Man what happened to you that has you so obsessed? I had noticed before with your constant enquiries with sharks but you got to let it go. I have kited in Sydney and up and down east coast and never seen a shark. Ever.

If you think I am wrong about your osession, look at all of your posts. Some how you get shark stories entered into posts that are not even shark related. But since this one is I thought I would bring your problem to light. Plus I am bored at work wishing I was out in the big scarry water.


1.OK! Fuggit! Im goin out! If you dont hear from me for a while. I have been a.smashed up b.eatin by a sharkie c.Still out there having a great ol time.
Yeeehhaa go the 15-20knts in the Rain Theory!!!

2.Havent heard of any in Oz, But I saw a doco on South African Great Whites leaping outta the water to munch on seals.
3mt+ beasties launching their full body length outta the water to nab a seal.
Imagine the darkies u would plunge into ur boardies if you saw a massive beast leaping outta the water to munch on you when ur doing a jump.
I dont want to Kite in Seth Ufrika ever. I think ur safe in Oz! Maybe Adelaide could be dangerous.

3.Dont wear Old Spice, Blue Stratos, Kouros, etc. They all smell like piss. They might be perfumes but you never know, better to be safe than shark bait.


4.I heard there were sharkies at the northern end of Narabeen near the rocks. Have there been many attacks at Narabeen(beach users/Surfers?)

5. Dosent it freek u out a bit when you see them? Arent u afraid of getting chomped?

6.Man that would send me so fast the other direction if I had seen one.


7.So If you get attacked by a sharkie in Australia you have maybe a 50% chance of living. Any shark attacks at Dolls Point?


8.Hey Kitehard,
Phew!!!! Its hard not to take your advice seriously! With your experience your one of the only good forum contributors worth reading. Thanks again for your input and I reckon I'll risk the chomp for the sake of my development in this sport. Sharks do freak me still but if its my day its my day!

9.OMFG! I heard a guy on his bucks nite got chucked into the Paramatta River close to Parramatta city in Sydney and he got his leg chomped off by a Bull Shark or maybe a Grey Nurse! His whole leg chomped off!!!! His mates saw the shark swim off with his leg in its mouth.

10.Just did a google and found this great Study made for the 2000 olympics on shark attacks. If you Live and kite in Sydney areas its worth a read:
http://www.amonline.net.au/pdf/sharkrpt.pdf

11.Hey Kitehard,
I know I know your right! But you know what? I cant stop. It fascinates me. I am not that freeked out yet cos I havent seen 1 up close but It does amaze me these freeky man chompers.

12.In a way I am trying to educate myself so I know what to expect if something does pop up. Also I love to hear the stories, Maybe I am a bit of a sadist.
You do have to admit it is an interesting topic for discussion. Plus the wind is crap in Sydney at the moment and staring at the arrows waiting for them to change is driving me crazy.

Oh yeah! Heres another Story there was a guy Kayaking in the harbour near Rozelle/Balmain and his Kayak got bumped then chomped by a sharkie from behind. He bashed it with his paddle and it swam away! Lucky it wasnt the front where his legs were.
Keep the stories coming!!

13.Hey Alan, Thanks for that info. Dirty Great White at Cronulla (Fek!) How big was the sucker? Why did they catch him? Did Jeff get a bump/chomp or just a bump?(poor bugger must of soiled himself)

14.Ive heard about Boat Harbour. It's good to go to in a SW right? $15 is that because it is privately owned or something?Or is it cos the entertainment is so good?Public liability must be a killer there. I will try to get around there sometime this Winter. However I am heading to Gold Coast next week to get some time up there.(Hope the wind and weather is good)
Being a noob kinda puts me off going to crowded places. Just in the beginning. When I get better I wont care as much.
Still I like to hear the stories of sharkies! Keep the stories coming

15.Hey Alan,
Was that you who helped me the other day launch? I had the yellow 10mt SS and I was on the south side of the reserve? If it was Thanks again for your help and advice!
Yeah send me the pics of the sharkie! I have always been interested in these creatures, I just hope they dont take an interest in me when Im out teabagging in the sea!
I hear that the sharks in Sydney like to chase fish into the estuaries then feast on them when they are cornered. What is in Port Hacking? is it industrial?


16.Hey Kitehard,
6mt Great White!!! Get $%@#$%3
I would love to go out your way. I havent been to Perth yet. Maybe when I get better I can head out that way. Can you give me a lesson.
I would like to learn a new move called "Sh!T!Sharkie!". This move entails a 10mt high 20mt long or more boost that will land close to saftety/beach. Must be able to land it flawlessly and before I crap myself with fear.
I will cheerfully kite anywhere once I learn that move. Lets hope that sharkie near you it isnt a jumping Seth Ifrikarn Great White migrating to Perth Check this out www.pushby.com/friends/jesse/archives/005721.html

uber - you should do a scuba dive course in a location with sharks. i did a padi advanced open water course in thailand and we saw some reasonably sized reef sharks (?) on our 30m dive, gets you over the fear pretty quick.

Okay I can tell you shark story....

