Home Tournaments Calendar Weather Merchandise Sponsors

Go Back   Spearboard.com - The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Boating Social Media Forum > United States Geographical Locations > Florida East Coast Spearfishing

Florida East Coast Spearfishing Let's talk here about spearing on Florida's Atlantic coast. Reports and other issues about this region belong here.

Reply
 
Thread Tools Rating: Thread Rating: 9 votes, 5.00 average. Display Modes
Old 08-02-2009, 03:29 PM   #16
Scale Buster
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Posts: 6
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

What a story, glad everyone is ok...
Scale Buster is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-02-2009, 03:55 PM   #17
sailcrazy
cracker
 
sailcrazy's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: north palm beach fl
Age: 33
Posts: 636
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

damn matt cj told me about it i hope the kid makes a fast recovery
__________________
"ya gotta want it"
koah spearguns
sailcrazy is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-02-2009, 05:14 PM   #18
headhunter561
Rob
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Jupiter
Age: 42
Posts: 2,016
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Wow Matt that is insane!! I am glad he will be OK and am glad you were there to coordinate rescue efforts. You have been going over there your whole life, have you ever seen anything like this?
headhunter561 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-02-2009, 06:11 PM   #19
sacha58
Senior Member
 
sacha58's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2003
Location: Rome, Italy/West P B Fl.
Posts: 2,364
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

All my best wishes I was diving with my 13 years old son in the abacos in april and saw no sharks , I thought people were overworried about those, now I learned that you never should stop worrying.
Being myself a general and trauma surgeon I thing everybody did a great job and the kid has been awsome also because he felt safe with his family around in the right way.
__________________
Alessandro, once Rome, Italy/ now West Palm Beach, Fl
" The difference between men and boys is the price of their toys "

www.c4carbon.com
www.palmbeachfreedivers.com
www.flfreedivers.com
www.polosub.com

sacha58 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-02-2009, 07:14 PM   #20
Johnoly
Big Time Bug Hunter
 
Johnoly's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2003
Location: Orlando
Posts: 3,097
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Excellent job coordinating rescue efforts and getting him back to WPB. Swift recovery!!
__________________
1st shot is the only shot!
Johnoly is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-02-2009, 07:38 PM   #21
scubadown
Registered User
 
scubadown's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Merritt Island, FL
Posts: 227
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Wow, what a story. Best wishes and hope he makes a full recovery.
scubadown is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-02-2009, 07:43 PM   #22
UCFreediver
Registered User
 
UCFreediver's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Jupiter/Orlando FL
Posts: 26
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Glad to hear he's ok! This aint the first story I've heard of the sharks at Spanish....Props to everybody's quick thinking! Good luck at JHS! (i wuz class of 04)
UCFreediver is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-02-2009, 09:09 PM   #23
pirate_diver
Mike
 
pirate_diver's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Atlantic Beach, FL...for now.
Age: 39
Posts: 2,272
Send a message via AIM to pirate_diver
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

WOW. Glad he is going to make a full recovery. Just as a note, which you may have already done or have been contacted to do, but you should report this incident to the International Shark Attack File http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks...stionintro.htm A detailed story of that magnitude is good to have on record.

And way to go on the first aid applied to save his life!
__________________
Mike the Pirate
Florida Keys/Jacksonville


"Out in the blue is where I've been."
-Jimmy Barnes
_.•´¯(__.•´¯(__.•´¯(___.•´¯(__.•´¯(__.•´¯(___.•´¯( __.•´¯(__.•´¯(__
"Don't try to describe the ocean if you've never seen it."
- Jimmy Buffett


Rest In Peace Jeff (Keezdiver) Simonds
4/24/78 - 2/18/10
I will never forget you or the stories you told.
pirate_diver is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-02-2009, 09:16 PM   #24
clearnhouse
Jonny 12 things at 1 time
 
clearnhouse's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Ponce Inlet
Posts: 506
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Glad everything turned out ok... Dr. Shedd is an amazing physician, he used to be our medical director for EVAC here in Daytona, infact, we still use The "Shedd Pack" on the trucks... Hope everything heals up nicely and with full mobility for the young man
__________________
110% all day
clearnhouse is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-02-2009, 10:38 PM   #25
hammerhead786
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 809
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

John "ReefThief" and Bullit7 this is exactly how fast it happens. John with some of the bigger sharks I have had run ins with, 500lbs plus, one bite would be fatal. You have proven that you are good with sharks and very good at defending yourself from them when they are aggressive and in many cases large. My point is that eventually you will get hit and the consequences are going to be severe. Several times this summer now i have had run ins with aggressive bull sharks on shallow dives I normally never see them in like Hog Heaven and Tennaco Towers. Another incident was with a very large hammerhead while diving the outfall in Hillsborough with an extraordinary diver, Joe Shook. You can't ever let your guard down. This isn't a "sharky" area relatively speaking or by my standards. I still always try to operate as I explained before. Anyway, I look forward to diving with you and with Lee again. I may move my boat to a marina soon and if i do it will be easy for a fast early am or late eve deployment. In this case i'm glad to hear everyone was trained and acted accordingly. If they had not this may have been a different story...
hammerhead786 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2009, 06:29 AM   #26
Native Diver
Registered User
 
Native Diver's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 104
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Rob,

