Does anybody carry a pole or spear to deal with white sharks, or at least get a sense of control?
Just curious
Good Brace and Roll
I really don’t want to swim if there are sharks around. A spare paddle makes me feel a little better, too.
From ,many years of paddling
around sharks I have found that they are more afraid of me then I am of them.
Lightning scares me. Sharks don’t
Jack L
remember
Remember the movie “Jaws”. It would take more than a spear and kayak to handle the big ones.
You’re going to need
a bigger boat
White sharks? Control?
With a glorified stick? Good luck if one really wants your number.
Agree with above. Yes, there are reports of kayakers finding an aggressive one occasionally. But a very very small number of them. You can kayak for many ears and never see one.
many years of paddling near Montauk
where white shark jaws adorn the docks.
No spear. Spear a white and its likely you will have no control as you get dragged wherever it wants to take you.
The one you don’t see…
I think it’s the one you don’t see coming who goes in for the smash and grab. A stick isn’t going to help if you’re getting ambushed. Hanging on to the paddle and staying in\on the boat and staying upright would be my concern. Might be worth bringing a spare set of shorts though. They’re showing up everywhere here in Massachusetts, plenty of seals around for food. Have found myself looking around more often than I used to…
When you get the sharks poled off,
tell us how you get a sense of control over the powerboats.
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha !
Have you ever seen a GWS in action?
Almost all attacks on Pacific Coast, victim had no clue a shark was coming.
This was attack at the break where I have taken Sing, Wikle and others from Pnet when they visit San Diego.
http://www.surfermag.com/features/solana-shark-attack-eyewitness/
Hit him from below in about 15 ft of water, took all the flesh off his leg in one second.
Sharks…
When the sharks figure out a way to get to the Midwest; then I’ll start worrying about sharks.
Thebob does not paddle in oceans. If that is “your” thing; more power to ya!
BOB
Apparently
Sharks have figured out a way to get as far inland as Washington, D.C. It will be documented in Sharknado 3, now filming.
reply
go pro and lawyers
Pole or Spear?
I’d feel much safer with this.
http://www.mossberg.com/product/shotguns-pump-action-mossberg-590a1-special-purpose-590a1-mariner/51273
Amateur…
Besides paddling the eddyline which slides over everything they can dish out, staying near the shallow rocks in high traffic areas so they’ll bottom out if they come too close, wear a shirt so bright and ugly they’d be embarrassed to admit that they didn’t see it.
This works on sharks, too. I have not seen any in the river. If I do, I plan to blind it with my color coordinated paddle blades.
I do the same thing when skiing now, after I got hit badly when in a subdued navy colored jacket years ago. Snowboarders vs. Sharks. Tough call which can do more damage.
HUDSON, NY
Hudson NY is 130 miles UP the Hudson River from New York.
Hudson, NY was a whaling town in the 1800s. Workers flensed the catch on the sloping shoreline of the river -after the whales were towed the 130 miles from the salt waters of New York Harbor.
Hudson, NY was used for these operations because it was only here, upriver, where flensing could occur without sharks carving up the carcasses as they were being worked on. Likely they were bull sharks…
Think about that, friends, as you launch into coastal freshwater areas to
PADDLE ON!
-Frank in Miami
Bob don’t let your guard down.
There was a bull shark caught near Alton IL in 1937.
http://www.in-fisherman.com/news/sharks-in-illinois/
And we seen fisherman pull in an eel near Grand Tower, they said it was the first they ever caught.
SYOTW
Randy
No, for a host of reasons
but for me, it comes down to this:
Every attack (of which I am aware) seems to have been from below and behind on the kayak. There is little chance one could relinquish the paddle, fumble for a weapon, strike the shark, and still remain upright. The last thing you want is to be in the water without a boat between you and that set of teeth. “These things are awfully hard to bite through,” says the shark, “but the creamy inner filling is marvelous.”
Joking aside, plastic boats tend to fair quite well against shark attacks. Sure, they get holed, but they don’t seem to collapse and the shark does not seem to make a lot of extended effort to reach the paddler. If you avoid capsize, stay in the boat, and paddle for shore, you will probably make it before the boat sinks.
Rick
rank your risks
I lived in Melbourne AU for 3 years and paddled with local sea kayak club. One favorite outing was called Shark Lotto as it involved a paddle to Seal Rocks known to be a GWS feeding ground on the plentiful seals. I was always much more wary of the snorting, bellowing, whopping big and torpedo fast male seals announcing their ownership of the tiny outcroppings. I might have had some shark eyeing my kayak, but I sure did not want even a tiny seal on the deck. Very likely, the drive home was far more dangerous.