SHARK!!!

[SAsurfa]

my sister used to date this guy years ago from port lincoln south aus..
she told me about being able to see fins surfacing and darting around like crazy..
heaps of farmed tuna with fnuck loads of great whites packing in on them..
the guy she was seeing used to surf caves, chinamans and cactus alot and also down near victor habour..
also heard a few spook stories off him also, and even though he was a compulsive bullshit artist i believed at least half of the shark stuff..

Yeah my cousin's going out with an ex tuna fisherman and he said he saw them all the time around the tuna pens. Some crazy stories actually and he saw orca's as well, killer whales for those who don't know, that would have been amazing.

But don't worry guys they have plenty to feed on.. until the tuna is harvested

[Tills]

Never had an encouter myself. I've seen the odd Dolphin out the back, that's it. One time one arched over just enough for it's fin to breach. Gave me a bit of a fright till I saw it breach the second time.

Found this pic on my pc.

I'd have been packing my wetty if I was this bloke...



EDIT- Actually, just did a bit of a search about this pic. Seems it's actually a dolphin in the above pic. That dorsal sure looked sharky to me.

[SAsurfa]

Yeah I was about to say it looked like a dolphin.. the way you can tell is that the back fin is horizontal and not vertical, sharks have the fin vertical while dolphins are horizontal, try and keep this in mind next time your unsure, it might help ya relax a little

[Tills]

Yeah SA, I knew about the different direction of the tails, it's just a bit hard to tell from that pic. There's a pic from later in the sequence going around that clearly shows it's a dolphin too.

[deepsouth]

A couple of stories.

1. My old man was surfing at a rivermouth down near the border which rarely opens back in the 70's with one other local character know as "the beak". The beak is paddling back out after catching a wave and paddles inside my old man just as he's taking off. He duckdives into the face, opens his eyes under water and apparently is eye-to-eye with a noah, which had just been hanging around under the old man seconds earlier. Apparently the thing took off seconds later (along with the beak in the other direction!) but the beak would later claim that it was at least 8-10ft long. *

2. Surfing a beachie by myself about 2 years ago, paddling back out after catching a wave, paddled over the shoulder and saw the shape in the wall of the wave behind. Turned and bellyboarded the next wave in, the whole time packing bricks. Had a laugh at my cowardice once I hit the beach but being all by myself I thought it was better to not risk it. I guess that one was about 5-6ft but I wasn't hanging around to measure it.

Also, surfing in SA. Never saw any but felt spooked a few times. Something about the colour of the water down there and the reputation of the spots I think.

* Disclaimer: Alcohol may have "improved" this story over the years but the beak still swears blind it happened!

[Nick Carroll]

Yeah I was about to say it looked like a dolphin.. the way you can tell is that the back fin is horizontal and not vertical, sharks have the fin vertical while dolphins are horizontal, try and keep this in mind next time your unsure, it might help ya relax a little

And a shark's dorsal fin is triangular, not high aspect curved (surfboard fin style) the way a dolphin's is.

You won't see many sharks cruising high in the water in or near a surf zone. If you do it'll probably be a big 'un, and the dorsal fin will be swaying from side to side with the shark's tail kick; you may even see the tail fin tip break the water. Sharks don't like surf or broken water, it's hard work for them, since unlike other fish they don't have flotation bladders. I think that's probably why surfer shark sightings are comparatively rare given the amount of time we spend in the water.

[Mexican]

Had a few experiences over the years.

As a young'en having a rest while paddling back out after a wave got hit by something from underneath pretty hard and lifted off the water. Best air i could do at that age . Obviously panicked a bit, looked around and saw no water moving or large fish about to eat me. Paddled straight for the rest of the pack - safety in numbers.

Sitting with a mate 10ft apart waiting for a set when an 8ft bronzie glide's between us just breaking the surface. Mate saw it go under i saw it about a foot under water. A moment of unspoken decision making and in we went.

Plenty of times watchin big fins driving through the water, not at me but within 20m, driving hard up along and down. I guess only a big fish can move with that power.

Dark shapes and that "feeling" happens a bit.

