I remember once when I was windsurfing with a mate near Lenox Head and we'd been out for hours.. There was not really enough wind to get planing and neither of us had had any falls and were still dry as we caught waves and slogged our way back out to catch another.. Well I cruised right over a huge shark in crystal clear water that was at least 8' long (bigger than my board) and I was worried that my fin might touch it as it submerged bellow my board.. Once it had passed I headed in and yelled to my friend to come it.. He kept saying why.. I said that I just saw a huge shark.. and he fell in straight away.. He almost bounced off the water and back onto his board.. Jeez it was funny.
I recall surfing north of Perth one day and the local crayfisherman had warned us that they had seen a 4-5m white near the break earlier that morning. Anyway being fearless youngsters at the time we paddled out. The water was a bit murky so made the scene just that little more creepy. Anyway about half an hour me and mate saw a big shape a long way off but quickly relaised when it popped its head up it was one of those big massive seals. A couple of the other guys sitting further out didnt see it so we kept quiet as the seal slowly made it way to the boys for a look. It couldnt have been scripted better as the seal came up behind them, the look on one of my mates faces was priceless....sheer fear, the other in his mad scramble to paddle in fell off his board. That was over 20 years ago and we still piss ourselves laughing over it.
Yeh i reckon it does. I was out Byron about 2 months ago and was paddling back out after catching a wave and saw a dark patch under the water. i though it was a big ray so i paddled over to check it out and found it was a 6' shark turning around. As it straightened out and went by my board i was thinking to myself how glad i was to be standing on my board...thats when i fell in. Dead set reckon i walked on water that day :) :)
Definetly lose your balance due to looking for or at the shark and not at wave or chop that is about to hit the board, allowing you time to brace yourself. Nearly ran over a hammerhead one day doing a downwinder. I was like Peter Garret on crack for about 30 seconds.
