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Old 06-29-2005, 01:37 PM
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Originally Posted by onepimpinsummer
what are your four accounts of shark attacks on kiteboarders? i'm just curious to know. were they bitten? when? what size and type of shark? serious injury? what were they doing exactly when attacked? Ive heard of people being brushed by them, and sighting them, but never heard of a kiteboarder being attacked.

And what is up with these serious shark attacks lately. There was ANOTHER one today in the panhandle.. Boy got bitten bad, but is doing ok now after surgery. And that poor girl the other day that got killed. What a shame. I hope her family is hanging in there. Both were Bull Sharks. They say the Bull Shark has the most testosterone out of all animals on the planet. After all these incidents, it kind of makes me want to go fishing......for sharks.....................with my 12 gauge
Summarizing the attacks or incidents briefly, two cases involved the same rider, Paul Menta. In one instance he landed on a small hark off Key West placed his hand in the water before he realized this and the shark latched on to his hand. Paul launched an involuntary jump with the shark hanging off of his hand! In the second case Paul was riding near a fishing pier in the panhandle, this is a number of years back, trailing a board leash. A shark came up and started biting his board leash. More proof that board leashes are dangerous!

The most serious case happened a few years back off of the Treasure Coast of Florida. The kiteboarder was badly bitten but survived but left the area as a result of the experience.

The last case involved a newbie, several years ago, trying to learn to waterstart without pro instruction off of Hutchinson Island. Apparently there was bait in the area and he ended up getting bitten by an unidentified shark.

I didn't receive information identifying sharks in any of these cases.

Bulls are certainly common enough. I have been in the water free diving with them on and off for decades. Once I swam after a group of five bulls for an hour and a half. They even hung around while I went up to change rolls of film. Bulls in my encounters have not been aggressive but more just cruising around. Obviously they have the capacity to attack however as do MANY other species of sharks. The only shark I was ever bitten by and came close to being hit again on another occassion were nurse sharks, that I know about anyway. I have always likened nurses to big dumb dogs hanging out in crevices. They can be provoked into attacking however.
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