Howzit bongo, Which Eddy and what language are they speaking. Aloha,Kokua
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South side of Jax pier, mid/late 70s, sunny, small, glassy morning, take off area was in 8' of water. Heard a gunshot on the pier. Puzzled, but continued surfing. Some time later as I was sitting on my board, stirring my feet to face east, the ball of my left foot struck something that felt like the hard packed sand in the shallows. Rough, massive, and utterly impossible where I was sitting. Scared the crap out of me. Immediately paddled into whatever was coming and proned it on in. Went back out later. A couple of months later a surfing magazine printed an article about a shark fishing contest held in the area on that weekend. The record shark was caught at that pier, on that morning.
Have seen a few fins here and there since then. I've definitely felt the spooky feeling; Cape San Blas, hurricane near TX, late 70s, maybe very early 80s long before the housing boom. Shoot, there were maybe 6 structures on the entire cape. Gray, forboding, shoulder hi, offshores, long rides due to the large angle to the beach, surfing at the FL HRS facility that was there at the time. Fantastic surf and I was the only person in sight, or probably on the cape for that matter, other than the State Park and Coast Guard folks. Long winding lefts (a good thing in my book!). After a while I just had this feeling that I should not be in the water. A very strong feeling that said "get out". Surfed on in, got in my 1961 Anglia ( deluxe model...fuel gauge, "high" compression 105E engine, and courtesy light) and went to hang out with friends on St George Island. Passed a car with a few boards on top heading to the cape, around Indian Pass. To this day I still wish I'd turned around. It was among the very best surf I have ever had. Still have the 6-8 Hank Warner egg (Innerlight label) that I used that day.
Saw another white shark the other day out at my home break.
At first I just caught a glance of a shape slipping below the water and thought it was a cormorant.
A few moments later I saw the dorsal and caudal fins as it swam parallel to the beach and a guy sitting near me (the only other person out) said "Hey! Is that a shark!?" When I repiled "Yes it is", he caught the next wave in leaving me all alone.
I wouldn't have been worried but the next thing I see is the shark swimming directly towards me.
I back paddled as quietly as I could until I could catch a wave and came in on it.
The shark was about 10', a size commonly seen inshore around here.
Few friends of mine surfing in Cape Town, South Africa:
About 8 guys surfing a reef on a small day about a mile off a headland, saw a great white start circling them. Everyone crowded onto the shallow reef, stayed there over an hour till they started worrying about the sun going down. Shark was still there the whole time. Eventually they decided to make a break for the headland, keeping together as a pack. Shark swam with them the whole way to the rocks, luckily didn’t come in for a bite.
Saw one of the guys later that night. He said the scariest thing about the whole experience was the behaviour of everyone while they were paddling for the land. These were a tight crew, had grown up together since the were little, yet while paddling it was every man for himself. Pushing, elbowing, climbing over, you name it, each guy did anything he could to stay at the centre of the pack and not be on the edge. Said he saw the dark side of human nature that evening.
[quote="$1"] ...he saw the dark side of human nature that evening. [/quote]
I think so too. The civilized veneer is very thin indeed.
Windsurfing at Arroyal Laguna below Hearst Castle years ago I saw this thing zip bye in the water and followed it. It was a little radio transmitter bouy! I looked forward and saw this huge shape under the water and a moment later a big dorsal fin break the surface. It was a great white that was over 15 feet long! I carefully jibed, sheeted in my sail and made a beeline back to shore looking over my shoulder. I took a nap and did not go out the rest of the day.
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superbowl sunday at blacks , big faka .
For the ozzies.
2 weeks ago a good sized great white ate a baby seal pup within meters of Boat Beach Seal rocks, a pretty popular holiday beach.
Since the commercial fishing was drasticly reduced by authorities the permanent seal colony is coming back to big seal rock. Which means more big sharks, well there’s already heaps there but if they are following seals into the beach it’s pretty F’d up!!
Parra gliding Boat Beach, yew!! Nice place for a swim??
Hey Marsh, I’ve surfed Treachery just around the corner any number of times and I’ve definitely had that sharky feeling there a couple of times.
Tea Gardens/Hawkes Nest just to the south of there is a known hang-out for juvenile whites. They don’t know why they congregate there, just that they do, over the later third of the year. One of the PhD students at the uni where I work was doing his thesis on shark recognition software that would spot them from planes. He did the bulk of his field research in a plane over Tea Gardens, said he would see up to 12 1-3 metre whites every time he went up!
My mum just bought a bush block at Tea Gardens, but I’m fucked if I’m taking the kids for a swim when we go to visit.
