Carlsbad Beach.
I went to bodysurf at Carlsbad beach and as I was wading into the water I noticed I was surrounded by stingrays.
Specifically, baby bat rays, about a foot across. Over the course of an hour I probably saw over a hundred of them. I waded in and out of the water carefully; when a wave would come in and clear the water, I could see several of them feeding on the bottom or “flying” — that undulating wing-motion they have when they’re moving. When I moved or stomped my feet a little, they’d skitter away.
Amazingly cool to watch. I did not go bodysurfing that day.
I’m still not entirely sure what to do when you walk into a situation like that. The shuffle technique that’s supposed to scare rays off the bottom doesn’t do much when there are a hundred of them and they’re actively using that exact patch of ocean. Standing in the middle of them and watching seemed like the correct response.
Later I wrote a Wikipedia article about stingrays, which is either the nerd move or the correct move. Probably both.