HUGE shark story!!!

[thecrab87]

Since I've got this entire month off (and all of December too), I've been diving my ass off to make up for the last three months of hell. The only bummer is that I've had to make all my dives solo, since everyone is working. I went out on Monday and did OK, got a fat kumu (goatfish) and my biggest uhu of the year (with my 85-cm Aimrite railgun too! sweet gun).

I've never had the time to spend to learn how to hunt octopus (tako or he'e in Hawaii), so I've been spending some time learning how to do this, learning how to find their holes, etc. I got 3 on Monday, the biggest was almost 4#, a personal best.

Sorry about the pic quality, I had to take these of myself with my cell phone... no computer access for me just yet.

[thecrab87]

I took Tuesday off to do yard work and rest my legs, since I dove for 5 hours straight on Monday. I finished mowing my lawn today and headed down to Baldwin Beach Park late this afternoon. Once again, I couldn't find anyone to dive with so I was forced to go solo.

I jumped into the dirty water and headed out. I didn't find anything really interesting, but I poked a few small fish just to have something to fry up tonight. I was almost to the outside reef when I broke the band on my 3-prong pole spear... bummer. I pulled in my tagline, which was anchored to the bottom, to find... no floater! What the hell! My snap clip was open and my floater was nowhere to be found. I started quickly swimming with the wind chop with my head out of the water scanning for my floater.

I finally spotted my floater to my right heading... upcurrent. Well, dammit. I knew what that meant. The surface viz was horrible, about 20 feet at best. Before I got the floater in sight underwater, I could see a large tail thrashing about. When I finally got up to my floater, I was greeted by a large hammerhead, about 10 feet long, with my Riffe floater stuck on its head. My stainless steel stringer was lodged in its mouth. Well crap! How the hell was I supposed to get my $170 Riffe float back? Fortunately, I had taken my speargun, an 85-cm Aimrite carbon fiber railgun, off of the floater earlier. After trying a couple of times, I gave up on trying to pull the floater off of the shark... too much of a chance of gitten bit on the hand. So, I swam up to him and plugged him with the railgun.

The spear went clear through to the other side of his head, and it was on! I clipped my tagline to the butt of my speargun and let the shark run. After thrashing around for a bit, he started to slow down, and I was able to get close enough to hit him with the 3-prong. Every time I would poke him, he let loose with a huge cloud of blood. After going round and round and bleeding out gallons of blood, he finally slowed down enough that I got my floater back.

At this point, he spun down to the bottom 25 feet below. The viz was about 35 to 40 feet top to bottom, so I could clearly see him but not much else outside of the circle of hazy water. I unclipped my rope tagline and tied it to the tail of the now gently thrashing shark. Using my 3-prong to keep him from turning and biting me, I carefully pulled my shaft through his head and headed for the surface, where I unclipped the shooting line from the gun.

So there I was, on the surface, holding my 3-prong and my speargun, breathing up to go down and grab my spear and pull the shooting line through the shark....

That's when... the MOTHER OF ALL TIGER SHARKS moved into view. She glided in from the far side and sniffed the hammerhead shark. Now bear in mind, the hammerhead was a big shark, about 10 feet long and about as big around as if you made a circle with your arms with your fingertips touching. The tiger glided over the hammerhead and turned up towards me. For what seemed like an eternity, she moved towards me as I pedalled backwards and away. God her head was big! It was well over 3 feet wide. She finally turned, headed back down, and munched the hammerhead. What stands out in my mind is how very small that hammerhead looked in her mouth.

The only other shark that I've seen in this size class was that great white that I saw while diving with Bill Mc last year.
http://www.geocities.com/haolecrab/santacatalina3.html
This one produced the same response in me... time to be somewhere else. I swam straight to my float, unclipped my rope tagline, grabbed my floater, and headed straight for shore. It's not so much the length of the shark (and this one was near the same length as the great white... 16 to 18 feet long) as it was the GIRTH. The head on this thing was just huge.