I used to work on a fishing boat, mid size one, four or five hands sort of thing. Anyway, I had a gash on my hand, so I didn't go out and someone else took my place...dum de dum dum..

Anyhoo, as you know, sharks are attracted attracted to the chum and other bits that inevitably escape off a boat. They were in sea area Pusegyr which is cold and long way south and this big shark came up and banged into the boat, and kept on banging. So the skipper had to shoot him, with a shotgun loaded with solids. Anyhoo, they could not believe how big it was and they were on their way back in anyway, about one days streaming back to port, so they strapped it to the side of the boat. The boat listed in a big way but they had to bring it back cos it was just so big. It was longer than the boat, and got in the newspaper. They dispatched of it pretty quickly after tye came in but I was working on the wharf that evening, so I was one of the lucky people to see it. That's it really, it was just the biggest fish I have ever seen, I think the biggest animal actually.

It's not an amazing story but it was exciting at the time...and yes i do think about it when i am on the water, but then I remind myself that they shot it....and there can't be more than one, surely?

I'm gonna scan the article from the paper....as soon as I can find it

here you go kids,

Go to Coral Bay in our beautiful Nth west

Walk north along beach about 2-3 keys to the little finger reef.

Every evening around 3pm aprox 20 reef sharks go swimming up and down the beach withing about 3-4m of the shore.

You can stand in knee deep water and have a shark swim right up to your feet have the video complete with expletives (my feet, I was filming)

At the end of the day it's a big ocean little fish, in reality you are probably more at risk driving to the beach.
Mind you it didn't stop me legging it when I saw a shark swim past whilst surfing.

Hey Uber....bondo is right....grab a tank, blow some bubbles, see some real sharks underwater doing their thing and it will calm you down.....the bottom line is that sharks don't habitually eat people - if they did, you would be seeing shark fatality stories in the news every week, given the number of crew in the water surfing in south west WA / Vic, and diving QLD every day.

Here's my background......marine biologist with a PhD in coral reef ecology, 2000+ hours underwater on the great barrier reef, started surfing in WA as a grom in the 70's, windsurfed all the 80's and 90's in nth WA, Vic and Qld, started diving in 87 and kiting this year.....loving it!

I've seen literally hundreds, if not thousands of sharks underwater....from small reef sharks up to a 16 foot hammerhead that looked like a kombi with fins, and plenty of potentially dangerous ones in between......never had a problem. Big sharks are few and far between these days, in the places most people kite. But a few things to bear in mind...

Sharks love blood....if there is blood in the water, from whatever source (fish spearing, crays, whales, bait schools, people with cuts, etc), then you increase the chances of a noah getting keen for a nibble, just to see what things taste like.....they sample with their mouths and teeth, as well as their noses.

Sharks have an amazing electroreceptor system....they can scan the bioelectric field emanating from your nervous system while still so far away that you won't even see them.....many of the pacific island crew I have talked with state, and I tend to agree, that sharks can sense your emotional state, particularly fear, from a long way off. It is said that even a hungry tigershark can be kept at bay by a "zen mind" sort of approach. So the best thing to do is to stay nice and calm, or even generate a little agro toward the shark....fixing them with your fighting gaze always seems to send them off pretty quick in my experience!

so do a little yoga, a little meditation, a little diving, see the sharks as your peaceful friends, breath deep and calm and keep eye contact when you eventually see the big one, and don't go out in waters where great whites are known to frequent with a gash on your leg and panic in your mind, and you will be fine!!

Dr Andy Lewis - Magnetic Island, NQ

ps if any other crew have ocean or marine life related questions, I'm happy to discuss.

Workin on a fishing show with a cammo swingin a boom mic about for a week up at Ningaloo/shark bay/Dirk Hartog during anchovie season. Full-on 3m+ Bull nose whalers etc EVERYWHERE!.

We were on a tiny single engine cat style boat (unusual) with 5 aboard and no room to move when we pull up right next to a giant 'bait-ball' of millions of s**t scared anchovies all goin "if I swim around together hopefully me mates will get munched instead".
There was every type of fish known hookin in and literally tunas flying out of the water with a gob full of fish. The best bit was the 3+ m sharkies coming straight up vertical out of the water, mouth wide open full of anchovies (and anything else in the way, pausing with the head about 70cm out of the water (our boat had f*$k all water clearance with us and the gear) then sinking back straight down again.

My fav bit was the cammo guy pushing back into me to get the shot he wanted, forcing me to hold onto the canopy frame, (p*ss weak alli), one handed - trusty 416 mic in the other, lean out backwards over the water above the bait and sharkies. It took me about 5 secs to think it through before givin a nice big shove back into relative safety and commenting "I really don't care hopw f*&$in good the shot was mate!!!!"

