Sharks

[PunaTuna]

How many of you have encountered them during a session?

[jaffa1949]

Numerous times

[oldmansurfer]

Where I surf there are always sharks out there. I probably don't see them more often than a couple or three times a year. I see stingrays and manta rays and turtles and fish too. The ocean has it's own ecosystem.

[waikikikichan]

A lot of times. if you surf in the ocean, that's the sharks home. That would be like asking a Shark, " the last time you were on land, did you see any Humans ?"

[PunaTuna]

Thanks for the response Jaffa and OMS. Waikikiki thanks for pointing out the obvious, but was expected)). I do have a couple years into a bachelors in marine biology. I should have expanded on my original question from the start. Being from Florida i am familiar with a limited variety of species, mostly hammerheads, bulls, and the occasional mako, as well as various smaller reef/sand sharks. Certain times of the year hammerheads have been seen by air in the 100’s, if not by the 1000’s over great swaths of coastline, but after 40 years I had never heard of someone getting hit by a hammerhead. Bulls, yes.
My first year here in Hawaii a boy in my daughter’s class, a local surfing protege in his junior year of high school, was hit by a tiger at my local surf spot. Two weeks ago a father/son duo of SUPs were knocked off their boards reportedly by a 12 ft tiger and the son ended up losing a hand out of it on the other side of the island. I remember that day as I was supposed to meet some friends at the local place for a session...I also remember same day a 50 something year old surfer dying at sunset beach. That day just gave me a bad vibe so i didn’t surf that day.
Now I will expand even further and ask if any of these encounters that any of you had escalated into an incident or almost incident? From what I can tell, almost all the encounters in these waters that go beyond the mere sighting are from tiger sharks. Basically I am looking for any proactive measures that can be utilized to lessen the obvious close encounter with tigers, that’s all.

[oldmansurfer]

In Hawaii it is mostly tiger sharks that go after surfers. I leave the water if the sharks come inside the break or if I see them there If they are outside the break I don't. I always try to paddle calmly and refrain from splashing around like a wounded fish and try to avoid early mornings or late evenings but I will go out in murky water. Probably the scariest encounter I had was when I was paipo boarding. I was going to a place that I had been before with a group of surfers who were my friends. I was in better shape than them and made it down the steep trail much quicker than they did so I paddled out alone. It was a bay with a reef going out on the left side looking from the beach so a right breaking wave. as I got about 30 yards out I saw the biggest shark I had ever seen in the water. The first thing I saw was the fin sticking a foot and a half out of the water and it was coming straight at me about 30 yards out. I temporarily stopped because I just couldn't believe it and then I saw the sharks head was close to a yard wide. I realized I needed to make a decision immediately as it was only 10 yards out now.....choices I thought of stay there and not move (no way) turn around and try to out swim the shark to the shore (didn't seem to be a good choice) swim toward it (yeah right) swim to the right or swim to the left so it was one of those two. To the left was a shallow reef with lots of sea urchins (wana) and that didn't seem too enticing so I went to the right having heard that sharks are so dumb they will forget what they were interested in if you can get out of their way initially. I swam strongly but calmly trying not to generate any splashes that might interest the shark. I never saw it again. My friends showed up around that time and were yelling at me that the break was the other way and I said big shark that way and they all didn't believe me. Perhaps as a result of me playing so many practical jokes on them as a child They all went out and I came in and looked and looked and counted the guys ...one , two, three , four , five, yep there are five.... and then in another 5 minutes same thing and one more time and then decided to go out but I kept them on the outside of me so that a shark needed to pass them before it gets to me. Never saw it again.

[PunaTuna]

Interesting read https://sharkeyesusa.com/our-story/ Wonder if there’s anything to it. Half of me says yea, cool, awesome even...the other half says this is a really smooth marketing gimmick to get you to buy .10 stickers for $10+ a piece

[RinkyDink]

The one time I encountered a shark in the water I was surfing about 50 yards away from a dead bird. At one point I saw a shark's fin start coming straight at me about 20 feet away. I started to pull myself up on my board and lost track of the shark. When I looked back to find it, it was gone. I paddled slowly and softly back to shore. My advice is to avoid surfing near rotting carcasses. My theory is, like most animals, sharks are terrified of humans. They don't want to be around them. The problem, however, is the juvenile sharks haven't figured out that humans = death to all animals. The adults get it and will stay away, but the young ones are still learning to make the connection between humans and their own death. I imagine most of them die before they can fully form that association.

[oldmansurfer]

Interesting read https://sharkeyesusa.com/our-story/ Wonder if there’s anything to it. Half of me says yea, cool, awesome even...the other half says this is a really smooth marketing gimmick to get you to buy .10 stickers for $10+ a piece

I doubt it. Everything sharks eat have eyes including whales that have huge eyes.

