Crazy Ocean People

I think he’s safe, he doesn’t own a boat
Wasn’t it last summer some guy in California asked for advice on buying a boat then spent the next month arguing with people about paddling techniques, club rules and boat safety?

Dangers
Far more people die from auto accidents, slips & falls around the house, lightning, or waterborne illnesses from fresh water than from sharks or other supposed hazardous beasts of the sea. After all, it all started as SEA kayaking.



In the words of a departed acquaintance, fresh water tastes funny. It needs salt.

Sharks like Sea Lions Not People
Great white sharks are in our waters from late spring to late fall. They very seldom attack people, they are looking for sea lions which provide much more protein and fat.



The four year anniversary of the only attack to happen in years and years is coming up this week. It happened at my favorite surf break. I have taken lots of people from Pnet out surfing there - and no one saw a shark or felt in any danger. I’m avoiding that spot for a couple of weeks since the shark involved in that attack seemed a little unusual -and apparently returns every year.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5YkNERFtYE


one very close encounter
Years ago my club used to paddle along the NorCal coast past an elephant seal colony. It was a committing but fantastic trip 12 miles with only one or two chances to land but great surfing and wildlife. On our last club trip there, a paddlers boat was picked up by a 20’ great white. He was in an old perception ww boat. the shark stood his boat up vertically and shook it for a few very long seconds. He managed to stay in and upright and paddle to shore with float bags popped and a fully flooded boat. The ranger came over to give him a ticket for landing in the seal colony breeding area. When my friend pointed at the 2’ diameter bite mark in his boat he was let off with a warning.

Funny
I thought the same thing.

Hmm - thought it was just me
I realized yesterday that this one sounded a lot like…

Were you guys in Deep Trouble?
I remember a story that was very much like that in the book. Complete with the huge bite mark and the Ranger trying to give out a fine.

sharks shmarks
Sure they’re a hazard but they make the hypothermic water, the tides, the winds, the surf and the rocky coastlines worth it.

I like this thread

Duane Strosaker also has a story
A GWS took a test bite of his kayak while he was doing an off shore tour of the oil platforms in LA county.



I think his story is still posted on the California Kayak Friends Website or his old Rollordie blog.



A few years ago a GWS took a bite out of a fishing kayak on Catalina Island … don’t tie dead fish to your kayak.

yep, that pretty much sums up the
obstacles I face and the perceptions I have about salt water kayaking (for a ww paddler). Different environments require different skills.

It’s a refreshing change
…from the “If it’s not WW river paddling it must be boring” attitude.



Let’s add a NEW and less obvious danger: VENOMOUS JELLYFISH!!! Portugese Man O’ War, lion’s mane, and ??? Don’t forget red tide. Even lakes and ponds have the blue-green algae of DEATH, tadaDUM.

Man o’ War!
Those things are serious hazards!! Even when they have been dead on the beach for several days. They show up on the southern NC coast from time to time in late summer. I think I would rather deal with a nest of mad hornets any time.

Scuba diving
at night here in South Florida has been one of the best activities with minimal risk. I go regularly during the summer and in my younger days worked on a tagging project that involved hand capture of sub adult green turtles on the reefs while I was night diving. I never had a problem with sharks and I do worry a great deal about the traffic on the Interstate where people loose their lives on a daily basis.

had not thought of those!

– Last Updated: Apr-22-14 9:03 AM EST –

Now think of those aussie paddlers, who have to deal with the box jellyfish as well as sharks.

I hear a few whitewater guys talk about how sea kayaking is like hiking, boring and uneventful, and how ww is kinetic and you just ride with the current. And these are good ww paddlers. But I've also heard a few ww paddlers talk about how intimidating the ocean must be.

And deadly
sea snakes!

Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot
Were they sharks? Did they live in the ocean?



Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, how much evidence will it take to convince you…

take a shark over a saltwater croc
any day, even a great white

Ask JackL
he and his wife apparantly shared a beach campsite with one… which proves being on the water might be better than being on land.

Kayaking
I am not worried about getting snatched and eaten by sharks out in the sea…I was pointing out how people do it(sea Kayak) without being a little bit scared knowing the giant sharks and other stuff that swim under, along and in front, of you while you paddle along in a skinny, low profile boat sitting on the water. Also I’m not one of those people that thinks sharks are out to eat people and must be feared…It’s just the thought of a seeing the silhouette of a large great white or whale, swimming up alongside me that would make the hair on my back stand up. Also it is possible it could flip you if it wanted…with ease, but yes I know it’s highly unlikely.



Anyways…I would like to try it some day…Possibly after seeing a few sharks I would calm down a bit…Hey…I’m a freshwater boy…we aren’t around fish that are bigger than us.