I did a dive Friday morning by myself @ County Line-- which is a great dive when conditions are good, but Friday it sucked. I swam out about 150 yards to the first patches of kelp and then dropped down to about 16' and less than 5' of murky viz. I hoped it would get better as I hit the reef, so I headed out and at 25' came over the tops of some short kelp onto a patch of sand and scared a 4'-5' shark! I think we were both startled & I don't really know what kind of shark he was, but he was all grey but smaller, more refined features than a Great White. Anyway, to my great consternation he circled me a couple of times and acted pissed off, so I took that as my cue to get the hell out of there as quick as I could. I made a beeline for the shore, swimming as fast as I could and hugging the bottom. I told myself to calm down and not hyperventilate, and just kept heading for shore. I decided that I would swim all the way into the surf zone and come crawling up the beach before I did a long surface swim & gave him a chance for a late breakfast! At about 12' the surge was pretty intense & I was sure I was in the surf zone, so I surface and kicked like crazy, looking around for the fins that were sure to be the last thing I saw before he tore me apart & ate me alive! No sign of fins. I kicked like crazy & bodysurfed in on my back, pulling off my fins in 3' of water. A girl was bit by a shark in North Carolina in less than 2' of water my brain reminded me-- thanks brain, helpful. Nice of you to remind me of that in this moment-- jerk. I scrambled to my feet & got the hell out of the water.

I didn't really get a good look at him because of the horrible viz-- so I don't know what kind of shark it was, but looking at some pictures it may have been a Mako. Has anyone ever had a shark scare while diving? I'm definitely buddy diving next time-- then you don't have to be faster than the shark, just faster than your buddy!

• Re: Shark Diving @ County Line! MadMax 03:53:53 09/27/11 (0)
• Re: Shark Diving @ County Line! MadMax 03:52:29 09/27/11 (0)
• Re: Shark Diving @ County Line! halibug 16:12:43 09/15/11 (2)
  • it circled...?! Brad 17:19:15 09/15/11 (1)
    • Its true Elaine 17:37:11 09/15/11 (0)