Shark Encounters

after a good session was about to leave and that little tinge of just one more so I started toward the water and nearing the shoreline a wave pushed in and in the wave was about a 4 ft shark that appearantly was chasing some baitfish he breifly beached himself and another wave provided enough water for him to slip back out ,,I headed home..

2nd instance floating on the board waiting for a decent wave a fin rose straight from under the water it was arms length in front of my face, it wasnt swimming or moving much as I could tell I remember just looking at the fin and seeing it was kindy raggedy on the back side of it and not a solid horizontal line and had several black spots on it wasn't it all solid grey,

this year was retying my leash knot standing in shallow water and had the board vertically in front of me something h the board felt like it was going 50mph it practically knock me down with the impact, never saw anything so dunno if it was a shark but whaever it was it could swim fast and more than likely had a headache after that hit

 

seen some nasty looking bull sharks spear fishing on the reefs in the Keys. Not for nothing, seeing Barry Cuda(s) in shallow water gives me the heebies as well. Something about how they float, unmoving, thick as shiny phone poles.

 

Hey!!! Respect!!! We are very handsome fish, nice dentition!! Go ahead--wear an ankle bracelet and see what happens!!

 

Nurse shark was last encounter here tho I've seen ppl catch rays at washout. They're tanned I bet. Had a couple dolphins come after me the last surf session several days ago at the pier. Yeah that's not a shark story, but I'm missing my Folly Beach shark bottle opener magnet so beware

 

Commander in chief don't like em either:

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/the-president-jumps-the-shark/550994/

 

met Mary Lee, no B.S! story's been told, don't want to bore the O.G.'S! shatt my suite!

 

30 miles off Point Judith R.I, I was cage diving last July 2nd! chummed the water for 3 hrs before the first blue shark came in! I decided that I would free dive with sharks in 200 ft, chummed oil slick! mask, snorkel,fins,3-2! got a natural high as my hand felt the skin on a 7 ft blue shark, smooth as silk! 2 hrs in the water a 6' mako joined the party! hook still in his or hers mouth! Look ma, no cage!! when I showed my wife how stupid and close I was to these animals, her first words were," did you fall off the wagon"? what a hell of a day! jumping off a perfectly good,floating boat into over 200'of ocean, 30 miles off shore!

 

the WB sea cow....i did see the massive swirl pool on the surface though. was more in shock than anything. told to look somewhere, thought i was looking for a wave...saw the swirl then thought i was lookin for whatever was gonna have me for lunch. WB is a cool place - two thumbs up.

down in ft laudy saw some kinda fish in the shore choppe about a foot long and real narrow and colorful just sitting there and starring at me

a day or two later with some bigger choppe and kookin around with some body sarfin saw a 6 inch dorsal fin glide up and then back down aboot 30 yards out - first shark id ever seen in wild. figured it was just a sandbar shark, but who knows.

 

Freediving a deepwater reef in PR on a flat day... this big, slow Spotted Eagle Ray comes cruising underneath me. It was so freakin' BIG it was intimidating... but just totally un-intimidated by me. Spotted rays are jet black with snow white dots. Looked like velvet...

 

Yep, saw a lot of those as a kid living down there.

 

Surfing in February all by myself about 4 years ago. Thought I saw a dolphin about 20 yards further out and paddled towards it. The "dolphin" turned toward me and I saw it had a fat, flat face full of teeth. I panicked, turned and paddled right off the front of my board. I just held my breath and paddled, towing my board behind me. I got to shore and watched what I believe was a bull shark feed.
Two years later I paddled out to help what I thought might be a sea turtle in a net, to find a 4 foot bull shark in its death throws. I calmly paddled back to shore.

 

a striper i am sure.

 

Once I was snorkeling in Key Largo, we were anchored off a big light tower. We climbed up and dove off a few times, then I guess the vibrations attracted a resident school of great barracuda. They looked like 7' logs from above, about six of them. We were too scairt to jump, got our buddy on the boat to motor up so we could hop on board.

But it was very choppy, and the boat had to stay away from the tower so it wouldn't get bashed, and we took turns jumping into the water, curled up in a fetal position, and drifted to the boat, which was 20 feet away and drifting away at a good clip.

I remember, a small seargant major swam past, just wide of me, then in a flash a big ass cuda flies past me in hot pursuit, he almost ripped my mask off in a nano second. I almost shat myself right there. Scared me more than almost any shark encounter I've had (many). Lucky it was over fast.

I hate breaking a leash and losing a board during the spring migration. 15 seconds of trying to quickly swim silently can feel like a lifetime.

 

1974- Monster Hole- South side Sebastian Inlet. Super clear water. 5-7 people out. 8-10ft at the peak. I'm sitting on my board between sets and see this Hammer Head swim under me at what looks to be 6-8 feet below. I yelled at my buddy Denny and pointed down, he looked and the head went under him while the tail went under me, 12-15 feet away.......

 

I've seen Monster Hole going off, 8-10 foot and long makeable peaks and sections, and no one out and I kept driving north. That place gives me the willies. For real. I've surfed it twice, on big chunky swell (that's when it breaks) and both times I was more focused on shadowy denizens (real or imagined?) than on the waves. It's always empty when it's going off. why? why? Duh!

 

I can’t count the number of times I have had a spinner shark come flying out of the water spinning through the air and land within a few feet of me. This happens at every beach in FL it seems.

One morning at Ponce Inlet a large fish most likely a barrcuda (based on the shape) swam right up to my wife and I before swimming away at the last moment. It was one of those days when the mullet was running thick. You could see thousands of them in the waves as they got scooped up and the sun would shine through the crystal clear water. A smorgasbord of snacks for the bigger fish, of which I’m sure there were many. But surprisingly nobody got bit that day, not while I was there at least.

Sometimes I hear on the news that someone got tagged at the same beach around the same time I was there, but I never see it myself. The shark bite capital of the world isn’t as scary as people make it out to be.

I have paddled out at New Smyrna Inlet, Ponce Inlet, Sebastian Inlet, all at first light and many times the first and only person in the water for a while till it fills up with the crowd. I have been very fortunate to not have any issues because you see the fins, the shadows, sometimes you get a bump from one or at least you assume that’s what it was. I paddle out when it’s practically dark out many mornings at my local. I have to get in at first light in order to fit it in before work. And when the time changes I get those sunset sessions too.

There was this baby shark that tried to nibble on my big toe when I jumped off my board in shallow water after finishing my last ride of the session. I felt his mouth and tiny teeth wrapped around my toe, but I pulled it out before he was able to do any damage. Maybe it wasn’t a shark, maybe it was, but that day it was the first thing I thought of.

There was a 3-4 foot shark that swam right up to me while I was laying on my LB one evening before sundown. It was slow moving and inspecting the situation, I sat motionless all hands on deck till he got within a couple feet of me and then he turned around and swam off. Never once did I feel like he was going to attack, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous. Once he swam off, I waited a couple more minutes to make sure he didn’t reappear before resuming my session.

 

I’m not sure if it’s crazy or stupid or both lol