Sharks

[Ferg]

I go out paddling at dawn a lot, and this morning it started raining while I was out. Blame it on "Shark Week" but it got me thinking about how real the danger of getting bitten really is. I know that overall my changes are low, but I'm pretty sure paddling alone, at dawn and in the rain raises my chances. I just don't know how much.

I will admit that when I fall, I get right back on my board as soon as I can. I'm totally comfortable in the water when I'm snorkeling, but I get freaked out when I'm alone and can't see under the water.

[Casso]

Sorry Ferg, but just to add to your fear...



This 6 foot shark was swimming inside the break at a crowded Manly Beach (Sydney's Northern Beaches) last Saturday.  I was testing out the new Oxbow 9'6" SUP when I had to cut my session short because the lifeguards (and my wife) demanded I get out of the water.  I had it to myself for a while though because the 'hand paddlers' got out first due to them having more limbs in the water than me.

[stoneaxe]

Strange timing on this post. I had sent an email last night to the guys that did the CCBC that also did SEA Paddle NYC to see how it went. In the bottom of Jody's response he mentioned that he had a 16 ft great white pass just under his board on Cape Cod this week. Said he could have poked it with his paddle. THAT  will make you not want to fall in.

[Byronmaui]

I go out paddling at dawn a lot, and this morning it started raining while I was out. Blame it on "Shark Week" but it got me thinking about how real the danger of getting bitten really is. I know that overall my changes are low, but I'm pretty sure paddling alone, at dawn and in the rain raises my chances. I just don't know how much.

I will admit that when I fall, I get right back on my board as soon as I can. I'm totally comfortable in the water when I'm snorkeling, but I get freaked out when I'm alone and can't see under the water.

This is why you need to have a paddling partner. Preferably someone with an open wound.

Aloha

Byron

[Ferg]

This is why you need to have a paddling partner. Preferably someone with an open wound.

Aloha

Byron

My wife hates me going out alone, but I haven't found any else to go paddle with, especially at 6 am. There's a lot of people down at White Plains in the morning but I don't get a lot of water time before I have to leave for work.

So does going out at dawn raise my chances? I know murky water is bad, but the water here is crystal clear. And for everyone not in Hawaii, feel free to show your jealousy.

[noworrieshawaii]

I had a pretty darn big shark come up and check me out last year inside the break at Kite Beach... Just kinda rose up out of the murk, we stared at each other for a few minutes, he sank back down into the murk, I sank to my knees and paddled in... Out by myself in murky, stinky very early morning surf... Was kinda cool in a way. Was as big as my board... and that was 12' back then....  They are out there.

[Byronmaui]

This is why you need to have a paddling partner. Preferably someone with an open wound.

Aloha

Byron

My wife hates me going out alone, but I haven't found any else to go paddle with, especially at 6 am. There's a lot of people down at White Plains in the morning but I don't get a lot of water time before I have to leave for work.

So does going out at dawn raise my chances? I know murky water is bad, but the water here is crystal clear. And for everyone not in Hawaii, feel free to show your jealousy.

Personally Ferg I would not worry about it. You have a better chance of getting into a car accident then being eaten by a shark in my mind. I have maybe encountered or seen sharks a few times and no big deal.

Actually what was fricken nutz in my mind was there had to be at least 20 surfers at queens @5:00 am on Tuesday. I could not see 5 feet in front of me and they were catching waves. I wonder if anyone has tried night vision googles in the ocean and would you be able to see the waves and or large fish.

Aloha

Byron

[Byronmaui]

Funny story.....I sent my cousin and his friend on a boat snorkel tour on Maui. They went to this place called turtle bay at dawn where all the turtles hang out. They decided not to do the snorkeling thing because they overheard a tour guide telling teenage girls that it would be ok to go in the water while it was that time of the month for the girls. My cousin refused to go in the water with the combination of the teenage girls and tons of turtles hanging around. Luckily no one saw a predator.

Aloha

Byron

[stoneaxe]

I've only had one significant shark encounter (lots of insignificant ones) An 8 ft bull while snorkeling/spearfishing. One of the most beautiful/frighteniing things I think I've ever seen. Especially frightening when you're 15, have a bag of bleeding fish and a just a stinky little homemade hawaiin sling for defense. I guess my friend and I made enough weird noises and gesticulations that he decided we probaly wouldn't taste very good or something. He stopped...looked at us for a sec, then just kind of double around himself and with a quick flick disappeared into the murk. We decided it was time to go clean the fish we had.

[motopilot]

You want to see sharks?  Come down to FL, there's plenty for everyone.  So far we have had 16 attacks at the same beach.  I once had a bunch of baitfish jump over the nose of my board.......followed by a 4' blacktip in trail which knocked me off my board.  I do not do a SUP sessions without seeing at least one.  Kind of crazy and is also why I usually try to stay aorund another surfer or SUP when I am out.  Its all about safety in numbers.

[Ferg]

You want to see sharks?  Come down to FL, there's plenty for everyone.  So far we have had 16 attacks at the same beach.  I once had a bunch of baitfish jump over the nose of my board.......followed by a 4' blacktip in trail which knocked me off my board.  I do not do a SUP sessions without seeing at least one.  Kind of crazy and is also why I usually try to stay aorund another surfer or SUP when I am out.  Its all about safety in numbers.

