California surfer finds himself in a wild stalemate with a sea otter at sea

A surfer's day on the waves quickly turned into a fight for his board, when a sea otter stole it while he was diving in the Pacific Ocean and refused to return it!

The wild scene unfolded off the coast of California on Monday when an otter dropped onto Nick Ericksen's ride as he hit the waves.

Video shot by one of Ericksen's friends showed that despite the surfer's best efforts to move the animal, it did not move.

The two then stalled for several moments; the otter being absolutely in no mood to go back into the water.

At one point, Ericksen managed to pull the otter off the board for a few seconds, but it came back up and again wouldn't leave.

Finally, another surfer came to the rescue...and pulled the board away long enough for Ericksen to get back on it.

It was all pretty funny -- but also a little scary, because the pissed off otter followed the surfer for a while!!!

According to one of Ericksen's friends, the surfer had recently considered getting an otter tattoo, "but maybe it changed his mind."

Or... maybe that makes it a whole lot better?!?