chased out by Beeeeg shark today

leslie hempel

leslie hempel

Professional Aquarist
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earlier today i convinced my wife to come to the beach with me so that i could surf, got to Nahoon reef and the waves were pumping, messy brown water and a fairly moderate to strong south wester blowing with an easterly waveswell

in short kooking.

i suited up and paddled out caught one wave and while i was paddeling back i saw a surfer take off on a 4ft wave another surfer paddleing over it and another surfer.... um no wait thats not a surfer its a SHARK FIN standing almost 60- 70cm out of the water cruising towoard the take off zone..
we kaked myself, it was the biggest shark fin i have ever ever seen in all my years of surfing, and almost reminded me of an orca dorsal. (we do get orca's down here occasionally but its a rare occurance)

in less than 30 seconds without a the word shark shouted we were all safely on the beack scarmbling over the rocks to get there.

people looked at us like we were crazy as we giggled with neves trying to relay what we saw..

all i can say is was like something out of a science fiction movie.. and it was large..

in our discussions we sorta came to the conclusion that it may have been a Basking shark, while not predarory and actually a planton eater were werent going to hang around to find out..

stoked to be on dry land.
 
ya bra, been out there and seen a massive fin. way above average actually! i called in shark and i remember it darted towards pip. 30 sec same thing and everyone was on land! that like a 400m paddle man!

surfed beachy the whole day like i said! best bowls i have surfed in ages! just some kook wanted to box!
 
Trev said:
But Les doesnt a whale sharks dorsal have like a floppy type of bend in it?
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yep, i was googling it alot last night to try make out what it was, it could have been a whaleshark, we had one sighted abour a year ago and then it washed up dead at gonibie. i still have pics somewhere. but it was a baby at 4-5m this thing was HUUUUGGGEE!!
 
sweetnsour said:
Man I always get the chills when I hear things like this, glad you alive and kicking Les
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when i think back i start to question if it actually happened, then i remember the other surfers faces and it kicks in again. shot me too.
 
Anemone said:
Wow! Glad it was a sighting and not an attack. Although the sighting is scary enough!
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my wife says when she saw the panic she was looking for the blood in the water and expecting the worst but luckily we were all ok.. we sat on the deck on the hill for about an hour to look to see if we could sight it again, but no go..

it was asthough it never happened

a friend of mine (who sells shark shields) paddled out again but i can gaurantee you he dident enjoy his surf after that..

not so smart if you ask me..
 
Well yuo would have been on top of the food chain (in the stomach) if he ate you :lol:

Glad the incident did not turn out bad for you guys
 
sean_koekemoer said:
Well yuo would have been on top of the food chain (in the stomach) if he ate you :lol:

Glad the incident did not turn out bad for you guys
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im just garteful that i took the time to say goodbye to my family, i make a point of this everytime. for me its consious, for them they just thinks its another hug and kiss.


very stoked
 
imagine this coming at you, plankton feeder or not i dident feel i should be there

 
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Take the rod and go back Les.
 
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