Interested in the Shark Shield?

Spike posted this for sale.  It might be the ticket for Bean Hollow this summer.

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/spo/555176107.html

This should come with a warning: if you buy this product, you will instantly become the most popular kayak angler in NorCal. Everybody will want to go fishing with you.
LOL!

Hmmm ... I wonder if they'll sport one for AOTY?   

-Allen

Hi Yakers:

           This is news to me. I have only seen divers with bang sticks and some stuff that is put out by Monk fish.
                                                                           Ernie
 Does it work?
"Warning – Sharks are dangerous
Sharks can be dangerous and often unpredictable creatures. While extensive testing has been done and great care has been taken, to develop and manufacture the Shark Shield. It is simply impossible to guarantee that all sharks will be deterred under all circumstances. With or without the protection of a Shark Shield, all sharks should be treated with respect and caution. Water sport participation in the presence of sharks is inherently dangerous and is not a recommended activity. Any human activity in the water near sharks must always be considered as possessing a considerable degree of risk. "

http://www.omerdiving.com/product.aspx?product=168

Hmmm ... I wonder if they'll sport one for AOTY?  

Now that would be an AWESOME prize!  Great idea Allen.

Michael

Hmmm ... I wonder if they'll sport one for AOTY?   

Now that would be an AWESOME prize!  Great idea Allen.

Michael

I'll get right on it.

-Allen

Wow, the testimonial link was quite a story!  Fairly convincing even, specially if you let your wife read it   What I wanna know is this something that could just be re-produced with some McGuyver like skills and mounted into your yak instead of worn.  Maybe some big ass capacitors and something that generates "technologically advanced three dimensional electronic wave form." what ever that is, and lets hook that up to our yaks!  Probably find what ya need at WeirdStuff warehouse! Feel like hitting the BEAN now! 

I think you should give it to Dan, good test with some proven Bait.

The price I quoted in the ad is too high.  I may have been looking at an Aussie dollar rate.  Anyway, I'll change it to $425 in the ads.   Forum readers can have them for $395 each.  I have 2 "Freedom 7" units available.  It's a small power head, the size of a deck of cards, with a lithium battery built in.  The antenna resembles a paddle leash and drops through a scupper hole. 
I've fished with one (adult white shark) for sure at La Bufadora.  Luckily at the time, I talked myself into believing it was a big mola mola.  Once in Malibu, the piniped colony showed up to feed where I was fishing above Point Dume.  Suddenly, 6 or 8 dogs jumped out of the water screaming and the whole group of 60 or so beat it back to the Point at top speed...leaving me alone on the water thinking about all those big, unidentified sonar marks I've seen near that canyon.  I continued my contemplating from the beach.

Moving to West Sonoma, with my taste for salmon and halibut and an ab diving girlfriend (yeah!), I thought the timing was perfect when Shark Shield contacted me for an ad.  They said that 4 years ago, when they introduced it in Australia, dive shops didn't want the bad shark publicity.  Today, the product is credable and in use globally.  One dive shop alone did nearly a quarter million dollars in Shark Shield sales last year.  John Schwartz' tale with the tiger shark was what sold me though.  He called me from Hawaii, shook up, within an hour of the incident.

So what's the deal Spike... you're a nor-Cal local now?

A 'three dimentional electronic waveform' is what you get whenever you put two electrodes at different voltages in salt water.  Electronic shark deterrent devices mimic the electrical pulses produced by electric rays, strings of 40-100V pulses a couple milliseconds long with about 10ms between.  One can be built with a couple oscillators, a boost power converter and a few general purpose mosfets - and a battery of course (no large value capacitors needed).  It's more the packaging than what's inside it that's expensive, IMO.  I made a board that does the same thing for less than $20 in components, but it's would be difficult to put it in a housing suitable for freediving.  Just to protect the kayak it could go in a lock-n-lock very easilly with a bit of silicone.  I'm not particularly motivated to go out of my way to test it though (esp with a GWS), and I'm not sufficiently worried about them to bother with it just for the kayak.  Perhaps I'll take it sturgeon fishing off a PB this year and try it out if we catch a leopard shark. 

They don't hurt the shark, just overwhelm it's senses like a cop shining a flashlight in your eyes.  The sharks are probably familiar with electric rays from bad experience too, so even at a tolerable distance their curiosity is satisfied that 'it's one of those unpleasant rays'...

Wow, the testimonial link was quite a story!  Fairly convincing even, specially if you let your wife read it   What I wanna know is this something that could just be re-produced with some McGuyver like skills and mounted into your yak instead of worn.  Maybe some big ass capacitors and something that generates "technologically advanced three dimensional electronic wave form." what ever that is, and lets hook that up to our yaks!  Probably find what ya need at WeirdStuff warehouse! Feel like hitting the BEAN now! 

That is a reasonable price. Especially for those of us who do a lot of ocean kayaking.
I do have a question though: do you get your money back if a shark attacks you?
Just curious,
PK

Small world, `eh?  I guess I have enough bills in my name to be a local by now.

 When I met Michelle in Mexico, she said she was a bartender.  I didn't realize the weight of the position here.  More revered than the mayor and sherriff, she advises the clergy too.  Coming in as the bartenders new boyfriend, I've met a lot of wonderful people and was welcomed to town.

Bang sticks!- Early in my career, I got hooked up the inventor in Florida.  He said it was the most dangerous device on the water, had caused injuries to users and he didn't recommend it.

On that guarantee, I'd say you'd have a heck of a lawsuit if it failed.  Keep those batteries fresh!