I have an idea for a new thread...

[Hairy]

I think the shark research community have, after many years of studying sharks worldwide, come up with a theory on shark behavior and attacks.....the theory is.....there is no theory. End.

Must be the same guys that studied the theory of how your wife thinks then!

[Robbie Stewart]

..............Big Bay Blouberg, a little longer ago than I'd like to admit to.

 

We were sailing and the life savers called us all in because they spotted a great white. None of us ever saw a thing. We were a bit pissed when after more than an hour sitting on the beach, with the southeaster howling and the waves just right, we still saw no sharks ourselves. Soon after that the sailing started up again and yes, young DJR was right at the front of the slalom pack and well on his way to round the outer buoy when I launched off the last wave and as I went airborne saw a big black shape exactly where I was going to land. Nothing could be done about it because, just like a bike, once a windsurfer is airborne, you are committed. You can whip the tail, do a flip, even a loop, but all that will not change the fact that you are going to have to land more or less where you aimed when you took off. Adrenaline pumped, nearly left skid marks.......and I landed........centimetres (ok, maybe a metre) away from a really big seal! But I kept it together, and was away and around the buoy before the seal could **** himself or change into a shark! Safely back on the beach I opened the OBS and after a smoke (I did back then  ) to steady the nerves and a few mouthfuls of sherry to stop the shivering (from the cold of course), I packed up, telling my friends that I have a test first thing in the morning and that I better get a bit of studying in!

 

I was sitting in the Herolds bay line-up one fine summer's day back in '96. It was myself and 2 other out of towners having a lekker surf. Next thing, 2 MASSIVE raggies pass us, one to the left of me, and the other to the right of me...they were longer than my 6'8" surfboard by quite some margin. fat as I've ever seen, and were heading straight for all the people having a swim...

 

There was nothing to do but stay calm, and watch them as they cruised the line-up, and then headed out towards Voëlklip. I carried on surfing.

 

[Robbie Stewart]

Must be the same guys that studied the theory of how your wife thinks then!

 

The guys who did this study were also secretly employed by the wives, at a substantial cost, to make sure that the data they gave us was not factual, and interspersed with plenty of red herrings...hence the frustration in trying to figure out what they are really thinking.

[Eddy Gordo]

ah Big Bay in the old days. Beach braais in the gravel parking area at night. Loads of windsurfing, beer, and OBS. Good memories. Never saw a GW there but quite a few occasions a basking shark used to make the manne k@k themselves a bit

I miss that braai spot and the surf. Dont like the current setup, but it is what it is. Further up the road is still more or less the same. Just a pity that over the years the western cape government has slowly removed braai spots around the city

[Eddy Gordo]

A moment in time I will never forget.

 

We were still at school and would hitch hike to BB, Derde Steen or Melkbos to go body boarding .... the following stories apply.

 

BB, (1) a misty as hell day where you had just a few meters visibility. We were out the water walking back to the road over the grass banks and we stumbled upon two very lovely ladies. We started chatting and they then started playing their guitars and singing....they must have been angels, there can be no other plausible explanation. (2) The typical surfing with seals thing.

 

3rde Steen, we came home from a night on town and managed to get a lift to the beach around 2-3am'ish. We slept on our boards, in our wet suits. I woke with the first rays of the sun, and got out into the water that was a smooth as glass, but still had some decent surf. That time of the day the water looked like mercury ... got out, played around and then saw a dorsal fin appear ... and I was the only person in the water. I poeped myself, then saw more and more fins appearing. IT was a huge school of dolphins that came to swim around me ... what a moment in life ... I can still see them and hear them in my minds eye when I would dive under the water!

 

Melkbos, Only person in the water, early morning, fishing boats not far from where I was with birds diving into the water getting breakfast. My first thought was that I was sure the sharks were also out getting breakfast. The break was far out, so that means so too was I. Got this massive thump against my thigh ... paddle out of there like a speed boat .... looked over my shoulder to see a big fat bloody piece of seaweed where I had just left.

 

I used to surf the often, when kommetjie to macassar never had anything to offer

Edited June 25, 2020 by Eddy Gordo

[geomark]

[Piston ZA]

 

[geomark]

[geomark]

[Kranswurm]

.....and with me leaving skidmarks on water

I feel it a lot more snorkeling off Buffels etc.I stick to the bamboo.F*ck the open water.

[Kranswurm]

Anyway,we should be pleased the sharks are coming back because they have all but disappeared from False Bay since the arrival of Port and Starboard and their sidekicks.

[CAAD4]

This shows that sharks generally are not "out to get you". If that shark wanted to, it would have made a meal of any one of them. They clearly don't know it's there.

 

I was in Buffelsbaai one day in December 2017 visiting a mate, and while we were chatting away at the restaurant, a helicopter came flying over the beach, and banked sharply as it passed, and came back over the shore break where hundred or more people were swimming. The chopper hovered and a passenger was hanging out the side furiously waving and gesturing at something. The pilot came lower and lower and then some people started clearing the water.

 

Later that evening my mate sent me a video clip that he received from the chopper pilot who was an acquaintance of his. 4 x BIG GW sharks swimming between the bathers. No one got attacked.

 

But, ja, lives have been lost at Buffels due to shark attacks, so one never knows when it's your lucky day. Plett also has had its share of attacks.

Two mates of mine were attacked by GW sharks. One in Wilderness and the other at Groenvlei between Sedgefield and Buffelsbaai. Both survived, but cancer finally won out for one of them.

 

Closest I came to GW was at Outerpool in Mosselbay. I was out surfing with a few locals, and caught a wave. When I got back to the top, they were all gone. I caught another bomb, and then another. I could not believe my luck. That's when I noticed the screaming on the rocks, and saw the same blokes all shouting at me and pointing at something behind me. I turned and looked, and saw a dorsal fin cruising about 30 meters away from me, not at me, but in the general area I was in. It was a large fin. I paddled for the next wave, caught it and surfed it out. I always reckoned that the shark knows about me loooooong before I see it, and if it has not attacked me by the time I see it, it probably wont. This video kind of supports that theory.

Ja Ja all it takes is one wet fart, then it's all fun and games...

[porqui]

I feel it a lot more snorkeling off Buffels etc.I stick to the bamboo.F*ck the open water.

 

Had two VERY close encounters right inside the bamboes forest.

[Patchelicious]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_HfdtljBKk&feature=emb_logo

Probably safer in the water with Bruce than having to deal with SAPS on the beach.

[Fruity]

.

[Rob22]

Old numbers, COVID already over 100 a day and climbing