Lex’s Big Fish Story. Luckily the one that got away
(or . . . Dah . . .duh . . . dah . . .duh . . .dah,duh,dah,duh,dah,duh)
It was a beautiful bright sunny day Saturday morning, April 18th, 2009, and I was out in the surf at Torrey Pines State beach on my stand up paddle board (SUP) by 8:45 am. The water was a chilly 57 degrees but the waves were perfect for me, three footers and I caught a few. The last one I caught, I had my weight too far forward as the wave broke and I pearled (dove) the nose of my board and fell. When I looked up my board was headed toward the beach. My leash had come off the board.
So I run in to the beach, fetch the board, retie the leash and head all the way back out through the surf. You have to paddle hard to get past the surf so I was pretty beat and not ready to head back to catch another wave, so I kept paddling out a bit farther.
Right then, what do I spot out of the corner of my eye 50 feet in front of me to the right? A fin. Cool, I thought, a dolphin, I haven’t seen one in a while, I might paddle out to go check it out.
(Keep in mind these thoughts came at the speed of light, one after another)
My next thought was that I had never seen a lone dolphin before and that seemed odd. The smallest group I have ever seen is three. My next thought was that the fin didn’t look right at all. It was way too big and more straight up and down and with a sharper angle. My next thought was this is not a dolphin. The final thing I noticed was the fin was not bobbing up and down like a dolphin, this fin was skimming along in a straight line with a slight and slow left to right motion.
That is exactly when I knew.
My heart and head nearly exploded. It was a shark - and a big-ass shark at that - headed South in my general direction. I turned desperately afraid of falling and started paddling for my life as fast as I could. All I kept thinking was “Do not fall, do not fall.” My legs were visibly shaking. It occurred to me to look back, to see if it was coming at me, but I was afraid of falling because looking backwards is the most unstable position on a stand up paddle board. Plus I was terrified I might find out the shark was following me.
When I got closer and closer to the shore, a wave broke on me and knocked me off my board. Not knowing how far sharks swim into the shore, I was mortified when I hit the water, but glad to discover it was only waist deep and I started running for my life to get back on to the beach.
My heart was pounding with abject terror and exhaustion as I stood there on the wet sand with my hands on my knees trying to believe if what happened just happened. There was also more than a bit of shock involved. My next thought was to warn the lifeguards, so I ran over to the park ranger booth and told the guy, a guy named Troy, I think, selling parking tickets, to notify the lifeguards.
Believe me, I’ve had the urge to think I had imagined it or that it wasn’t as scary as I recall, but that is not the case. This happened and I am 95% sure that it was a great white shark. And the only reason I leave out 5% is that I am not a marine biologist or a shark expert.
But I am positive it was a shark and I know it was not a dolphin, the fin was far bigger than any dolphin I had ever seen. And the color was different. The dolphins I have seen look almost black. This fin was the color of my Honda CRV, grayish blue.
If hindsight is 20-20, I am now more positive than ever I saw a great white shark up close and lived to tell the tale.
That night we had good friends over and I served grilled steak and shrimp tacos and drank Margaritas and we celebrated that I hadn’t been brunch earlier that day.
Since then I have felt a touch of post traumatic stress. I can't go five minutes without thinking about something to do with those one or two minutes. My main concern afterwards was to leave messages with top San Diego lifeguard officers and I posted a message on a shark research web site. It lists my incident as the fourth citing/attack in ten days in a 15 mile area here.
http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/pacific_coast_shark_news.htm
And it is almost a year to the day that 66-year-old retired veterinarian Dr. David Martin was fatally attacked by a Great White while swimming out in front of Solana Beach. (Shark experts say the Great Whites migrate down to these waters in the spring to deliver their pups)
Having been through this experience, I would like to nominate the friends and fellow swimmers of Dr. David Martin for amazing courage. They went back to him right after his attack and helped swim him in to shore, where he sadly bled out and died, but in the arms of those great friends on the safety of land; they are some of the bravest people on the planet.