Heard once where a guy was in knee deep water about to paddle out, felt a rope brush his leg, a big rope like a ship rope, though 'you beauty nice rope to keep' started pulling it in when it whizzed out of his hands leving rope burn. Was either a speared stingray or a large predator having a rest.

Big sharks are beautiful creatures but fark me it would be a horrible way to go being eaten by anything......

[Floyd]

thats the kind of shark i had under me! cept mine was bout 5-6ft :? scared the shit out of me

[g_u_m_b_y]

thats the kind of shark i had under me! cept mine was bout 5-6ft :? scared the shit out of me

nooo

[matt...]

i saw a fin break the water's surface at the wreck in byron in '89.

last year 31st dec, 2006. north avoca. 4:30pm, thunderstorm approaching from the south, very dark skies, grey water, water surface slightly choppy, i was out at view street, one guy was out at lake street and another guy at clubhouse at nthy - so a fair distance away from each other - and a thousand holiday makers down at avoca...

about 50 metres out to sea from me i saw a large fin absolutely flying across the water & then slowly descend underwater. probably through a school of fish, as there are always heaps of fish at avoca. this fin was about 30 - 45 cm in height and it looked quite big from 50 metres away! i paddled to the guy south of me & told him, as i looked back i saw one of its side fins arch out of the water & dive underwater again... i just kept saying to myself "not today, don't take me today"... i was shittin'.

i walked down to the lake & paddled out, but only lasted a few minutes more. i was freaked.

i've seen two more since then, but much smaller ones. one in front of the lake & another at lake street.

but like a few of you other guys how many times do you get that "feeling" something is lurking......??!!??

[SAsurfa]

but like a few of you other guys how many times do you get that "feeling" something is lurking......??!!??

Not often, I think it becomes less of an issue the more you surf a place. All the places I surf regularily I don't have a problem at all with, even surfing by myself but its those ones in the out of the way places that you haven't surfed much that get you a little concerned, especially if its dark and cloudy skies.

The only time I really get that feeling is after the sun has gone down and your mate has just caught he's last wave in and your left waiting for that good one in. I just feel vunerable, especially when its getting really dark but the situation is no different to a moment ago when your mate was out.. thats what I keep reinforcing in my head anyway haha

The last time I really got that bad vibe was out at Baby Lizards over on the Yorke Peninsula a couple of months ago. It was about 10-15mins past sunset and the water was real brownish and had sea weed bits floating around in it. Just felt really dodge but the waves were half decent, well for Lizards anyway so that kinda put it out of my mind.

The worst is when you can smell that real fishy smell, smelt it at Waits and Parsons a few times and all I can think of is that some fish or seals have just been malued by a bigger fish

[Felix]

My old man used to tell me how in the 1930’s at North Steyne the bodysurfers would wait until the local shark (he said it was a tiger) cruised the channel between the beach and the bank every morning before they would all swim out to the bank. Lots of the old blokes had stories like that. They just found a way to co-exist with them although during 1937, I think it was 1937, there were a number of fatalities on Sydney surf beaches and they introduced netting.

I recall during the early 60’s seeing a fin about a hundred metres away from me at North Steyne that was about 4ft out of the water. I told some mates and they payed out bigtime. Gave me such a bad time that I had to have sex with their sisters. Anyway about a week later there was splashed all over the front page of the Daily Mirror pictures of Ron and Val Taylor swimming with a 30ft whale shark off Manly surf beach. I have never known of another whale shark to be in Sydney waters.

Another time, earlier than the Whale shark incident, I was at Mid-Steyne with a couple of mates when they put over the new PA system that the surfers at the Bower should leave the water as there was a 15ft tiger shark out there. Just then an underwater train travelling very fast went under our group but we didn’t bother to inform the clubbies that the tiger was just at Mid-Steyne, heading towards Queensie and Freshie, I’ve had other encounters or seen sharks while surfing at Manly/Queenscliff, Golf Course Reef, Lennox, Diggers, Tullebudgera, Pohnpei (diving) and Forresters but nothing in the last 10 years.

I do know that as one gets older you tend to worry about them more. I guess when you reach that time in your life when you realise there is more time behind you than what’s in front of you, your own mortality hits home. Nothing is as scary as seeing a fish, what you would consider to be a good meal on the barbie, skipping along the surface in fear of its life.