It was a long swim back from the outside reef in that murky water, believe me. :D Fortunately, I only lost my shaft and my rope tagline. If I had lost my carbon Aimrite gun I would have been sick. I finally made it in and crawled over the inside reef, as it was now low tide, and splashed into the inshore water. I didn't mind losing the shaft and tagline, but I was a little bummed about losing my fish as I now had nothing to take home (I suppose taking home all of your limbs is not bad!). I swam about another 5 feet and found a fresh tako hole. Right on! A short while later, I had a 6.75# tako on my stringer, a new personal best. My goal had been to get one over 5#, and I cleared it by a good margin! Again, sorry about the quality, the pics are from my cell phone.

Back to the ocean tomorrow..........

[DaKahuna]

Willie, man, you have to get a waterproof camera!
Though I'm not sure how well the shots would have come out, being shot through that brown cloud you probably made.... :D
When else would you have ever thought that being in the water with an injured 10 ft hammerhead made you safer! :eek:
Glad that Tiger went for the injured fish, and not the puny human.
Yeah, with your luck, definitely need a camera, and a POWERHEAD!

[KeiNine]

NUTS! :eek:

Glad you're safe and are able to tell us another great story.

[Dragginfish]

OMG!!!

Okay I have seen Hammerheads and don't really have a problem with sharks but MAN HAVE YOU GOT BALLS!!! Let's see - I can't get my float back so I guess I will go kill something twice my size!! What are you thinking!! :eek:

OH - LOOK there is some thing 3 times my size and she is hungry!!! :eek: :eek:

You sir are "Da Man!!" :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy

This is a great story!! I am going to point the Florida boys to your Thread!!!

See You at the Bottom

Dragginfish

[kill shot]

Willie, Great story!!! It seems that all the work you have been doing lately has really built up some aggression in you to have the BALLS to do something like that. Glad you are safe. Now stay that way so we can here more of your stories.
Eric
Nice tako by the way.

[mcbas]

GIANT Balls man. I've had a few run-ins over the years but compared to yours my sharks were babies. I must confess my heart was pounding, I can't imagine being in your shoes for those two encounters.

[smilinmatt]

Every shark encounter I've had, I always imagine the shark thinks "too big to eat" when it's sizing me up. Must be a different feeling when a shark looks at you, and thinks you're too small to be worth eating.

Was there ever a point when you thought, "there's no way I'm letting that tiger shark get away with my tagline - time to reload the Aimrite!"? :lol:

[cptbonnett]

All I can say is... DUDE!

[El Cid]

Holy sh*t...you've got some cojones alright! No need to prove that one!!

I was thinking you were going to say you got your spear back, plugged the tiger, subdued both of them bare-handed and swam them back to shore, then drank a gallon of everclear and raped an entire island. And revealed yourself to be Chuck Norris. If I were you I'd do some research of my genelogy, you might have some Chuck in you...

[dmay]

There's a fine line between courage and completely f@ckin psychopathic and you, my friend, are on the fence.

Great Story!!!

[bryansnarked]

Great read this morning. Hope all is well Willie. Wish I was in Maui, I'd dive with you for sure. Isn't that the first tiger you've seen?
-Bryan

[Man-O-War]

Holy sh*t...you've got some cojones alright! No need to prove that one!!

I was thinking you were going to say you got your spear back, plugged the tiger, subdued both of them bare-handed and swam them back to shore, then drank a gallon of everclear and raped an entire island. And revealed yourself to be Chuck Norris. If I were you I'd do some research of my genelogy, you might have some Chuck in you...

:lol: :lol: I think I just broke a rib laughing!!!!! :lol: :lol:

As for the Haolecrab, glad you are still in one piece man! :eek: :eek:

[JLittle44]

Holy sh!t man. Ho Ly Sh!t...

[primalpete]

At what point did the thought cross your mind " I think I'm gonna shoot this hammerhead with my 85cm gun". :notworthy
Sweet story. I got the tiger shark eating the hammerhead visual from that show with Jean Michel Cousteau, when they dove in that place with all those reef sharks and that big ass hammerhead at the wounded reefie.

