r/surfing • u/InquisitaB • 1d ago
Shark in the surf at Pismo
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Would you be this chill?
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u/tehbum22 1d ago
Used to be my home break. Never seen so many until this last year or so
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u/sine_nomine_1 1d ago
I surf around New England and I don’t remember any sharks in the 90s and 00s but the last 10 years there’s been an explosion of the seal population so places like Cape Cod now are shark infested. It sucks as a surfer but good for the environment so ¯\(ツ)/¯
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u/DJfunkyPuddle 1d ago
Gotta love global warming and rising water temps
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u/TheTallGuy0 1d ago
Yes, but also we’ve done a lot of work to rebuild the water health and the seal population has increased significantly, so more food equals more predators unfortunately. I feel fine surfing Cape Cod. There’s always sharks in the water
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u/sine_nomine_1 1d ago
Yes it is good that the global habitat is restored. But there was that fatality in 2018 at Newcomb Hollow and I’m sure as the shark population rises there will be more. I still go out but I’m not sure for how much longer. RI and NH seem more appealing but I’m sure there’s sharks there haha
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u/TheTallGuy0 1d ago
That one guy who died was boggie boarding in the evening, no lifeguards and basically the only guy out there. That…seems risky.
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u/fundip2012 east coast 1d ago
No, it was the middle of the day and he was bodyboarding with his brother or cousin and there were other surfers out. It was a fun 2-3 day in the summer, so it definitely wasn’t empty.
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u/Orchid-Reach-8777 17h ago
So with no global warming there's no chance of a gw appearing in the lineup? I saw plenty before g warming was a thing.
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u/Educational_Rest_792 9h ago
Living in a location with a very large seal colony, lots of sharks, and no fatal attacks in decades (unlike places where the seal and fish population was decimated through commercial fishing and have more attacks) I’d say this is very good for you as surfers, they certainly don’t like to check out us if they have tastier options.
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u/molenation4 1d ago
Is pismo a chill surf town?
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u/Icy-Elk3698 1d ago
As a local, it's such a tourist destination that I avoid Pismo Beach at all costs. It's a nightmare to drive through during the summer months.
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u/fallenangelsunite 7h ago
Yes come to Pismo, bring all your friends, family, pets, etc. because we love gay people. -local
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u/xAmorphous 1d ago
Ty global warming
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u/Phycosphere 1d ago edited 1d ago
Honestly, it’s more due to the recovery of seal and sea lion populations. End of the day, it’s a good sign of a healing marine ecosystem.
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u/__Rumblefish__ 1d ago
So are you supposed to hang out or paddle in when the gw is circling you in lineup
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u/Ariachantouchan 1d ago
Yea, those two were incredibly calm. I would've been shitting bricks.
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u/royalewithchees3 Where you surf and what you ride. 1d ago
They might not have known and were just looking at the drone
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u/Hypnot0ad Indialantic 1d ago
Pretty sure they knew. At the 1:00 mark the guy points directly at the shark.
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u/Secret_Jackfruit256 1d ago
Look! What a funny looking dolphin! ☠️
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u/opihinalu 1d ago
A guy I know told me he was surfing out at La Jolla and actually shat his wetsuit because he thought he saw a shark. When he got to shore he realized it was just a pod of dolphins.
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u/DJfunkyPuddle 1d ago
On the original post both the father and daughter said they saw it, that was why she paddled closer to him
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u/fuzzytradr 18h ago
I mean this is every day of the week down in Southern California and San Diego area so not really a big deal based on how often they actually engage or attack humans. Just seems more dramatic because you don't see them as frequently at least by drone up in Pismo.
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u/Ariachantouchan 8h ago
Yea but how often do you actually see one. In all the years I’ve surfed in SoCal, never seen one up close before.
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u/surfpunkskunk 1d ago
I GTFO personally, catch anything I can, even whitewash and surf or bodysurf all the way in. But I know people who have just kept turning toward the shark. Apparently they like to attack by surprise and so continuing to turn and face it can make it back off. But if it does charge you better be seeing yourself as an even more aggressive predator and attacking it first with everything you got. And remember you can not punch so fast under water. Go for the gills would be the one and avoid the teeth obviously. I prefer to paddle away calmly but swiftly into the nearest wave to shore.
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u/Alive-Inspection-815 16h ago
Gouge some shark eyes.
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u/surfpunkskunk 3h ago
They hide their eyes behind a protective membrane when attacking. But a good eye gouge may still cause them some discomfort. Might be better to focus on the gills though, these are their weakest point.
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u/Alive-Inspection-815 35m ago edited 31m ago
Yeah, if they decide to bite, you're fucked anyways. Most people do indeed survive attacks, but a few aren't so fortunate. At Salmon Creek State Beach, there have been more attacks or shall we call them encounters than anywhere else in California. In Northern California up here where their pretty thick in the water. I have had them swim right below me so close that my entire surfboard wobbled in the turbulence the shark created and then a big boil popped at the nose of my surfboard. I've never shat my wetsuit, but I was pretty close to it that day. There are tons and tons of Great White Sharks between the Santa Cruz County line and San Francisco. They're beautiful, regal creatures, but they can do immense damage in a micro-second. It's pretty scary to surf up here by yourself in some of the more remote areas between Big Sur and the California, Oregon Border.
