portlock seagull
Well-known member
- Jul 28, 2003
- 17,733
Growing up in Australia, sharks are never far from your consciousness...
Some years ago, the day before the Missus and I got engaged, we were swimming at Cottesloe off Perth. There was a huge buoy about 200 metres offshore and the Missus says: come on...let's swim out to it.
She was an excellent swimmer and I was barely adequate, but when you're about to propose to someone you don't wimp out of a challenge like that.
Anyway, as I swam (some distance behind her) I suddenly noted how eerily still the water was...and how murky it was in the late afternoon just before dusk. Just before I reached the buoy, where she was waiting for me, I suddenly thought: what the FARK am I doing out here?
I'm going back! I called and started swimming faster and faster. She, of course, zoomed past me and the closer I got to the shore the more I was seeing those huge pointed teeth closing on my toes.
Anyway, I made it back to shore, exhausted and totally freaked, but life continued happily.
However.
About five weeks later, a bloke was killed by a shark in exactly that spot.
For all I know that same shark checked me out but wasn't feeling peckish.
In other words, you have a vivid imagination and struggled to control it (as is notmal, not calling you a woss or anything). But really if this was a news story the headline would be 'Man goes for a swim and returns safely'? Yes yes, I get you're from Oz and the seas are alive with things that can kill you but generally they don't and millions (millions!) instead enjoy the sea for what it is. The worlds greatest playground!!