Any Shark Stories?

Hey guys!

Got out this morning with two buddies here in Santa Cruz and went over to New Brighton to try and target some Halibut. The three of us were spread out maybe 100-200 yards between ourselves and we each had several juvenile great white shark encounters of our own during our session. My first encounter was a 5ish foot shark that was swimming straight towards me, fin up out of the water and everything, and my instinct was to paddle straight towards it which forced it to turn away. Second encounter I was paddling a little time later and as I looked over the side of my kayak and down, there was another shark but this time, DIRECTLY underneath me (had to have been not even a foot or two under the surface of the water) and must have been around 7 feet.

Down a ways, my buddy had to take an important phone call and was just drifting for about 15 minutes and he said the entire time, a similar sized shark was circling his kayak. All of these encounters occurred in less than 15-20 feet of water.

I've seen two sharks at Manresa in the past, first time while surfing, and another just before I paddled out at the sandbar, but never been this close and even though they were juveniles, it was spooky as hell. I wish I got some photos.

Anyway, Im curious if anyone has any interesting shark experiences/stories to share? Do tell!

-TK

Not me yet but this one from Loleta Eric is a good one:

Not me yet but this one from Loleta Eric is a good one:

...
 

I have 2.

My first was I was scallop iving and spearfishing at the shale beds in about 60 ft of water. Viz was about 3-5 ft. I was grabbing a scallop out of a rock when I was bumped pretty hard in the left shoulder. At first I thought it was my buddy but realized my buddy was on my right side. I looked and saw a massive seven gill. 11ft or so. I grabbed my buddies leg and he sprung around and we both watched as it very closely circled twice and then swam away into the murky water.

My 2nd was a few days ago. I was out fishing for halibut it was already a weird day as I just caught a giant Black seabass and just successfully released him. My heart was already pumping. I dropped down another squid and within a few minutes I thought I was snagged in some kelp. But then the kelp began to run rather quickly. I reeled in quickly to only realize it was a big shark. Not sure of the species but it cut right through my line when I got it close to the surface. Crazy day.

I have been out on the water my whole life and have over a thousand logged Scuba dives and over a thousand freedives and am on the water kayak fishing 3-4 days a week for work and fun and I rarely see them, and used to surf daily. An occasional fin here and there and some stories but only the two close encounters. Would like to keep  it that way.

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Adam wrote:

<snipped> Not sure of the species but it cut right through my line when I got it close to the surface

I don’t know if you guys get threshers down there, plus it may be a bit early if you do. Thoughts?

Adam wrote:

<snipped> Not sure of the species but it cut right through my line when I got it close to the surface

I don’t know if you guys get threshers down there, plus it may become a bit early if you do. Thoughts?

Caught a thresher in Tomales once crossing the channel kinda fly lining cuz I was on a mission to another spot.  Forget the month...best fight ever, what a beautiful whip tail.  Only shark I would want to try once.  Had it at the kayak not knowing how to process and ice and hesitated.  The teeth broke the line and solved that dilemma.  Full straight down run then the line would straighten out and “breach!”  Thresher life...

I think there’s been about 15 instances of adult white sharks attacking a kayak fishermen since 2005 between Lompoc and Humboldt. At least, that I’m aware of...there’s probably more that I didn’t hear about or didn’t get reported. Although I’ve been OTW over 300 times during that timespan and haven’t seen one yet.

As a former Abalone Diver (when it was allowed!) folks would often ask if I had ever seen any sharks while diving.

The quick answer was always - No, but they have seen me! 

Was at capitola last year when a gws around 7ft jumped out the water about 100yard from me and i said goodbye and went back to shore

I have 2.

My first was I was scallop iving and spearfishing at the shale beds in about 60 ft of water. Viz was about 3-5 ft. I was grabbing a scallop out of a rock when I was bumped pretty hard in the left shoulder. At first I thought it was my buddy but realized my buddy was on my right side. I looked and saw a massive seven gill. 11ft or so. I grabbed my buddies leg and he sprung around and we both watched as it very closely circled twice and then swam away into the murky water.

