In the 70s and 80s we as a family vacationed in Florida every year, staying many times in Tampa/St Pete. I have fond memories of staying at The Don CeSar searching every payphone for quarters so I could play pac man in the game room.....we all swam in the ocean like crazy. The only thought of sharks was because of Jaws. I probably had it on my mind a little but we jumped in the ocean with our masks and fins and swam all day in water over our heads...we were all good swimmers.
I would not do this now and if I had kids, they wouldnt be allowed in the ocean past their ankles...In order to avoid a most hated dad award, I would sit them down and make them watch real shark attack videos on youtube (there are many) before we ever got on the airplane, or maybe on the airplane followed by some plane crash videos
I have not been on an airplane since my shark episode above....13 years. Only reason I got on the plane then is because my brother arranged the surprise fishing trip and had all the tickets and stuff paid for. my ONLY real fears in this life are 1) plane crash and 2) eaten by a shark. Otherwise, Im your guy for danger
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Originally Posted by masraum
I grew up swimming at the beach in the Clearwater/Largo (Near Tampa/St Pete). I heard from my mom that they used to catch sharks off of the piers at those beaches. I never saw any sharks. When at the beach, I pretty much always stayed in water that I could easily touch bottom with my head out of the water, which meant <5' deep. I just didn't see any need to get farther out than that. I may have ventured out to a sand bar with a deeper trough a few times, but only if the sand bar was fairly close to shore. I just never felt the need to "have fun" in deep water that I couldn't see clearly through.
Most shark attacks occur in shallow water - because that's where the people are. I suspect there are more sharks in deeper water than shallow beach water. I'm sure if a bunch of folks were out swimming around in deeper water, shark attacks might be even more common. I'm not super likely to end up swimming around in water that's an inky blackness. I don't have any sort of phobia about going in the ocean or getting eaten. But I don't want to become a statistic either.
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