5-6’ bull shark in a slough b/t the beach and first sand bar at D St (St. Augustine). He/she was half exposed. Pesky little bonnet heads at Cape San Blas. The ones I’ve seen are small <2’, but they stalk you all day long. I know the big guys are out there, but that’s all I’ve actually seen. Did run out of the water at Jax Beach when I was about 12 y.o. or so, thought it was a shark in the face of the wave. Cuz told me it was 4 or so good sized mullet swimming head to tail in the face of the wave. That’s all I got.
this wasnt me however it was at the break that we got a surf during our kiwi swayup
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/6534573/Shark-attacks-surfer-in-Taranaki
“TARANAKI TERROR” reference- http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/1396093/Monster-shark-returns-to-Taranaki-waters
Here’s a few pics of some 14’-16’ Great Whites I took down at Isla Guadalupe this past September…I have some really cool video as well.
wow!! great pictures!!
I’ve always wanted to do the cage diving but thought maybe I wouldn’t want to surf again afterwards !!
Yeah Cass heaps of sharks up the coast. I’ve always thought that the water is so clear that hopefully they can see you and decide not to try you out?! Some of the best beach breaks on the coast though so I’ll keep going back ha!! Better to die fast doing something you love than to die slowly doing something you hate, don’t you think?
Was walking up to the shoreline at Playa Negra, CR and I saw a fin bobbing, weaving and diving in the lineup. It turns out it was an 8-10' Tiger feeding on some jack, and I did not paddle out because of this. It looks odd to see a shark feeding on prey. Two friends of mine from Santa Cruz paddled out anyway when it passed, and said a shark that size wouldn't have that big of a bite. I did not share that sentiment.
I duck-dove a wave once at the Wall in Baja and saw an absolute monster in the water in front of me, which literally made my heart stop. It was early spring and it was 2 baby grey whales with the mother just behind them. Must have been heading north from Hawaii. They were just watching us with curiosity, and we unleashed and swam down to look at them. One of the kids started fluking, and we got the hell out of there. I can only imagine being landed upon by one of them. This is the most amazing wildlife story I have ever experienced.
Oh yeah, did the shark feeding thing with my wife in Moorea. Not really scary since your hanging out in the water with a bunch of honeymooners. I've actually got a picture somewhere of a reef shark swimming under me taken with a disposable water camera.
Early '90s - surfed Patrick’s Point w/ a friend, 4 other friendly heads were out. Great session, uncharacteristically nice conditions and tons of fun. No vibes, no heebie jeebies, no Jaws theme in the back of my head. While walking back up the beach, we found a large elephant seal cow with her gut mostly removed and bright red blood running down the sand.
Other was Malibu about 2:30 am solo session. Phosphorescence was incredible, every ripple glowed, waves were supereasy to see, really fun session until… I’d been watching fish dart around in the glowing water all night, sometimes chased by a larger green glowing streak. I was sitting between sets when the widest, strongest streak yet made right for me. Just as I began praying it would be a quick end, a big sea lion popped up about 3 ft away and barked at me - probably translated to “HA! You just crapped your suit!”
dcasey, to me the scariest thing about surfing in Costa Rica isn’t the sharks, it’s the giant crocs in the estuaries and river mouths. Was surfing Tivives once with 2 friends, every time they caught waves and I was alone out the back, the logs and branches floating in the water were playing with my mind. Heard many stories of people being eaten by crocs in Costa Rica.
Ahh yes-the crocs. Did a solo panga trip to Witches Rock back in 92-back in the days before it was swamped with surfers and the pangas were mainly for fishing. I got dropped off and the boat went trolling and broke down. After being out for a couple of hours I came in to the beach to rest. I walked up the river and they were everywhere. Some of them big-maybe 6-8 feet maybe. Paddled back out and stayed out until the boat returned. The locals said they actually hang out in that rivermouth feeding on dead fish that float out at high tide. I stayed in my tent for about 6 months at that estuary in Puerto Jimenez and there were tons there too. Never heard of an attack by one, but that was a long time ago.
I caught one of the largest blue sharks I've ever seen only 300 yards from a beach full of swimmers. His head was even with the console and his tail went past the transom of my 23 foot Mako. This shark was apparently lost as we usually don't catch blue sharks close to shore here. I got him to the surface beside the boat after a 20 minute fight and chasing him around in 15 feet of water then with one thrash of his tail he was gone.
Below is a shot of me with a pretty big blue shark caught way off shore. Note the size of the pec fin as otherwise the picture makes him look deceptively small. This was actually a pretty big one as blue sharks go. The one I caught 300 yards from people dwarfed this one.
On Cape Cod, summer of 1995, a friend and I were out surfing one of the hurricane swells. The beach we were on was off-road access only and we were surfing about 100 yards offshore. A lifeguard comes screaming down the beach on a 4-wheeler and is waving at everyone in the water. After about 20 minutes we go in and he tells us that there is a big shark in the area but they don't know the type. As he is telling us this people start pointing out at the water and there is a HUGE dorsal fin just cruising up and down the beach. It wasn't a whale shark either.
Surfing Tamarindo rivermouth in the 1999 or so, saw what I thought was a log floating around. Come to find out later it was a large croc that was cruising around. Woops.