Famed Santa Cruz surfboard stealing sea otter learns how to mock kooks

A vicious turn.

For certain you have seen the many headlines, now. Those plucky sea otters up Santa Cruz way are back to their wily antics. The East Bay Times describes them as “puckish.” ABC news with a more menacing “aggressive” but also adds cute qualifier “furry thief.” But all the same basic story. A few years back, you see, a Temu Surf City sea otter dubbed 841 became famous for stealing surfboards from surfers and lounging upon them.

A recent incident out at Steamer Lane saw Isabella Orduna feeling a “nip” on her foot then turning around to see the li’l fella on her board. He refused to release it for 20 some minutes. Other witnesses report seeing similar behavior in the past few days. Sea otter, or otters (it is unclear), making shenanigans but the witnesses are clearly not surfers themselves, for there is a much more disturbing thing taking place.

The sea otter has learned how to mock kooks.

The “photojournalist Shmuel Thaler, wanting to go and catch some hot sea otter action captured something downright alarming. Taking to Instagram, he shared, “Amazing moment at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz today… It’s rare that I get to photograph something I’ve never photographed before, but that just happened. An otter has once again been commandeering surfboards here in Santa Cruz and I went out to photograph it. Didn’t see that happen, but there were at least 4 otters in “the lineup”. When a surfer slid by on a wave an otter popped halfway out of the water to check out who was passing by.

That sea otter was not “checking out who was passing by.” It was openly and viciously mocking poor style.

But imagine you were out at the Lane and caught what you thought was a fine wave. Popping to feet, bottom turning, smashing the lip, giving ‘er hell. Pleased as punch, you look back to see a sea otter striking the pose you made while “smashing the lip.” Legs straight light toothpicks. Arms akimbo and weird. It would be enough to undo even the most confident of surfers.

Let’s hope sharks don’t learn how to fun make next.

Scary days.

Quickly before you leave, though. What is in the Santa Cruz surfer’s mouth in the above picture? Is he vaping while surfing?