(or . . . Dah . . .duh . . . dah . . .duh . . .dah,duh,dah,duh,dah,duh)
It was a beautiful bright sunny day Saturday morning, April 18th, 2009, and I was out in the surf at Torrey Pines State beach on my stand up paddle board (SUP) by 8:45 am. The water was a chilly 57 degrees but the waves were perfect for me, three footers and I caught a few. The last one I caught, I had my weight too far forward as the wave broke and I pearled (dove) the nose of my board and fell. When I looked up my board was headed toward the beach. My leash had come off the board.
So I run in to the beach, fetch the board, retie the leash and head all the way back out through the surf. You have to paddle hard to get past the surf so I was pretty beat and not ready to head back to catch another wave, so I kept paddling out a bit farther.
Right then, what do I spot out of the corner of my eye 50 feet in front of me to the right? A fin. Cool, I thought, a dolphin, I haven’t seen one in a while, I might paddle out to go check it out.
(Keep in mind these thoughts came at the speed of light, one after another)
My next thought was that I had never seen a lone dolphin before and that seemed odd. The smallest group I have ever seen is three. My next thought was that the fin didn’t look right at all. It was way too big and more straight up and down and with a sharper angle. My next thought was this is not a dolphin. The final thing I noticed was the fin was not bobbing up and down like a dolphin, this fin was skimming along in a straight line with a slight and slow left to right motion.
That is exactly when I knew.
My heart and head nearly exploded. It was a shark - and a big-ass shark at that - headed South in my general direction. I turned desperately afraid of falling and started paddling for my life as fast as I could. All I kept thinking was “Do not fall, do not fall.” My legs were visibly shaking. It occurred to me to look back, to see if it was coming at me, but I was afraid of falling because looking backwards is the most unstable position on a stand up paddle board. Plus I was terrified I might find out the shark was following me.
When I got closer and closer to the shore, a wave broke on me and knocked me off my board. Not knowing how far sharks swim into the shore, I was mortified when I hit the water, but glad to discover it was only waist deep and I started running for my life to get back on to the beach.
My heart was pounding with abject terror and exhaustion as I stood there on the wet sand with my hands on my knees trying to believe if what happened just happened. There was also more than a bit of shock involved. My next thought was to warn the lifeguards, so I ran over to the park ranger booth and told the guy, a guy named Troy, I think, selling parking tickets, to notify the lifeguards.
Believe me, I’ve had the urge to think I had imagined it or that it wasn’t as scary as I recall, but that is not the case. This happened and I am 95% sure that it was a great white shark. And the only reason I leave out 5% is that I am not a marine biologist or a shark expert.
But I am positive it was a shark and I know it was not a dolphin, the fin was far bigger than any dolphin I had ever seen. And the color was different. The dolphins I have seen look almost black. This fin was the color of my Honda CRV, grayish blue.
If hindsight is 20-20, I am now more positive than ever I saw a great white shark up close and lived to tell the tale.
That night we had good friends over and I served grilled steak and shrimp tacos and drank Margaritas and we celebrated that I hadn’t been brunch earlier that day.
Since then I have felt a touch of post traumatic stress. I can't go five minutes without thinking about something to do with those one or two minutes. My main concern afterwards was to leave messages with top San Diego lifeguard officers and I posted a message on a shark research web site. It lists my incident as the fourth citing/attack in ten days in a 15 mile area here.
http://www.sharkresearchcommittee.com/pacific_coast_shark_news.htm
And it is almost a year to the day that 66-year-old retired veterinarian Dr. David Martin was fatally attacked by a Great White while swimming out in front of Solana Beach. (Shark experts say the Great Whites migrate down to these waters in the spring to deliver their pups)
Having been through this experience, I would like to nominate the friends and fellow swimmers of Dr. David Martin for amazing courage. They went back to him right after his attack and helped swim him in to shore, where he sadly bled out and died, but in the arms of those great friends on the safety of land; they are some of the bravest people on the planet.
posted by Alex at
11:15 AM
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