Justin meets a big fish

Some of the guys on my crew went to school (Humboldt) with this guy Justin, who is quite the free-diver.  Here's Justin's account from a few days ago at Stillwater Cove, Sonoma.  Also a warning for you Stillwater boys:

Oh, and he actually went out the next day and won the big AB tournament the next day with a 10.54.


From Justin…

I took a 100 cm gun I had just built out to Stillwater cove for a test dive. I was out with my friends Eric, Kahi, and Lee. We spent the first hour in 15 feet of water showing lee how to ab dive. It was his first time out. He pulled an ab and then went in early because he got sea sick. I moved out into 30 feet of water to shoot my gun for the first time. Eric stayed near the rocks and worked on a big scallops he found. I lined up 2 blue rock fish and hit them both with one shot. I had never done that on purpose before and I was pretty happy with the way the gun was performing. I started moving out into deeper water looking for some vermillion. The structure was good, but the bottom was about 35 feet deep and vermilion prefer it a bit deeper than that. About 300 yards south of the north point at Stillwater are some pinnacles that drop off to 50 feet. I could see a couple of kelp stringers growing off the top of one. I kicked out there and made a few dives on the pinnacle. I worked my way out into a little deeper water where the structure was really good. It looked perfect for vermillion. The sea floor was covered with rocks the size of cars. There were lots of caves and cracks to look for vermilion and lingcod. I found a half a kayak paddle and a big game stringer with an orange handle lying next to each other. I thought someone had probably flipped their kayak and lost a bunch of stuff here. I was planning on looking for some gear on my next decent.

I pushed off the bottom with my spear tip so I wouldn’t damage my C4 carbon fins and started kicking up to the surface. My ab iron and dive light clinked together in a rhythmic pattern. As I broke the surface it felt like a wave crashed on me and my body rocked side to side. I looked to my left and at arm’s reach I saw the white underside of a 3 foot long by 2 foot wide pectoral fin. I could also see the white belly and the black speckling where the body color of a great white shark transitions from light underneath to dark grey on top. I instantly recognized what it was. The shark was swimming full speed, peeling off of an attack and heading back down into blue gray water below me. I could feel the water rushing past my leg as the shark swam by. The muffled sound of me yelling “Oh f***” at the top of my lungs sounded strange underwater. I pulled my head up and glanced around for the closest rocks to climb up onto. The rocks were about 300 yards to the north. I put my head back in the water but the shark was swimming so fast he had already disappeared into the 20 feet of visibility below me.

I thought I knew what I was going to do when I saw a white shark. I thought I would swim calmly so that I wouldn’t look like fleeing prey and that I would hug the bottom so that I could reduce the amount of time I could be attacked from below. That plan went out the window. I started swimming as fast as I could towards the rocks. I just wanted to get out of the water and there was no way I was going to swim 300 yards back to shore at 50 feet deep as my heart raced at 120 beats per minute. I kept my eyes fixed on the water below me. I expected that the shark was going to come back for a second pass. After kicking in shear panic for a few minutes I pulled my head out of the water and realized that I had curved off of my path and I was headed straight out to sea. I thought “this was not fair”. I turned back toward the rocks and continued to swim at full speed. I felt like I was going to puke. After a few minutes I pulled my head up to check my progress and again I was heading straight out to sea, but this time I had almost circled completely back around to where I had seen the shark. I thought “are you kidding me?” That is when I forced myself to calm down a little. I started kicking at a slower pace and finally began heading in a straight line. When I got to within about 100 yards of the rocks I relaxed a little bit. I felt that if the shark hadn’t come by for a second pass at this point that I was probably in the clear. I swam up to the rocks where my friend Eric was diving for scallops. The water was about 15 feet deep there and full of kelp. I felt pretty safe at that point. I told Eric “Hey man, we got to go. I just about got bit out there”. He said “got bit by what?” I said “A f***ing white shark”. That got his attention. We packed up our dive boards and 5 minutes later I was sitting on the beach very happy to still be in one piece, but a little shaken up and a little mad about the whole situation. Our friend Kahi and Lee had gotten out earlier. Kahi came running down from the bluff and said that he thought he seen one of us get killed by a shark. He said that he saw a diver’s head and shoulders break the water and next to the dive there were all kinds of thrashing. He said that he had watched shark week enough to know that someone had just gotten killed. Well I wasn’t dead. What Kahi had seen was the shark breaking the surface next to me after pulling out of the attack at the last minute.

holy shit, thats f-ing scary, glad he is ok, thanks for sharing dave, cameron

I know that place. WOW! Close call. That memory will last awhile I reckon. My first kayak verm was right there. 1978

I am very happy that a sighting was all this turned out to be. Whew!

An amazing occurrence to behold though.

Ahhh Man, that's always been one of my safe places, safe meaning I never knew of any sightings in that area, (of course I know there are no safe areas) but still.....now my bubble is burst on that one.

I probably would have just crapped myself and died.

That's a crazy story.  I'm glad Justin's alright.

F*CK!!!!!!!!!!!

That is some scary shit right there...

I was feeling like I was gonna puke just reading it....

Super glad he was OK...

 

Took some HUEVOS to go back out the next day and win that contest...don't know if I could've done that...in fact, pretty sure I would have stayed onshore with a bottle and a blanket!!

Sincerely,

Jim

OMG!!!!  Jesus, i'm glad he is ok!!!  that's one hell of a scary story!  

YiKes!! Scary sh!t just reading that... There super active this year huh... Glad everyone is OK man.

Scary stuff. Glad he's ok.

Al

That's one heck of a shark encounter! Im glad it turned out well. Gave me chills reading it. Thanks for sharing. aka-Kimo

Amazing and scary beyond belief. That is a story to tell the grandkids someday. Glad I am diving for crawdads this weekend.

Justin... glad you're OK bro.  That is one of the most amazing GWS stories ever.  Someone was definitely looking out for you that day!

EK

dam lol

No pics?...   

The guy's got super skills, huge sack, and evidently excellent karma or luck or both.  Great story.