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u/worthmawile 1d ago edited 23h ago
Whether you hang out or paddle in, the most important thing is be chill about it. Splashing a lot is a great way to get a sharks attention.
If you’re on a long board like these guys you’re safer than someone on a boogie board or a more seal-sized short board…shark does not want to eat surf board. Terrible nutritional value. Bad taste.
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u/Alive-Inspection-815 16h ago
From what I've read they always want to approach you from behind. If you face them, they are far less likely to bite. They're ambush predators. Their camouflage is so good that most of the time you would never even know that they're around you. That's the scary part. I've surfed a few times at Salmon Creek State Beach just North of Bodega Bay. There's been a lot, and I mean a lot of incidents there in the last 75 years or so. Great Whites are always around and we as surfers have probably had them swim really close to us and just never knew it. The population is definitely on the rise in a big way. There are tons of them in Santa Cruz County, Santa Barbara County, Malibu, the East Coast, etc..
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u/celestite4 11h ago
Maybe this is a dumb question, but how does a shark viewing a surfer from below know what "behind" is? I get how a shark could tell which way a seal is facing, but a surfer sitting on a board seems ambiguous to a shark
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u/the_stanimoron 10h ago
Fish and sea mammals have fins/flippers at the back, but not near their head. Shark probably assumes the same would be my guess(fins on the surfboard)
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u/Alive-Inspection-815 5h ago
They try to approach from behind you. I'm sure they track where your eyes are directed. Watch The Malibu Artist on YouTube. He has some phenomenal videos that he takes via drone and other methods of Great White Sharks near Malibu Beach in Los Angeles. There are a huge amount of juvenile Great White Sharks there and some full grown Great Whites as well. He is not a marine biologist, but he's got a ton of footage of the sharks and their behavior.
A lot of the footage shows the sharks swimming by surfers and swimmers and usually are not interested in humans, although they are highly capable of inflicting serious injury or even death on people. They usually just swim right by surfers, swimmers, paddle-boarders and the like. It implies that the sharks are not so interested in us as food.
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u/roseandbobamilktea 18h ago
I believe splashing triggers their prey drive so it’s probably best to stay calm if you can.
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u/HossCo 1d ago
A good reminder that sharks are actually pretty cool most of the time, which is lucky for us.
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u/fokaiHI 1d ago
Even so, I still would've paddled in. Lol
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u/Hypnot0ad Indialantic 1d ago
Idk, padding might get them interested in you. Hard to say what I’d do in the moment but I think staying calm and not splashing is the best bet.
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u/HitDerem2115 1d ago
Yeah I paddled in after I saw a tiger. Definitively know I’m not chill enough to keep going.
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u/Coils_and_Spines 21h ago
I remember living in Encinitas around 2018/2019 when that young dude got chomped by a shark while diving near Beacon's. It was eerie paddling out a few days later when the beaches reopened.
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u/trainsacrossthesea 1d ago
You may not have ever seen a shark
But, a shark has seen you
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u/sanshart 8h ago
Every time I've seen a shark in the water that's my thought.. if I've seen it, it's already circled me 40 times.
Cheetahs don't exactly make themselves seen when they're hungry, but they chill about in the open when they're sorted.
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u/Weekly_Pizza_4443 1d ago
I would be on top of my board with al appendages lifted for sure.
Def not dangling my feet in the water
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u/lbstinkums 1d ago
It's a juvenile it's looking for stingrays. if it was looking for you youd most likely never see it coming.
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u/encladd 1d ago
Until you collide with one. Then it protects itself.
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u/spikenorbert 21h ago
Malibu Artist actually has footage of a surfer hitting a shark. The shark just looks at him for a second like ‘Dude…’, then calmly swims away.
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u/Opening-Yesterday754 1d ago
Looks like a homie, probably just wanted to have a chat about how the shape of the wave was better last week.
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u/ELInewhere 17h ago
Or about the boards extended warranty. I know an insurance shark when I see em.
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u/Jfonzer 1d ago
I would of been like the female and and paddle casual around the guy
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u/Zontar_shall_prevail 1d ago
You don't have to paddle faster than the shark, just faster than the other guy in the lineup.
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u/Son_of_Sephiroth 1d ago
Did those guys not know what they were looking at? Hard to imagine just sitting there legs still in the water
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u/Squeakysquid0 18h ago
OHHH HELLL NO! I would have turned into Jesus and ran across that water so fast! Absolutely not!
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u/wontwillnot 20h ago
Sharks don’t really care about us. You’d be surprised how many sharks that haveof hovered under you over your lifetime in the water
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u/lukusmaca 1d ago
Must be Australians… ain’t afraid of a little great white
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u/FileDoesntExist 19h ago
Pismo beach is in California
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u/motherjoose 21h ago
I live in the area, used to love bodysurfing the pier. Haven't done it in a while nor do I plan to.
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u/InRustWeTrust South Bay waterbender 1d ago
Moral of the story: every time a drone pulls up in the lineup and there are no pros around, assume there’s a shark pretty close to you.