[Bill McIntyre]

Damn Willie, you have brass balls.

Maybe we should reconsider your trip back here next summer. You seem to be a shark magnet. :)

[Gators2001]

lol, Chuck, LOL


Great story!

[Gradyman]

WOW...just plain WOW...that's a big fish story that you'll never forget.

[MauiFreeDiver]

Glad to hear your OK Willie, I say youve got big balls just swimming out to the outer reefs at baldwin by yourself on a dirty day. I dont know if you always bring a floater or just a belt kui, but I bet you were glad you brought one that day. The oceans have been nice everywhere, I certainly would jump in with you but I work till 3:30PM M-F. Stay safe and nice Tako and goat. Aloha

[Man-O-War]

Were you wearing these pants??? :D

[Dave Ness]

That is insane! Glad to hear you made it back to the beach without a scratch. That must of been an extremely long swim!

I don't know if they make an industrial strength neoprene cleanser, but I know I'd sure need at least a gallon of it if that was me. Hell, an unexpected face to face with a lobster guarding morey usually does the trick for me.

[gogators27]

Dude, next time, just buy another float dog! Your life is worth more than 170 bucks!

But, now at least you have a great story to tell...... thanks for sharing.

[StabbinBoy]

Very nice. You got style bro. :fro: Real Style.

Would love to be your wingman sometime. I just need to finish shooting these anabolic steroids and chomping down a case of Enzyte to have the package you must be sporting :eek:

[Platypus]

Looks like you got the squid eye now Willie. :D

Now, about that shark.... :eek: Thank God you got your gun back - although that would have been another fun "warranty" story to add to our collection! ;) :D

See ya soon,
Angela

[Not Nate]

ummmh, no picture = BS :D

[thecrab87]

Holy sh*t...you've got some cojones alright! No need to prove that one!!

I was thinking you were going to say you got your spear back, plugged the tiger, subdued both of them bare-handed and swam them back to shore, then drank a gallon of everclear and raped an entire island. And revealed yourself to be Chuck Norris. If I were you I'd do some research of my genelogy, you might have some Chuck in you...

Dude! That is funny!

Man, you ALL have me cracking up! That's one reason I love the board: everyone has got such a great sense of humor.

To answer some questions:
That's only the second tiger that I've seen.
In retrospect, I can't think of another way that I could have gotten my floater back.
There is NO WAY I would have messed with the tiger. Sharks in that size range, with that MASS, are so big that if they really wanted to eat you, there isn't much that you can do about it. I will say that if the water had been crystal clear I might have thought about at least getting my spear and tagline back before booking it out of there. :)

[thecrab87]

Maybe we should reconsider your trip back here next summer. You seem to be a shark magnet. :)

All you got to do is go to the other side of the kelp bed. That way, if there are any sharks in the area, they'll be on my side, and you can relax and dive in peace.

hehehe

[Ron S]

Glad to hear your OK Willie, I say youve got big balls just swimming out to the outer reefs at baldwin by yourself on a dirty day. I dont know if you always bring a floater or just a belt kui, but I bet you were glad you brought one that day. The oceans have been nice everywhere, I certainly would jump in with you but I work till 3:30PM M-F. Stay safe and nice Tako and goat. Aloha

I think if he'd just used a belt kui, the only difference is that he'd have killed the hammerhead with his knife, and saved that MASSIVE 82cm gun for the tiger... :D
And after all that, he still stops to nail a stupid squid before getting out of the water!

Willie I swear if you came out and dove Lake Tahoe you'd find a damn shark!!!

Glad you didn't get hurt, and thanks for posting your amazing story.

Ron.

[Polystigma]

You are nuts, brass ballz man!

[f94gator]

Excellent story.

And yep, you are certifiably *****ing nuts!

