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By Duane Strosaker
On Monday, August 2, shortly after 7:00AM, I launched my sea kayak from Gaviota State Beach in Southern California to cross to three oil rigs, Heritage, Harmony, and Hondo. I was crossing to all 23 oil rigs in Southern California to raise awareness of them after the oil rig disaster in Louisiana. The three oil rigs offshore from Gaviota State Beach were my last ones.
http://www.rollordrown.com/images/sharkweb/shark1.jpg
Sea lions at the mooring buoy at oil rig Hondo, my last stop before the shark attack.
The weather was perfect, and I was making great time on the 24 nautical mile loop. Oil rig Hondo was the last one I crossed to for the day. I stopped by its mooring buoy, which had the oil rig’s name on it, to take a photo of it with the oil rig in the background. As usual for the oil rig mooring buoys, sea lions were on and around it. I always thought these mooring buoys would be a great place for great white sharks to hang out.
I left oil rig Hondo at about noon to begin the 7 nautical mile crossing at a heading of 300 degrees to get back to Gaviota State Beach. Because of fog, I couldn’t see the coast and was steering by compass. I was paddling hard to get back before a headwind picked up. My kayak was made of plywood and fiberglass, and painted red. It had hard chines and no rudder or skeg. I was using a Greenland style paddle with long narrow blades.
Without warning at about 12:40PM, when I was around 5 nautical miles from Gaviota State Beach, a great white shark, which I estimated to be at least 15 feet long, bit and held onto my kayak. It attacked from my left side, with its head coming up from the water only a few feet from my kayak. It bit my kayak where my left foot was located inside the hull, and its mouth wrapped half way around the hull. There was not a hard impact.
The shark held onto my kayak for 10-15 seconds, during which it seemed relaxed and was not moving. Its head was huge, and I remember seeing its eye and a hole on the side of its head, as well as its gray skin. I put the left tip of my paddle against the shark’s head, and I thought about hitting the shark, but I didn’t want to anger it or make it thrash. The whole time the shark was latched onto my kayak, I was screaming like a little girl.
After the longest 10-15 seconds in my life, the shark gently let go of the kayak and slid back into the water. I wasn’t knocked off balance and did not have to brace. A few seconds later and about 15-20 feet in front of my kayak, I saw the tail fin of the shark break the surface and powerfully whip around, like the shark was coming back at me for a second strike, but it never happened.
After waiting a few seconds I started paddling again. Frequently, I checked behind me to see if the shark was following, but I didn’t see it. After a few minutes I felt confident the shark was gone.
http://www.rollordrown.com/images/sharkweb/shark2.jpg
After the shark attack, water was leaking into my cockpit. I stopped about every mile to pump it out.
As I kept paddling back to Gaviota State Beach, I could feel water leaking onto my legs in the cockpit area. The leak was rather slow, and I stopped about every mile to remove the water with a hand pump. I was not hurt at all, but I could see bite marks on my deck. I was carrying a VHF marine radio but felt I could make it back to shore on my own, so I didn’t use it.
http://www.rollordrown.com/images/sharkweb/shark3.jpg
Happy to be alive and back at Gaviota State Beach.
Shortly before 2:00PM, I landed at Gaviota State Beach and immediately informed the lifeguard, who called his supervisor. A state park ranger took photos and a report.
http://www.rollordrown.com/images/sharkweb/shark4.jpg
The lifeguard giving the thumbs-up.
Fortunately for me, the great white shark bit down on my kayak where the front bulkhead was located. In addition to the leak in the cockpit area, there was a small leak in the front hatch area on the other side of the bulkhead, where I had about a quart of water.

http://www.rollordrown.com/images/sharkweb/shark5.jpg
Bite marks on the bottom of the hull, which is made of two layers of 6-ounce fiberglass, 4mm plywood, and another layer of fiberglass on the inside.
http://www.rollordrown.com/images/sharkweb/shark6.jpg
The bite hole in the upper right of the photo was under my left ankle.
http://www.rollordrown.com/images/sharkweb/shark7.jpg
Deck damage.
http://www.rollordrown.com/images/sharkweb/shark8.jpg
Deck damage.
http://www.rollordrown.com/images/sharkweb/shark9.jpg
Lifeguard and state park ranger taking photos and a report at Gaviota State Beach.
http://www.rollordrown.com/images/sharkweb/shark10.jpg
In the food chain.
http://www.rollordrown.com/images/sharkweb/shark11.jpg
Bananas are supposed to be bad luck on the ocean. I'm not sure if my luck was good or bad.

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Originally Posted by rogersmith (Post 62117) Amazing, glad this guy is ok. I appreciated his honesty, the story sounded like he was really, really, calm, until his admission to "screaming like a little girl" the whole time!

Originally Posted by deepdvr (Post 62118) It seems like every reported attack on a yak involves RED. Usually its red Hobie's. Maybe this shark is trying to venture out and try new food.

Originally Posted by Jim Day (Post 62127) They're around.. Posted on a LA board this week. (they were fishing on the 31st) http://www.kayaksportfishing.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=9605 My brother-in-law and I hit the water early in search of some rockfish. The day was going ok to start. We had a few rockfish and one 26 inch ling to our credit when we start seeing something blow up schools of bait. We both assumed that it was a thresher and were quite excited to watch it work. After about 20 min of splashes we see a shark fining about 50 yards from us. We both agreed that the fin was much too large to be a thresher but we decided to stay and fish nonetheless. About 20 min. after that we got quite a shock. A white shark in the neighborhood of 12-14 feet came directly under my kayak!!! http://www.kayaksportfishing.com/php...s/icon_eek.gif http://www.kayaksportfishing.com/php...s/icon_eek.gif http://www.kayaksportfishing.com/php...s/icon_eek.gif He was no less than 3 feet below me when we made direct eye contact. The moment seemed to last forever. http://www.kayaksportfishing.com/php...s/icon_eek.gif I know that if the shark wanted to knock me out of my yak that I could do nothing to stop him. But that did not stop me and my brother-in-law from hauling A$$!! The part that was the most terrifying came after I had been paddling for a solid 2 minutes at full speed. The shark was still clearly following my kayak just under and behind my right shoulder. That put the shark directly between me and my brother-in-law. While the shark never bumped my kayak he came within 3 feet on multiple occasions. Crazy stuff... could of been worse... Now the odds of getting killed by one of these things is pretty slim. That said I bet it's just a matter of time before a kayak fisherman get's killed in So. Cal. by a great white. That said I still think you are far more likely to die in your car on the road to the beach then in your kayak on the water. Jim

The shark held onto my kayak for 10-15 seconds, during which it seemed relaxed and was not moving

Originally Posted by tony (Post 62131) This is the part that weirded me out......considering it has the jaw power to chomp down on a kayak like it was a pad of butter... Sort of like it's teeth were stuck or it was waiting,waiting,waiting for some kind of taste/movement to chomp down on.....Like a frikken cat and a mouse