This Bay Area angler found himself in quite the frightening situation when his coastal kayak fishing expedition turned into an encounter with a massive great white shark.
There are pros and cons when it comes to kayak fishing. For starters, fishing out of a kayak doesn’t require filling up the boat with gas, and allows fishermen (and fisherwomen) to go where other vessels can’t go. The cons? If you decide to take your kayak out on the open seas, there are creatures beneath the water that can actually dwarf the boat you are sitting in.
That’s exactly what happened to a man named David Slavich who was fishing off the coast of Half Moon Bay in late October.
The California fisherman had actually been warned by a paddle boarder that a great white had been spotted in the waters, but he didn’t think much about it. He stayed focused on wetting lines and trying to reel in an impressive catch.
Slavich told KRON 4 that he heard the beast before he actually saw it… which is terrifying:
“I hear this woosh, and I look over my shoulder, and I see this massive, massive silhouette and the distinctive fin. This is not a killer whale, this is not a dolphin, this is a great white. (I was like), ‘Oh my God, oh my God, there’s a great white shark.’”
Quickly, Slavich found out that his kayak was about the same size as the great white beneath the water.
And in a very surreal moment for the fisherman, David says he literally made eye contact with the ocean’s apex predator. Once that happened, he worked to get all of his fishing rig out of the water, and hoped for the best while bracing for the worst:
“There is this giant eyeball locking with my eyeballs, and it was one of the most surreal moments I’ve ever had in my life. It’s fight-or-flight mode that you go into mostly. I was like I got to get my rig off the water; I don’t want this thing pulling on my line. So I get my rig up super-fast; you see that in the video and then I just kind of brace myself for impact. I didn’t know what was going to happen.”
Absolutely terrifying.
Fortunately, Slavich avoided the worst case scenario. The great white shark took a good, long look at the angler and his kayak, then ultimately left him alone. The California fisherman chalked it up as proof that great whites aren’t interested in messing with humans:
“I think my encounter really just proves that they are not interested in eating people, that they are pretty curious…didn’t mean my heart wasn’t beating through my chest because they can explore my leg a bit and I won’t necessarily survive that exploration.”
What an unreal experience.
A normal person would have that happen to them and decide that they’re never going back out in the ocean. That’s at least how I would react. But David says he’s not going to let the scary encounter stop him from fishing. His wife, Andrea Slavich, disagrees. When she was asked if she’ll let her husband go back out on the water in his kayak, here’s how she answered:
“No, not unless (he) gets a boat.”
So the famous line from Jaws really does ring true. He’s gonna need a bigger boat…