I'm not a fishin kind of guy but this part of the world is amazing!! Pity I wasn't a kiter then...

hahaha 16 posts mann u are obsessed. who cares about sharks there just big fish save all that energy until you actually see a shark than you should freak out lol. i think with all those sharky thoughts going through your head you probly send out some bad vibes to the sharks and attract them.
Hey has anyone ever heard of a fight between a tiger shark and a croc up in qld? how cool would that be to watch my money would be on the tiger shark i reckon

as an emergency department doctor, i can tell you that the only shark bite i have ever treated was sustained by someone who wasn't even in the water. He caught a 10 foot shark, and it was in the boat. Everyone thought it was dead, he walked in front of it, and it bit off his leg just below the knee.

You're not even safe on dry land

Andy, if the sharks do sense the bodies electrical field, then what is your opinion on these new wetsuite and surfboards with the built in shark repelant systems based on a battery giving off an electrical pulse? Would it mask your bioelectric field? Are you aware of any evidence that says these do work?

If so, lets all chip in and buy one for Uber, then throw him into the water and watch to see what happens next ...

Graeme :-)

Hey Graeme,

from what I hear and read on the net the "Shark Shield" device apparently works, although there is one well documented case of a diver being monstered by a white shark while wearing the device, albeit with questions about whether they had the electrodes attached properly and whether the field was at full strength when he was hit: see:

http://www.courts.sa.gov.au/courts/coroner/findings/findings_2003/buckland.finding.htm

If it produces a field so strong that it can make your muscles twitch, then obviously it is distorting your natural bioelectric field. Whether this attracts or repels sharks, who can say? The makers suggest that it doesn't, but then they attract sharks for the trials by throwing buckets of blood and offal....their data for non-attraction is that if they don't throw in blood and offal, and just immerse a shark shield, then no sharks turn up. Not quite right on the logic there, but we'll leave that one alone.

Uber, you are quite justified in thinking about the old noah's arks mate....if you happenned to be sitting round at a typical NQ marine biologist / surfers gathering, then don't worry everyone would be talking up their shark stories too! Myself, I am thinking about it all the time, as I am often leading groups of 10-15 pretty inexperienced snorkellers along reef front drop-offs in the northern GBR and I am constantly pondering "OK, what do we do if a big tiger or whaler turns up NOW - how do we keep everyone safe and not get the shark interested in us?".

With regards to Kiting, surfing, diving, whatever, I see it as part of the overall risk management that we all should be doing before we get in the water...just as you check your safety and the wind strength and your downwind drag zone at the launch site for the kite, so we are thinking sharks before every dive or snorkel on the reef, along with all the other stuff. Some days the overall risk may be judged too great, and we don't go in. Simple as that. Live to kite or dive another day. I don't know too many professional marine biologists who would jump in the water if a 15foot tiger was hanging around the boat. And when I had the chance to surf Margarets and Ellensbrook last summer, thoughts of white pointers were definitely on my mind. Added a bit of spice to the waves. heh heh heh

Andy

Uber, you are quite justified in thinking about the old noah's arks mate....if you happenned to be sitting round at a typical NQ marine biologist / surfers gathering, then don't worry everyone would be talking up their shark stories too! Myself, I am thinking about it all the time, as I am often leading groups of 10-15 pretty inexperienced snorkellers along reef front drop-offs in the northern GBR and I am constantly pondering "OK, what do we do if a big tiger or whaler turns up NOW - how do we keep everyone safe and not get the shark interested in us?".

Hey Andy,
Thanks mate! I was starting to get paranoid that I was being obsessed. Great stories and advice! After reading your coroners report on that sharkie zapper suit. I think im better just braving the deep in my normal wettie.

Graeme even if you pay me Im not wearing one of those sharkie zappers with my luck it will send out smorgasboard signals.

Umina Boy my money is on the croc to win against the sharkie!

Keep the stories coming!! How bout pics if you have em?

Hey Graeme,

I had a quick read. So did the guy not set the device up right?

Your right about the location of the leash thing. It could flap around. You could strap it to your board but if u lose ur board ur stuffed. If you strap it to ur butt it may not drop in the water.

Have you got the link to the shark shield site? Maybe we could ask for a tester? Maybe the Sydney aquarium will let us test it on their sharkies. We are stuffed if it does'nt work

gls,
Tell me you're not serious about this shark repeller gizmo?

This contraption with the electrical wires flapping about, the battery pack and the other junk;
You're kidding right?

Man, if the device was simple and the size of a wrist-watch, with nothing dragging in the water....maybe?

This kiting scene is all about the freedom, you don't want more tangle stuff.

If you're freaked by munchies, paint two big scary eyes on the bottom of your board.
There you go, BOO!

Catch ya on the water soul-bro
'slave.

and another for those that draw comfort from (albeit foreign)statistics .....in an average year in the US, you are 30 times more likely to die from falling aeroplane parts than from a shark attack.

Hey Guys,

U might not believe this but while I was kiting at Brighton in Brisbane at christmas i came across a 2m shark in Morton Bay. Story was, i was kiting across a channel where there was a small section of chop so i pulled the trigger on my kite and boosted to about ten foot. While i was up there i looked down and saw the outline of this shark. Although it wasn't huge, i still landed the the jump and tacked back the other way. Still, an interesting experience!

true story
get out there