[Nick-W]

I was watching a survival show on discovery. The guy said that the majority of people attacked at sea have discarded their clothing.

So wear some clothes, flesh is bad. No dick stickers

[Slowman]

Seen a few over the years but the scariest time was out at Voodoo in nice 5' offhsore waves. Suddenly I see some splashing just beyond the approaching sets and then 5 or 6 bronze fins swimming about erratically. There was probably about a 9 or 10 of us out. We all took off on the first wave of the set together. I was paddling back out and so I just spun around and caught the white water. I remember Ant Bourke had taken off inside and was miffed that everyone decided to drop in on him. I don't know how big these things were but at a guess 2m or so just from dorsal fins and water disturbance.

I've had a small shark 3-4' swim underneath me at Tallows on a crowded day but it was simply chasing yellow tail through the waves. I've also seen some big splashes in the water up near the wreck at Byron too.

Another time at Crescent Head the beach was full of that red weed and we paddled out on the beach north of the point to these perfect 5' lefts just barrelling beautifully. There were fish shooting through the water but the huge splashes and thrashing spooked us out of our skins. Just the 2 of us out, we lasted 30 minutes.

One time out the bra a guy went a bit white and forced the words out that a shark was heading for me and I sort of spun around paddled, apparently straight at it but it shot off out to sea. They used to say there was a great white hanging around the bra during that time! Could have been BS but he did get out

I saw what I think was a shark down at Manyana as I was walking back from Green Island, there were a heap of large remains of squid back bones at the water's edge still with flesh dangling from them and there was something large out there just stationary about 50m off the beach and slowly circling.

Another distinguishing feature betweens sharks and dolphins is their movement because of their spines. Dolphins swim up and down and sharks swim from side to side. I no longer care to be first out at dawn or last out at dusk - I think shark numbers are up since they stopped netting.

[killa]

Haven't surfed in the Narra strip for a while, do those little hammer heads still cruise around ya feet?

Seen a few others, mainly reefies in Bali and recently in Sumatra. They don't seem to care much for ya though.

Best scare was an early session at Point Plomer. Was out by myself one murky sunrise, something caught my eye a few times, then after a few waves was sitting in the take off zone when the fin surfaced and did that cruisy swim towards me. Didn't panic, just calmly paddled my trusty 80's retro thruster (i was riding at the time) up onto the rocks and grabbed onto land as the set waves hit. Seen loads of dolphins there, but still find it hard to convince people to this day that a shark was in the area.

[Felix]

A yank who lives up on the reef around Pt Douglas, Dr Walter Stark, made his fortune by developing the electronic aqualung and flogging it to the US navy. Anyway, he reckoned that sharks hate sea-snakes so he developed a wetsuit that was banded with white horizontal stripes. He swore that no self respecting shark would go near you....only problem is that you would look like a dick and no self respecting surfer could stop himself from laughing at you...probably better to take the risk than wear the suit!

[lambert]

just curious iggymeister, did you ever surf the bombies out at kingy?
heard some shark stories about that place

i know you asking iggy but i couldnt resist, ive been surifng that strip for about 6 years now and ive had 5 enconters, most of them unsubstatial, 2 out at the reef and the other 3 just along cudgen, my mate go nudged by a shark in the gutter while he was paddling in and luckily he saw the fin trail out to the back break, scary stuff! but since the begining of the year there has been like 12 shark attacks world wide, 8 have occured between pottsvile and Surfers paradise, and some dude got muchned so bad they only found his leg near fingal, shakrs play a massive role around those waters thats for sure

[killa]

A yank who lives up on the reef around Pt Douglas, Dr Walter Stark, made his fortune by developing the electronic aqualung and flogging it to the US navy. Anyway, he reckoned that sharks hate sea-snakes so he developed a wetsuit that was banded with white horizontal stripes. He swore that no self respecting shark would go near you....only problem is that you would look like a dick and no self respecting surfer could stop himself from laughing at you...probably better to take the risk than wear the suit!

I remember seeing a surfboard design on the bottom of the board that resembled one of those black and white striped fish that often swam under sharks cleaning them. Apparently sharks would see them as useful and not attack. Doubt they ever tested it out at Seal Island, South Africa.