5 Mythical Creatures To Watch For During Water Sports

5 Mythical Creatures To Watch For During Water Sports

Last fall, we wrote up an article on some of the exotic creatures to watch out for while doing water sports in the Pacific. These creatures, including sea urchins and wobbegong sharks, are very real animals that you could conceivably run into while out wakeboarding or kite-surfing, and it’s definitely a good idea to have an eye out for them. Some are harmless, but others can leave you in a tight spot.

Just for fun, we thought we’d do a follow-up about five more creatures you won’t actually run into because, well, they don’t exist. Part of the fun of water sports is that there’s almost something otherworldly about them. Out on the water you can feel a different sort of freedom, like an old explorer moving through the oceans, free of the crowds, clutter, and technology of the world. Your imagination can certainly start churning at a time like this. And who knows? There could be some mythical creatures out there after all. Once upon a time creatures like Komodo dragons, manatees, and even gorillas were thought to be the stuff of legend!

Keeping that in mind, here are five mythical creatures to keep in the back of your mind next time you’re out on the water.

Mermaids

There’s really no other creature to start with if we’re talking about those you might discover while doing water sports. We tend to be even more dismissive of mermaids than most mythological or legendary creatures, because they’ve always had a prominent place in fiction. This is also because they’re half-human (and it’s hard to imagine them existing undetected). Unlike some other legendary creatures of lore, there have actually been a lot of claimed mermaid sightings over the years.

That’s not to say they’re real. There are also a lot of UFO sightings and Bigfoot sightings year in and year out, and most serious scientific minds dismiss them. However, some glimpses of mermaids over the years have been deemed at least mildly credible. There’s even a $1 million reward up in Israel for anyone who can apprehend a rumored mermaid! Keep your eyes peeled when you’re out on your board—after all, you’re on their territory then.

Krakens

You definitely don’t want to run into a kraken. The legend about these deep sea beasts is that they’re mammoth squids with tentacles long enough to wrap up and destroy ships. If you’ve seen films like Clash Of The Titans or Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, you’ve seen sensational depictions of these monsters swallowing even large vessels whole.

The disconcerting thing is that the krakens might be the most realistic creatures on this list. Most assume that the legends come from sightings of colossal squids, which are very real animals that dwell in the deep and are large enough to battle with sperm whales. There are no modern accounts of them attacking ships, but they’re certainly large enough to terrorize smaller boats if they felt so inclined.

Ahool

The ahool may be right behind the kraken in terms of how likely it is to be real. It’ still considered a mythical beast, but there are some who believe these creatures dwell in Indonesian rainforests, which means if you’re out doing water sports around Thailand you’re not too far off.

Imagine a giant carnivorous bat and you pretty much get the idea. For what it’s worth, ahools headlined a list of cryptids that might exist published by Mental Floss in 2015. Don’t worry though, they might exist in some form or another, but tales of their snatching up humans seem pretty far-fetched.

Ikkis

You may not have heard of these before as they’re not really mainstream legends. The idea of ikkis, as far as we can tell, originates from an online casino game, set on a far-off volcanic island. One of a growing number of casino games that focuses on sharp graphics and adventurous content to drive up interest, it introduces “ikkis” as small, monkey-like guides that help you through harsh terrain. They’re kind of adorable, and you want to believe they’re based on real creatures.

Actual ikkis probably aren’t out there, but the idea of undiscovered monkey species isn’t so unusual, especially in parts of the South Pacific. Something you see swinging through the trees on a nearby island while you’re out on the water may as well be an ikkis as far as you’re concerned!

Nessie

In some ways the symbol of all mythical creatures (alongside Bigfoot), Nessie is a supposed lake monster dwelling peacefully in a loch in Scotland. But while her name is synonymous with eye-rolling, she’s also one of the most frequently “sighted” beasts of legend, and that has to at least give you a moment’s pause before dismissing her existence.

The Nessie is a lake serpent of sorts, and that would make her a freshwater animal if she exists. But if a large sea serpent could have survived into modern times, the existence of something similar in the oceans doesn’t seem particularly unrealistic, especially given how little we know about the deep. That said, you should treat Nessie like the Kraken. Creatures like her might exist somewhere deep below the surface, but they’re not going to bother you.