On my Facebook page I've posted a couple of videos of my encounter on Tuesday with a thresher shark in Santa Monica Bay, California (I add this because I'm annoyed when I read someone's post about something that happened at Black Rock. Which one????? Sea Kayaker magazine does this, the books do this.)
It's a big beautiful scary shark. If I was under oath, I'd swear to 5' but it could be 4', more likely it's closer to 6).

The most recent video posted is what I saw that made me paddle over... this is sort of a guide to spotting Thresher Sharks. Very specific movement and fins above the surface.
The second video is the shark swimming around and under my kayak. The money-shot. A friend pointed out I began breathing hard after it slapped my rudder.

I think this is the URL
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000303831642

That or just look for Will Nettles. My page is public, so I don't think you have to join to see it.
I find Facebook to be a pain. If anyone has a problem finding it or gaining access, or if anyone recommends a better site, please let me know.

One thing I'm learning is that the more time I spend on the water looking, thinking about what I'm seeing, paddling over to check it out....
the more I understand what I'm seeing, then the more I see.
There's a lot more life out there than one might imagine. Dolphins have a harder time catching fish that one might think. There are more unusual waves, mini-rogue waves perhaps, than one would imagine.
Often I encounter a set of breaking waves in deep water about a mile off King Harbor, Redondo Beach that I think are the occasional reflection waves from the 'corner' where Torrance meets the Palos Verdes pennisula. These sets always break heading away from shore. These are just above the sea canyon in the area, which consistently brings in push waves that every paddler in the area knows about and takes advantage of.
Always the roughest patch of water in the area is immediately outside the harbor where waves reflected off the seawall double the height of the incoming swell. This patch near the first buoy is almost like a seiche or clapotis, but it's not enclosed like a bay seiche. Usually off a breakwater it's just random and annoying, these are steep close two foot waves.

The Southern California Mexican coast seems to have a general swell pattern of even parallel waves approaching the coast in shallow angles. (the helicopter shots of Master and Commander were clearly shot off our coast). 11-13 seconds 1-3 feet. The Atlantic as I've seen it, is much busier, more going on, probably more difficult to sort out. For me it's like learning tracking in the desert, not much information but not much distraction either. A report of a 4+ foot swell 9 second period from a storm off Tahiti is easy to discern. Two swells will remain discrete all the way in. That's Tahiti, that's Tahiti, this one isn't, that's Tahiti....