SurfPulse received the following email from a reliable source on Saturday, July 24, 2004. Thank you, Cory, and to the other people who wrote in about the incident.

BEGINNING OF EMAIL

Original Message:
-----------------
From: Cory W.
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 2004 17:19:57 -0700
To: shark@surfpulse.com
Subject: Shark encounter @ OB

Today was a freaky day at OB. I was sitting in the lineup directly in front of Fulton, when out of nowhere a dorsal fin pops up. I was the first to see it, and it didn't fully compute at first. My initial reaction was, "what the f@%?", then I immediately thought it had to be a dolphin. Then it popped up again and I told the guy next to me, "I think I just saw a shark!"

He looked over and saw the same fin coming towards us and by this time we both knew it was no dolphin! The fin was about 8-10 inches out of the water and moving in a way that sharks move, then it slowly went back underwater.

We both started paddling in as fast as we could while yelling to others to paddle in. Once we reached about knee high water we turned and called out to the surfers who hadn't heard us. One guy started paddling in and to the side when the fin popped up again right behind him and started tracking in on him. It was straight out of a freakin' movie, we were like hurry up paddle, paddle!!!

Finally, he- along with the rest of the lineup- came in and the shark swam under again. Luckily no one was hurt, and from the size of the dorsal fin it probably wasn't a huge one, but big enough to ruin your day!

Just thought I would pass this along because of the recent sighting a few days earlier at Noriega. This was the first time I had ever witnessed a shark cruising along the lineup like that at OB. It won't stop me from going back out there, but will definitely make me think twice!

Happy surfing... yikes!!!
Cory W.

END OF EMAIL

Please report any shark encounters to the Shark Research Committee and SurfPulse.

Read other shark-related articles in SurfPulse's Shark section.