You have to be in New Smyrna. I went there almost every summer as a kid, and a lot of winters. My grandparents had a condo. I would be in the water bodyboarding from sunrise to sunset. I even went surfing for the first time at that beach when I got older and could afford to rent a board. I always heard that all the bites happen up at the mouth of the bay and they were fear bites when a surfer fell off a wave and onto or near a shark. Kinda like how a dog bites if its scared. And there's a ton of sharks there because of all the baitfish.

[PonoBill]

So the answer to your question is yes, your chances are better, but it's still about the same as winning the lottery, or maybe that's losing the lottery. A lot, lot less than getting killed on the drive to the beach. Of course that statistic is a little skewed. Kind of like you're going where all the drunken reckless bad drivers hang out.

Bob (stoneaxe) makes it sound like he's kind of cool with sharks, but I remember quite clearly spearfishing with him at Brant Rock when he thought he saw a shark. He went from fifty yards from the rocks to standing on the jetty a lot sooner than Michael Phelps could have made it. I was laughing so hard I was helpless--sharkbait

I've seen literally hundreds of sharks. En masse in Molokini crater night diving when the tour boat guys used to illegally chum them. Jumped into the water one night and there were probably 150 circling around. White and black tips, greys, galapagos, and one lone baby hammerhead.

Another time on the back wall at Molokini we were at 60 feet when a huge school of hammerheads came in at about 40 feet. Big, ten to fifteen footers everywhere you looked. We stayed put until we got to 500 pounds and had to head up. Fortunately as we moved away from the wall the bubbles spooked them and they split. Still, it was a very, very long way to the boat, and no frickin' safety stop, no matter what my computer and the divemaster said.

Met a 20 foot great white one day in Monterrey Bay, being chased out of the rookery by a sea lion. I thought I was fine with it, great experience, what a thrill and all that. Had 1700 pounds of air left, and I really didn't want to do the swim in on the top, dangling like a teabag. I'm usually really good with air--first in, last out and still have a thousand pounds when everyone else is sucking o-rings. But five minutes later I was at 300. No idea where the air went.

I've had a clumsy son-in-law scare the blacktips out of the cave at five graves right into my face. Six foot pregnant female ripped by me with an inch to spare and gave me a look that said "you know I CAN bite, don't you".

Tigers at Thousand peaks and Kanaha, a little great white in the surf in Oregon, blah, blah, blah

So I've seen a lot of sharks, never been bitten, not even close. But when I'm all alone, in the early morning or late dusk, and I fall in, I'm back on my board in microseconds. I have an active imagination, and I don't have any problem believing that mean-spirited tiger is hanging right under my board.

[stoneaxe]

Jeez Bill....you make me sound like a weenie!....how old was I then...8?....and I didn't think I saw a shark.....I DID see a shark....of course I realized a few years later that it was just a sand shark but at 8 it was a FREAKIN SHARK!!!!

You folks have to take into consideration that Bill has a twisted sense of humor. My loving older brother, much older...he was 18 I was 8,  also took me hunting that year....."duck" hunting with a bow....big rubber headed arrows. We get out on the dunes at Cranes beach and he says....I'll give you 10 seconds...... and starts counting down.

LOL...made me think of a funny shark story....Sue and I were on a cruise.....we were snorkeling in a bay in the Bahamas...she saw what she thought was an eel sticking out of a cave about 10 ft down (she can't see for crap without her glasses).....she called me over....her calling me over attracted another couple over that was also in the area....I could see immediately that it was the tail of a big nurse shark sticking out of the cave......I told Sue what it was, not to be scared, that I was going to go down and get it to come out so we could get a look.....I forgot to tell the others the same.....I went down and gave a tug on it's tail..........whoooosh.....12 ft of nurse shark comes rocketing out of the cave......I could hear the screams and the frantic splashing as the other couple swam away in a panic.....they didn't stop until they hit the beach..... I felt kind of bad but it was very funny.....in a sick twisted PonoBill kinda way.

[PonoBill]

Geez, you shoot your brother with a couple of arrows and he whines about it for 42 years.

[val]

I surfed many yrs and never saw one... since I started SUP (where the view is so much better) i've seen several... 

I usually sup after work in the early evening near diamond head...  there's a lot of open space and I usually gravitate toward the lesser surf areas where nobody is around...  one evening while alone I saw the form of a shark coming straight toward me in a swell until the fin broke the surface... the thoughts that go through your mind at a moment like that....  it stopped about 10 feet away and checked me out while I checked him (her?) out...  a tiger about 8 feet long and wide... it turned a bit and showed the big white belly...  the width is the scary thing, the bulk and power in that body...  then it just dropped straight out of sight...  I was so stunned it took a moment for panic to set in then I turned and did the narrow stance high speed paddle all the way to the beach waiting for the thing to explode up from under me...

For the next couple weeks (I SUP almost daily) I freaked out whenever i was alone...  my mind would start racing and every shadow or splash gave me a panicky feeling...  I couldn't get rid of the thoughts, and tried to stay with a buddy or in the more popular areas...  I wasn't going to quit SUP but i wasn't comfortable alone...

Then one day about 2 weeks later a big brown shape appeared below me as i was surfing a wave, staying right with me...  i thought it was a turtle, or a dolphin...  then suddenly it came right up to the surface...  another shark, maybe five feet long, likely a reef shark, surfing in the wave with me, close enough to touch...  one of the coolest, most beautiful things i've ever seen while surfing...

It made me realize I love being in the ocean every day and SUP way too much to spend time worrying about it --  if it happens it happens -- and just like that the panicky feelings disappeared.   .