[mikester]

I tell you what. Sharks are hard to get over for me.

I've been surfing all my life nearly - started in the Gulf of Mexico (yes there is surfing there) and then we moved out to CA. I started going to Camp Pendelton, Tresles and Oceanside pretty regularly. I moved out to Jax, FL and surfed there for a long time too and that's where it happened.

I swear it was as long as I am high (no pun intended).

My buddy and I are sitting out there and it's real quiet. Just us - we're having a lazy saturday and the weather and the water is f'ing beautiful. Blue...clear...you can see the fish in the water (just north of St. Augusting near the Gate station). My buddy gets an odd look (well, how about he's just odd looking) and says "I'm goin in to take a nap." Not an uncommon occurance for the sloutch to take a nap on the beach while I surf...

So...there I am...by myself...in the water...or so I thought.

I'm sittin there - on the board - indian style whirling my hands in the water for balance and I see a school of mullet schooling past me. I'm thinking to myself "How cool is this, I could reach down and grab a fish." Well before I could finish that thought in my head (I got about to "down") A freaking huge grey mass is thrashing in the water attacking the fish.

I'm in the dinner bowl apparently.

Then...just as fast as it showed up it was gone and the water was calm. I felt like I'd lost all the blood in my body - I grabed the nose of my board - extended my feet and paddled into the next wave and rode it all the way in.

I walked over to my buddy on the beach...kicked him in the side and said "Why didn't you tell me there was an f'ing shark!?"

His response..."Would it have made a difference?"

Well...hell yeah it would have. I woulda got the heck out of his dinner bowl for sure.

Fact is that beach is a breeding ground for black tip sharks. In the later months of the summer we always catch the yungins when we are beach fishing and there are ALWAYS reports of sharks attacking little kids (just the right size). This one was quite a bit bigger than the little ones of course.

I haven't been the same since in the water - I'm always afraid and watching the local news reports of sharks everywhere is really kept me on edge. Apparently there was a dead whale of the coast of OC or so and that brought a lot of sharks into the area.

Oh and there is no way in hell I'm getting on that bus.