Sometimes...
(not quite) My Shark Story.
A friend of mine, let's call him Chuck, who is somewhat crazy, tells this story. Knowing him I believe it!
One day, Chuck was out diving with friends off Davenport, about half way between Half Moon Bay, and Santa Cruz CA.
He was swimming along, minding his own business, trying out his new $80 flippers. A seal grabbed one of his flippers. Annoyed, he kicked his foot up to shake the seal loose. This flipped HIM up under what he describes as a boxcar with fins. His "seal" was a Great White Shark!
The shark didn't like the taste of rubber and spit out the fin. He boosted for the surface stuck his head up and said "HELP!" Head back down, look for shark. Head up: "SHARK!" At this point he sees everybody on the boat franticly running to and fro. He and the boat manage to get together.
Later he found out that some local fishermen were in the habit of cleaning their catch in that area.
Soooo, the shark came up beside the boat looking for a handout. Finding none it then swam off in his direction. His friends said it was as long as the boat, 12 feet.
OK, now fast forward a month and a half. Chuck is visiting friends in San Diego, They go out for a dive. There are Basking Sharks, a harmless filter feeder, in the area. So his friend who knows about the earlier dive says, "Hey, Chuck! Wanna swim with the sharks?"
Slow Learner Chuck says "Sure!"
Soon, he's in the water. He sticks his head up and can see the dorsal fin of a shark approaching him. Oh goody! Dunks his head and looks. The water is too murky. Head up. Fin still coming. Head down, too murky. Then...
Out of the gloom a mouth "big enough for me to stand up in in any direction" suddenly appears.
His friend says it was the funniest thing he ever saw. Chuck came straight up out of the water, walked 10 feet across the surface before he sank back down...
Those things are even scarier than Darkchylde....who is scared of minion reversal syndrome....and rightfully so....
I think I told my one and only shark story a hundred or so threads back, but it bears (for pup) repeating.
I was 17, it was a beautiful surf morning in Rhode Island. I had brought a friend along who had never surfed before and wanted to learn. We had just paddled out to the break and were there with just a couple of others. I'm trying to jockey my board for the right place to catch the waves when I looked about 25 feet out where a wave was forming. they get thinner as they are about to break and the sun light was making a beautiful show through the back of the waves.
12' shadow with a dorsal fin pops up behind this wave. I calmly turn to this guy Tom and tell him I think I saw a shark...look at the waves over there as they form out there. Sure enough....12 footer with dorsal fin re-appears!
I'm feeling safe on my surfboard, I bring my feet and hands out of the water and sit on the board....Tom...
He panicks....starts yelling shark! and proceeds to fall off his board and splash around like a dying walrus (he was, um...er...an inviting target)in the water.
I keep telling him to calm down, he keeps floundering, trying to get on his board and keeps falling off!
I would have laughed if the situation wasn't so dire.
Anyway....I never saw one again, and Tom never went out in the ocean again to my knowlege....