Tag: surfing flounder

Surfing flounder ‘hangs fin’ to the hit tune ‘Wipe Out’

“Flounder spend the majority of their lives on the bottom of the ocean but every once in a while they come to the top to catch a wave and hang fin.”

An East Coast photographer has shared footage showing a flounder masterfully riding a wave to the tune of surf music.

Mark Smith Photography described the scene via social media:

“Flounder spend the majority of their lives on the bottom of the ocean but every once in a while they come to the top to catch a wave and hang fin.”

The accompanying music is the hit version of “Wipe Out” by the Surfaris.

In 2021, rare footage showing sea lions riding massive waves off California was matched to the same tune. That clip is posted below.

Surfing flounder? Bizarre phenomenon caught on video

Flounders tend to stay near the sandy bottom, but apparently the flatfish will rise for a surf from time to time – and it’s quite a site.

Flounders tend to stay near the sandy bottom, but apparently the flatfish will rise for a surf from time to time – and it’s quite a site.

Photographer Mark Smith, who has been sharing wonderful osprey footage lately via Twitter, captured the surfing flounder phenomenon during a recent video shoot at Florida’s Sebastian Inlet.

“I guess you could say it was hanging fin!” Smith joked in his Twitter description.

Flounders’ eyes are on the “top” sides of their heads, because the fish are usually partially buried while looking upward to ambush food. So it must have been an interesting perspective for the flounder as it surfed and skipped atop a small wave in the inlet.

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“I’ve never seen that before,” Smith told For The Win Outdoors. But he explained that the fish will sometimes swim in warmer surface waters during cold spells.

This brings them into striking range of diving ospreys and Smith said he has lots of clips showing the fish-eating raptors with flounders in their talons.