the New York Times, she saw a “big, fuzzy, chunky bear of an otter” sitting on her surfboard.
Not sure what to do, she called to another surfer for help. It ended up taking about 20 minutes before she and some other beach-goers were able to get the sea otter off her surfboard.
Sea otters love surfboards
It turned out that this was no isolated incident. The very next day, another surfer, just like in 2022 and 2023, had their board stolen by a sea otter.
“In this case. An otter took over a short board and after the surfer managed to get it off, the otter chased the board and surfer trapping onto the surfboard leash and trying to pull it backwards,” photographer Mark Woodward wrote on X alongside several photos of the sea otter commandeering the surfer’s board after the otter grabbed onto the board’s leash and pulled him backward.
That same day, a sign appeared at the surf spot. “Warning. Aggressive sea otter in this area. Enter the water at your own risk. Keep away from marine wildlife,” it read.
“(The otter) didn’t seem like (it) was going after the surfer at all. (It) just wanted that board,” Woodward told the Mercury News. “Once they lock on a certain board, that’s the one they focus on. They ignore the other boards around them and keep going after that one.”