Shark Alert

On the first day of our holiday I took my SUP board out on the calm ocean for a practice paddle.  The sun was beating down on me and the tranquility of the moment swept me away.  So did the offshore wind apparently because I turned around to face the beach and hadn't realised that I had quickly paddled about 300 metres out.  It was around that moment that the shark alert helicopter flew quite low above me and circled me several times.  I somehow managed to remain calm and decided to focus on the task at hand of paddling safely back to shore.  At this stage I thought the helicopter was just having some fun and wanting to take a closer look at the lonely bikini clad SUP boarder out on the ocean.

I successfully landed the board and Rob got up to head out.  While he was out the Coastal Rangers arrived on the beach in their 4X4 and approached our small group.  They wanted to let me know that a shark had been circling my board and they were trying to calmly let me know that I should head back!!  The fact that the shark was less than 2 metres meant that they didn't put on the sirens and they thought it best not to frighten me off the board!  What a shock to my system.  It changed my view on SUP boarding for the rest of the week and I struggled to get past the 100 metre buoys without hearing the "Jaws" music reverberating in my head.  Sometimes it is better not to know too much.

Following a spate of nasty shark attacks in Western Australia, the government have implemented regular helicopter patrols on all the beaches and evacuations are now quite common place.  It seems the hungry preditors are coming closer to the shoreline in shallower water.  The fishermen in Busselton confirmed record catches in shallow waters which could mean the sharks are being drawn towards the beach.  Last week our local beach, Leighton,(where Rob does his Sunday morning swim) was evacuated at 9.30am because a shark could be seen from the beach!

So on this particular day, the wind, my pull on the paddle, and the current pushed me out to sea but an angel gently nudged me back to shore.