GWS Bites Kayak

[FISHIONADO]

http://www.rollordrown.com/shark.htm

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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. The bite hole in the upper right of the photo was under my left ankle. Deck damage. Deck damage. Lifeguard and state park ranger taking photos and a report at Gaviota State Beach. In the food chain. Bananas are supposed to be bad luck on the ocean. I'm not sure if my luck was good or bad.

[Chuck D]

Holy Cow! I am glad you are ok. Great idea for the trip and bringing awareness to everyone. I went to Huntington Beach last week and saw all the oil rigs and it it certainly surprised me. Things like this change your life, be happy to be alive!!!

[Vikingj]

That is an amazing and terrifying experience. I'm so glad you got out of it OK. It sounds like you didn't panic and did the right thing- also a little bit of luck always helps!
To reduce the amount of bailing from the hull one should carry a good supply of "Depends" when visiting shark infested waters!
Wayne

[FISHIONADO]

It wasn't me, I copied from Duane Strosaker's website. Crazy story huh?

[tattuna]

Crazy! If he was on an S.O.T. he woulda been S.O.L.

[Gino]

The shark showed pitty on that guy. He can count his blessings.

[rogersmith]

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!

[deepdvr]

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.

[old_rookie]

Originally Posted by rogersmith

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!

Maybe the high-pitched screaming scared off the shark.

[dorado50]

Originally Posted by deepdvr

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.

I'm with Eric, for some reasons the color red seems to aggitate whales and sharks.Most non-fiction books I've read on ocean disasters,rescues at sea,and so on refer to the hull of the boats being red. People rescued at sea tell of their red hulled sailboats being battered for hours by whales. Just my deductions from my readings, no personal proof. Two things this guy did wrong,a) red colored hull,2) out near rigs on smooth calm morning where sharks like to roam....

[Fiskadoro]

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!!! He was no less than 3 feet below me when we made direct eye contact. The moment seemed to last forever. 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

[Nic D]

scary stuff. thats the only reason why I switched to a hobie much more plastic around me for whitey to munch on before he munches on me.

[TheBentRod]

Originally Posted by Jim Day

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!!! He was no less than 3 feet below me when we made direct eye contact. The moment seemed to last forever. 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

I was out there that day. I left because the dang thresher was so dang big. I talked to the guys who saw the GWS. I had already went back to fishing the kelp.

[tony]

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

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

[Nic D]

its only pure speculation, but Id bet that once whitey bit down on the yak, he probably realized that it wasn't food. So he just sat there figuring out what to do next... Good thing for the yakker whitey let go.

[Gino]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tG5NX7fC8VM

Red is not the smartest color for a kayak. The more scared you get they can feel your hearbeating threw your kayak. even with a SOT rotomolded yak. If they sense a a change in impulses form your heartbeat, they get interested.

the guy paddling away, with the red kayak looked to the shark, like a hurt seal bleeding and strugling to swim away. so he went in for the swoop and got a mouthfull of wood.

If you paddle away fast when you see one, you could trigger an attack, the shark is checking you out to see if you might be food, if you decide to book it your giving the shark the impression your scared of it, like a Seal would be. That explains the incident where the shark followed those other 2 kayakers.

the Oil Rig paddler wasnt even hit hard. If they are gonna attack you, they are gonna hit you hard to try a injur you badly.. If that guy was victum of the first assualt he woulda been tossed out of that kayak a couple feet in the air.

That real popular video of the Huge Mako shark chompin on a seal at Catalina taken a month ago you can kinda see thier seal killing procedure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OP7B22cV2g
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnylC6SE9fU shorter close up version.

[Tman]

Glad he made it out ok, and I agree that the grey suited one was just curious, as they all are, and was just nibbling to see if it appealed to his taste buds. It has been proven what the color red incites...just think of matadors...

Good lessons here though...always carry a radio, have something to bail agua with, and always, always in a kayak, carry a fishing pole.

Big doggies hate it when you whack them on their noses...

[Fiskadoro]

Originally Posted by tony

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

Yeah that got me too. It's like it could of crushed that thing like an eggshell, and essentially his legs were in the sharks mouth, so if he did bite down it would of taken out his legs as well.

Very spooky..

Jim

[cowboybill]

I heard or read that Yellow is the color that is most likely to get attacked...And do sharks even see color?

OK Brent, come to my defense?!?!?

Cowboybill with a RED tarpon 160

[kobra]

That's a gnarly experience. I saw on one of the episodes of shark week that curious sharks check things out with their mouths. Sounds like that's what happened. Good thing for the yakker the shark wasn't interested or pissed.