My 2nd was a few days ago. I was out fishing for halibut it was already a weird day as I just caught a giant Black seabass and just successfully released him. My heart was already pumping. I dropped down another squid and within a few minutes I thought I was snagged in some kelp. But then the kelp began to run rather quickly. I reeled in quickly to only realize it was a big shark. Not sure of the species but it cut right through my line when I got it close to the surface. Crazy day.

I have been out on the water my whole life and have over a thousand logged Scuba dives and over a thousand freedives and am on the water kayak fishing 3-4 days a week for work and fun and I rarely see them, and used to surf daily. An occasional fin here and there and some stories but only the two close encounters. Would like to keep  it that way.

Man, I can't decide whether I'd rather encounter a shark while diving or on a kayak. A spearfisher friend of mine said he'd much rather be diving and feels safer doing so because he can see all around him as opposed to being on top of the water and not knowing whats underneath you. Thanks for sharing those epic stories!

Was at capitola last year when a gws around 7ft jumped out the water about 100yard from me and i said goodbye and went back to shore

That time I was surfing out at Manresa was a similar situation where I had just turned around after catching a wave to paddle back out and out about 100 or so yards, saw what I believe to be a GWS Breaching (large breach) which to me meant he had just caught a meal for himself. I promptly turned right back around and paddled in and notified the lifeguard on duty.

We had three encounters on the TI in the last two summers.
In 2018 off of Rockaway, a smallish great white swirled behind the boat - I think it was an aborted charge - and then cruised alongside us for several seconds before losing interest and turning away.

In 2019 off of Point Reyes, a shark bumped us. As we were pedaling in, I saw a line on the FF turn and make a vertical move toward the surface. Two seconds later there was a solid WHACK on the bottom of the boat, followed by two big sweeping splashes behind us. We never saw it, but it was textbook shark attack behavior in a notoriously sharky area. I think it was an aborted charge and a fin hit the boat as it turned, and the two splashes were from the tail as it kicked away.

Then again, about a month or so later off of Rockaway, we saw one about 8' long jump clear out of the water.

These were all super exciting encounters, but I think the Tandem Island makes for a much more secure shark-watching platform. In a single hull boat - or while diving - I wouldn't feel as confident.

I posted my story, CLICK HERE TO READ, about coming face to face with a GWS a couple years back at Del Monte Beach. What's neat was just a couple weeks later, at the NCKA Pay It Forward event, I won an Amadeo Bachar GWS picture. Totally made my first year (ish) as a NCKAer! I went down to his studio and he signed it. Super cool.

Man, I can't decide whether I'd rather encounter a shark while diving or on a kayak. A spearfisher friend of mine said he'd much rather be diving and feels safer doing so because he can see all around him as opposed to being on top of the water and not knowing whats underneath you. Thanks for sharing those epic stories!

Yeah, but your chances of dying in a kayak shark attack are very low. Similarly with surfing. If you get bit while diving, your body's taking the brunt of it and (especially from a kayak as opposed to a boat) you're probably going to bleed to death.

Last year salmon fishing at Pacifica I was on my way to the point when I looked up and saw a kayaker tying leaders about 20ft from me and a big dorsal fin and tail sticking out the water another 20ft behind him. It wasn’t a huge shark but was easily the size of the kayakers outback. The shark did a big kick and swung around 180 which was actually pretty cool to see until it then dove straight down. My first though was it was going to go for one of us.
The other kayaker still hasn’t noticed so I politely hollered; “hey did you see that shark?!” His eyes popped wide open and he perked up real quick asking me; “Shark? How big was it?” I didn’t want to scare him so I said “not too big!” I saw relief wash over his face until I finished with “...only 10-12ft.” I haven’t seen a man that scared in quite a while. He jammed right up next to me wide eyed and with a head on a swivel. He was super relieved to know I had a shark shield on. Never saw the shark again but that guy stuck right next to me for the rest of the day haha


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