[oldmansurfer]

I have seen a variety of sharks in the waters including sandbar sharks, tiger sharks, white tip sharks, black tip sharks, and grey reef sharks. Another close encounter I had was at Mahelona Bay. My friend Mark invited me to go with him. This was my second time to that break. You had to walk over seaweed covered boulders and jump off them to get into the water. I was doing that and slipped rolling down the side of a huge seaweed covered boulder into the water. I figured what they heck no worse for wear and paddled out like normal hoping no one would notice my fall. The waves were small and the water was clean and I could see sharks swimming very rapidly past me. This was very unusual behavior. Sharks are usually cruising when I see them in the surf but these guys were speeded up and acting aggressive. Initially I wasn't sure if they were sharks since they were so fast but after a few encounters I was sure. I could see they were grey reef sharks and their pectoral fins were down and they were shaking back and forth as they swam and asked Mark if he was seeing the sharks swimming real fast and he said he was and that we should go in so we did. We walked back to the car and his girlfriend who was waiting at the car started screaming something at us. I thought it sounded like she was saying "Should I call the ambulance?" Which didn't make sense. I asked Mark what she was saying and he said "Dude!!! Look at yourself!!" I looked down at my chest and I was bleeding all over the place. Apparently when I fell in the water I got scratched but didn't notice and was bleeding. The ocean washed it away so I never noticed in the water but outside it accumulated so I looked like a war victim. This undoubtedly stimulated the sharks to act differently.

[oldmansurfer]

Here is a close encounter with another species of shark. On another occasion I was out surfing alone and the only other person there was a guy was fishing on the beach. It was a beautiful day and the waves were small but really nice and while I had to wait for sets there was no competition so I caught all the waves I wanted. I was in between sets waiting for waves to come in and I noticed some movement in the water below me. A shark swam directly under my surfboard. The water was so clean I could see it was a white tip shark. I was amazed and thinking it was just as long as my surfboard (7 feet) when I realized my legs were below the board along with the shark. I pulled my legs out and put them over the board and looked around but never saw the shark again. I decided again it was time to go in. I asked the fisherman if he caught sharks there and he said he didn't and asked if I saw one. Yep sure did. I guess maybe that shark was attracted to the fisherman's bait.

[oldmansurfer]

This is an encounter with a most likely gray reef shark. Where I learned to surf at Kealia beach you could see sharks riding the waves when they were at around 4 to 6 feet (8 to 10 foot faces). On one occasion I was surfing alone at Kealia and a carload of mainlanders (tourists) arrived and they came out to surf with me. Turns out they came directly from the airport and saw me having a good time and couldn't believe that waves that good could have only one guy out. (not any more) Anyway the waves were in that range at about 4 to 5 feet where you could see the sharks riding in the waves. I took off on one wave and there was a shark in that wave which seemed to persist riding it longer than most do but I didn't think anything of it and took off anyway. I had a great ride, getting tubed a couple times and paddled back out. One of the mainlanders paddled over to me I thought to congratulate me on such a great ride which it was but instead he asked me a question. "Did that fish get you?" No clue what he was talking about I answered "What?" He said "Did that fish in that wave get you? When you took off it turned and went straight for your feet. I could have sworn it got you." I was astounded and responded "That was a shark." He asked "A baby shark?" I said "No just a small shark. Probably a gray reef shark and they don't grow real big." I decided I had enough surf and went in for the day. I think something about the new guys was attractive to the shark so it was behaving differently.

[Big H]

Basically I am looking for any proactive measures that can be utilized to lessen the obvious close encounter with tigers, that’s all.

Proactively......don t go in the water....take up tennis or shuffleboard.

Don’t surf in the rain or after rain near river mouths. Eat lots of garlic.

[PunaTuna]

Basically I am looking for any proactive measures that can be utilized to lessen the obvious close encounter with tigers, that’s all.

Proactively......don t go in the water....take up tennis or shuffleboard.

Btw what’s shuffleboard? New trick I can learn on da board?

[jaffa1949]

Change your handle, Tuna favourite pelagic fish for big sharks tiger and great whites!

[PunaTuna]

Big H, is that no surf in da rain or just not near a rivermouth in da rain? Cause we get A LOT of rain here...like now under a flash flood warning

So when I pull up there in a few and see other peeps in the water I feel safer not being the only fool in da water lol

[oldmansurfer]

If it is still raining over there don't park your car where it may get flooded

[oldmansurfer]

The Margaret River Pro is on hold due to shark sighting

[Big H]

My advice is to avoid surfing near rotting carcasses.

LOL.....can pretty much extend that to all activities.....nothing spoils a party like a rotting carcass.

[oldmansurfer]

They canceled the Margaret River pro WSL contest due to rotting whale carcasses attracting too much sharks