In the 30 years I have been going to the Abacos and freediving/ spearing, I have never personally had an aggressive shark like this. I have seen small reef sharks and blacktips come in with the aggressive swimming posture, but they were all about the fish and we always just bail in that situation. That has happened maybe 10 times or so... we never felt we were in danger. I have seen literally hundreds of sharks in the Bahamas. They are usually commming in cautiously and checking the scene from the periphery. They don't up at the divers usually they circle where the fish was origenally shot or, if the fish is wounded, circle that area. We have even chased off these casually swimming reef sharks. I am not sure I will be doing that anymore though. Still, we usually just bail when a shark comes in, because if you spear a fish and a shark is close, he can go from casual swimming to "feed mode" in a blink. So we just move on. Happens all the time over there. Don't see many bull sharks though.

thanks for the Kudo's on our responce to Derek's injuries. Luckily, they weren't life threatening since no arteries were hit, but I didn't assess that at the time and just went for max control of blood loss. As it turns out, we didnt' have to go that far, but better safe than sorry. I should note that you have to be careful with tournakits.... they will result in tissue damage if left on too long and can damage nerves. Max time for a tournakit is 2 hours. Derek's was on for about 15 minutes before we loosened it.

I have to tell you guys, we were all amazed at Derek's calmness. That kid could work in trauma or flight control tower. You can imagine also how this must have been for his Dad. Trying to get there and seeing it happen. Fending off the shark while holding his kid in one hand. Holding pressure on his son's calf for the boat rides. Man, I can see where Derek gets his poise from.

We had a wave of relief come over us when we were at Dr. Shedds and he told us Derek was stable and going to be ok. We all got choked up.

Biggest thing now is making sure no infection. So far so good. If no infection they may be able to fully close the wound.

Still working on pics... no time.. do I have to load them to photobucket or something?

Matt
Native Diver is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2009, 08:34 AM   #27
siegelreptiles
Registered User
 
Join Date: Feb 2009
Location: coconut creek
Posts: 23
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Scary stuff. My younger brother and I were spearfishing off hopetown beach and were totally accosted by 3 reefies. They were right on top of me for awhile so I dropped my nassau I was carrying. Fish swam down sharks followed it and then turned right around and came back to me. These things chased me all the way back to the beach--I was swimming backwards, and I could see these 3 in my fin wake bumping my flippers. Worse shark experience I have had---that suck--hopefully he makes a full recovery, and will just have a cool ass scar to talk about for his whole life--better than any tattoo!
siegelreptiles is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2009, 09:11 AM   #28
PrincessSlaya!
Just Simply Laura
 
PrincessSlaya!'s Avatar
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: Lk Worth
Age: 58
Posts: 3,130
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

That is my worst fear. I am so glad he is going to recover. Your acts of perservance are quite heroic. God bless and god speed!
__________________
"Always behave like a duck keep calm and unruffled on the surface but paddle like the devil underneath."

A champion is someone who gets up, even when he can't.

I know I'm in my own little world, but it's ok. They know me here.

http://www.koahspearguns.com/
PrincessSlaya! is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2009, 09:52 AM   #29
reefthief
Registered User
 
reefthief's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Deco stops off Lauderdale
Posts: 317
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

Wow. Sounds like you guys did a great job keeping your cool and glad Derek is going to be OK.
I am not comfortable freediving with sharks while spearfishing but you never know if they are there.
It sounds like it happened very fast and if the shark had wanted to it could have done a lot more damage.
From the description it seems the shark was "driving" off competition over getting the fish.
Interesting it didn't bite anyone else and let go as fast as it did. Very lucky it didn't get any major blood vessels or ligaments.
Hammerhead- Of course thats exactly how fast that happens, what are you thinking of?
How would a PH have helped Derek in that scenario? He would still have been bit. You could kill the shark after the fact but it sounds like they did the smart thing and got him soonest to help.
I have had very hairy scenarios solo deep diving of multiple aggressive Bulls interested more if driving me out than my catch.
Being able to face them down without a breathing constraint made it a completely different scenario. I still left the area but in a controlled manner. Bulls are the most territorial and unpredictable sharks. I've seen them light up without any of the typical posturing warning signs. More than you can keep in sight is time to get out. Being on your guard is best defense but won't help with the shark you don't see.
Bottom line it is always a risk, but I still worry more about the two legged idiot killing me on the surface.
Sounds like you guys really handled it well.
Take care. John
__________________
Pissing off PETA since birth
reefthief is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 08-03-2009, 12:19 PM   #30
rhyne
Senior Member
 
rhyne's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 2,784
Re: Bull Shark attacked us.... News gets details wrong

wow man, that is one hell of a story!! glad to hear it doesn't have a worse ending. jeebus.
__________________
"Sometimes fear just weighs too much"
"Real life is made up of moments that take your breath away"


www.BRINKexpeditions.com - 6-pack Spearfishing, fishing & Custom Charters. San Diego, CA
Your Gateway to What Lie Beyond the Shoreline

www.coroflot.com/RyanSweeney - Apparel Design & Development
rhyne is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Bookmarks

Tags
bahamas, bull shark, shark, shark attack

Thread Tools
Display Modes Rate This Thread
Rate This Thread:

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 06:46 AM.


The World's Largest Spearfishing Diving Social Media Forum Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.1
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2002 - 2014 Spearboard.com