When I was in college, we had swim camp in Florida. As a treat on Xmas day, coach set up an ocean swim. I had broken my eardrum surfing a few days earlier, so I couldn't swim. So, I walked out to the end of the pier at Deerfield Beach and watched the team swim in the ocean. All of a sudden a group started sprintng "balls out" to the shore - what was noticable was the a breaststroker was keeping up with the teams fastest sprinter - they had seen a shark.

No-one was eaten but it was interesting to see how fast someone could swim when they needed to!??!?!?!

---

http://theworldthroumyeyes.tumblr.com/

Same deal...I used to be a divemaster and was diving with sometimes hundreds of little nursesharks, reef sharks, and a few of the nastier ones...didn't even raise my heart-rate. Put me in the open water with nothing but a wetsuit and goggles, and the shark-phobia kicks in.

---

----------------------------------------------------------------

My training

In 24 years of surfing I've seen plenty of sharks in the water, mostly nothing more than a 4 ft. dogfish, yes there are bigger ones lurking about but I have yet to physically encounter one, nor have any of my friends. That said, if you enter the ocean you are entering it as a guest in their domain, they are the unseen landlord, if the thought of this paralyzes you with fear then don't go in. I personally would rather take my chances and enjoy what I love to do the most.

---

___________________________________________________
I'm not a complete idiot, some of the parts are missing.

I know people who have been stalked by Lions while running. Sharks will come out of nowhere, take a bite and run... Lions like to mess with your head. They try and spook ya to get you to run just so they get the thrill of the chase. One guy I know was trail running just before dusk (stupid in lion country) and kept hearing twigs break just behind him and got that weird 'watched' feeling, but never saw anything when he looked for the source. This went on for about 45 minutes...almost the entire run. 100 yards from the trail head he heard a rock fall to his left and looks up just in time to see the cat that had been stalking him the entire time. I'm 10x more afraid of running into a cat then a shark... Hell I'm more afraid of Jelly's then sharks... then again I haven't done much OWS in the ocean.

---

---

sometimes you just have to eat the cake