[ROBERTO REYES]

Holly shit, it seems you were not really diving solo after all.
Thanks for sharing, awesome story ,like always from you.

[Jr.]

Were you wearing these pants??? :D

When the Boogeyman goes to sleep every night, he checks his closet for Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris doesn't read books. He stares them down until he gets the information he wants.

There is no theory of evolution. Just a list of creatures Chuck Norris has allowed to live.

Outer space exists because it's afraid to be on the same planet with Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits.

Chuck Norris is currently suing NBC, claiming Law and Order are trademarked names for his left and right legs.

Chuck Norris is the reason why Waldo is hiding.

Chuck Norris counted to infinity - twice.

There is no chin behind Chuck Norris’ beard. There is only another fist.

When Chuck Norris does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.

Chuck Norris is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.

Chuck Norris’ hand is the only hand that can beat a Royal Flush.

There is no such thing as global warming. Chuck Norris was cold, so he turned the sun up.

Chuck Norris can lead a horse to water AND make it drink.

Chuck Norris doesn’t wear a watch, HE decides what time it is.

Chuck Norris gave Mona Lisa that smile.

Chuck Norris can slam a revolving door.

Chuck Norris does not get frostbite. Chuck Norris bites frost

Remember the Soviet Union? They decided to quit after watching a DeltaForce marathon on Satellite TV.

[Scolinos]

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[El Cid]

Dude, I don't want to de-rail the thread, but I have 31 pages of Chuck Norris facts...sad but true!! I make my freshmen tell me a new one every day at lunch!!

[nwagner91]

great story, i cant believe you shot a 10 ft hh with a 85 cm aimrite, omg

[Sharkey]

I'm new to the board but my handle is Sharkey. I got that nickname from a dive buddy of mine that I helped of the Northshore of Oahu. We were spear fishing with Hawaiian slings when a huge Tiger grabbed him and his catch. To make long story short I shoved the sling into the Tiger's gills and consequently caused the Tiger to release my friends side. This is no game. Sharks don't descriminate between fish and flesh. When they charge it's like the running of the bulls . Don't let this deter you from diving and it sounds like a job well done. But don't forget that we are the visitors in their world!

[Chris Oak]

Damn willie I'm never going to dive with you, you must have a shark attractant after the white shark and now a tiger :). Be careful brah.

[loose_cannon]

Two full notches down the food chain... You were probably somewhere between a mahi and a mullet as far as food value.

[Queer for Spear]

Last time I saw a 10 foot hammerhead I thought:"Hmmm....I oughta jump in and kill it with my bare hands".....You are definitely swingin a set of brass ones my friend !!

[Ian Overaas]

Willie, that is amazing! I second the idea of you getting an underwater camera, National Geograpic needs some new pictures ;) Oh, and ElCidm07 I would love to read those

[LakeHunter]

great thread, i hadn't read it before.

That being said, you're insane lol

[Spearsd]

Amazing story I have to echo the sentiment that you're either crazy or there is something wrong with your survival instincts. I would also like those chuck norris facts elcidm07

[mikeleebaker]

that shark had some balls to mess with a fella crazy enough to take on a 10 ft hammerhead just for a float!!! i tip my had to you sir.

[HurricaneBK]

you let the tiger get away with biggest fish you shot all day...
great story really big sharks are no joke, stay safe man.

[tommy7]

There's a fine line between courage and completely f@ckin psychopathic and you, my friend, are on the fence.

Great Story!!!

:yup:.......i'm not sure but I think a girlfriend might help you get your mind right:rolleyes:
Nice story and great pics for a cell phone!

Tommy

[Bill McIntyre]

You guys do realize that this thread was 4 months cold when it was resurrected two days ago?

I'm not saying that it can't be talked about. But just in case you have a short memory and feel like you heard a story like this before- you may well have.

[threw-er-back]

I think I just pooped in my pants alittle...:eek:

[Flying Bajan]

My Man.... you do not have brass balls.... They must be Tungsten !

Get a powerhead is all I have to say.