how often do you hit fish?

[deniska]

About 3 weeks ago our local beach became almost unfoilable due to huge flocks of rays...
I hit at least 5 of them (unintentionally) during one session.
Each collision resulted in spectacular crash. It's like hitting a fixed object.
Once in the water you keep guessing what you hit and whether or not it's going to retaliate ...
So just wondering how much of an issue it is for others and if there are any ways to prevent / avoid these situations...
below is one fellow that barely avoided massacre

[Benicia Wind]

I've hit fish about 6 times in the last year. I keep hoping to bag a salmon for dinner but so far no luck.

[Mossy 757]

Every. Fuckin'. Session.

[Rufusz]

Our lakes are quite shallow (around 2m) so we hit a lot of them. A few weeks ago I had a session with a lot of collisions, I stopped counting around 10.
Sometimes I am still surprised after hitting a big fish resulting a crash that the foil is still in one piece.

Commercial fishing was banned last year in our biggest lake so only the anglers and foilers are controlling the fish population

[cwood]

In the hatteras sound near Avon I hit them all the time (rays) in may. Couple times a session. Feel almost like hitting a log but a tiny bit softer. Love to know what the carbon at over 20 knots of speed does to them.

[f2020]

99 out of 100 times it's a fucking plastic bag or rope but 1 out of 100 times I don't know. May be a fish, algae, plastic bag, etc.

[bragnouff]

VeniceBeach4 (Small).jpg (69.56 KiB) Viewed 2961 times

I'd happily hit a stingray as revenge for what that f*cker did to my foot during my stopover foil session in Venice Beach. Nothing like a shot of venom before a 12hr flight...

[Heimo]

on our lake in Austria near Salzburg -lake Wallersee- never so far.

But what i am really concerned to touch: I hope that i can see-find every swimmer or diver before hitting someone.

Two years ago - i almost hit a snorkeler which rose above the surface a few meters before me in the middle of the bay 300 m from the coastline in Italy - Apuglia-Gargano.

Two seconds later and the guy whould have to find his head somewhere else..

The next day - i hit something under water the same spot and after the following faceplant i found some wood with a net for mussels on it just under the water surface.. You can imagine my relief not have met someone there without his head..

This year in Italy - one day, the bay was filled up with jellyfish which i cut in half in an uncounted ammount with some "dump feeling" pushes..

So i trie to foil "very awake" not hidding anyone.. on very lonely places with "more slow" foil-wings.

[Toby]

What's the legal situation if you hit a diver?

Do they need to have a buoy ?

[plummet]

So zero!... only sticks and seaweed