Surfing With Sharks in Australia

August 6, 2009 by Kimberly

Yup, I did that…It all seems a little surreal today as I think back, but I did it.

In fact, if you’re surfing anywhere, you’re likely to be surfing with these heavily teethed fish…

I felt very secure where we were – inside a coral reef by Lancelin Island in Western Australia.

The friends I was with surfing had been coming to this very beach year in and year out from their youth.

I was learning how to boogie-board (sometimes called body boarding) and progressing up to a surfboard.

We never saw anything suspicious – in fact, we never even saw dolphins there.

We surfed at Christmas for about 2 weeks straight every day in between sun tanning and eating seafood, of course…

The last day, right before we left we decided to get one more surf in. I was excited because I’d learned the fundamentals well and was pretty confident, after being banged around a bit on the reef for a good 2 weeks.

Everyone was taking their last ride in on the wave of their choice and for whatever reason, I ended up being the last person out there with people getting out of the water and standing on the beach watching.

Waiting for the perfect final wave to catch, I saw my friends waving at me from the shore, so I waved back, thinking we were all just having a lot of fun.

I caught that next wave and had a great ride in – satisfied with my first surfing experiences during our vacation.

We packed up and were driving North – back home to Perth.

My friends said, “Canuck…” (they called me Canuck because I’m Canadian), “…Remember when we were all waving at you on the beach when you were about to catch your last wave in?”…

I said, “Yes…Why?”

They continued to tell me that they were waving because there was a big shark coming straight toward me – they could see it’s fin above the surf…but they didn’t want to startle me and alarm the shark even more of a frightened creature – making me as a human seem like a scared turtle – a tasty snack for a large shark, which could have been a Great White or a Tiger shark in this area.

Wow – God was watching me that day – I caught that very next wave in and they didn’t want to really scare me at the beach by telling me there…

That was my experience surfing with sharks.

Really, until I just wrote this post, it was never very “personal” to me because it was a story that I didn’t feel like I experienced…But imagining the scene with what happened in the water that day just made that memory very “real”…

Phew, and I blessed!

Have fun, but be careful and be aware of what’s going on…Be as calm as you can be. Try not to dangle your arms and legs off your surfboard so as to look like a tasty turtle.

Most shark attacks are acts of mistaken identity. Sharks don’t really prefer the taste of humans. In fact, they often spit you out after an attack. However, the severe damage has already been done, most of the time.

Be smart out there…

***

I hope you enjoyed this Shark Week post on Exotic Animal Lover! Until next time…

Live Exotically,

Kimberly Edwards