Shark!!!

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So I started today just like I have started most days here in Gili -- I woke up to a wonderful fresh fruit salad and fruit shake (fruit, ice, blender). I did some Yoga by the pool and set off for my morning paddle-ski (think a cross between a Kayak and a surfboard). Normally I Just paddle the length the populated side of the island but this time I was inspired -- I wondered if I could paddle all the way around the island. I had both run and walked it before and that was manageable so how hard could paddling around it be? How hard indeed.

It is about 10K (6 miles) around and therefore takes about an hour to run. Paddling, however, was somewhat different. First of all there is the matter of the off-shore breakers (waves)... You see, if you are too close to shore then the waves crashing on the beach get you -- they are not HUGE but they are not easy to deal with on the top of a glorified surfboard. So I had to go out from shore where I found, on the Lombok side of the island, that there is another set of larger and more intimidating breakers at the edge of the reef. I tried to find a sweet spot between the off-shore waves and the beach breakers to paddle through. That was when I encountered the shark.

The water was about 3 feet deep and the reef was clear below me. I could the bottom clearly with schools of silvery fish scattering as I passed over them, bright blue fish exploring the coral and the occasional larger fish -- probably trigger and parrot fish. And then a large black rip reef shark swam under me! As it passed under my board it got startled and shot away in a flash! Before this I would, from time to time, let my feet hang over the edge to cool down or gain some balance if the waves got to much -- NOT ANY MORE. Feet, toes and fingers were definitely not going in the water any more! And the one time a wave did knock me off I SHOT out of the water and levitated back onto my board in record time. I saw a second, smaller, shark a bit later.

After the second shark the reef became too shallow to paddle over -- the tide was going out. This was bad because it meant paddling OVER the large reef breakers out in the open ocean and increased the distance I had to travel dramatically. I got over the waves without incident, and continued my trip. I then spotted a dive boat from TRAWRANGAN DIVE and thought I would go over to see if they had any water -- I was really thirsty at this point, the exertion combined with the Indonesian sun burning down.

I arrived at their boat -- we said our 'hellos' as I pulled along side. I asked if they had any water. No. Really, they said no. I mean, what dive boat does NOT have fresh drinking water aboard. Either they were lying or they are they are terribly disorganised and not terribly concerned with safety. I am going to suggest that while the former is the more likely answer, their actions confirmed that the latter is also true.

As I sat alongside, holding the gunnel of their boat, a woman walked up (in scuba gear) sat on the gunnel above me and, before I could begin to react, rolled off the boat onto my board! Her partner, in the water, gave me a very hard time about this -- like it was my fault. I have been diving.... she should have checked behind her before going in. Her partner should also have warned her... and her dive master.

Then, as I recovered my balance, and started to pull away from the boat, they started the engines and started moving. To understand how this affected me, you need to understand a bit about the boat's design. They are narrow boats with pontoons on both sides. I was alongside the boat inside the pontoon on the port (left) side. When they started moving forward, the beam from the pontoon hit me in the head (not hard) and knocked me off my board. They KNEW I was there. They were talking to me. And did they stop at this stage? No, they just kept moving forward so that the second beam knocked me over again as I tried to get up onto my board (remembering the sharks I had just seen).

It is clear to me that TRAWANGAN DIVE is not terribly concerned with safety -- I would not recommend them as a dive school should you be headed here.

Anyway, after an hour and a half I reached coral beach, the two thirds mark, and stopped for a fresh fruit shake. I needed that! I then continued my journey and after almost two hours of hard paddling I made it back to the Beach House (where I am staying).

My arms, back and shoulders were definitely feeling it! And was I hungry. Since I had gone so far I skipped my normal walk around the island and slept for two hours!

Another day in paradise!

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Comments

[Bhawna]

Excuse me
I am more excited about all the fresh fruit, juices, salads and smoothies you are having than the little shark :) Thinking what wonders it would be doing to your skin ; )

[Tim]

sharks are our friends!
come on man, you say you've been diving, but here you are perpetuating the very myth that puts so many people off getting in the water. The black tip reef sharks, and the white tips, around Trawangan are way more scared of you than you should be of them. They are beautiful creatures going about their normal life. That aside, loved your story of kayaking around the island. I tried it over to Meno one day and that was bad enough! Enjoy the Gilis - best place in the world

[Delphine]

Perpetuating the shark myth
I don't see the story as perpetuating the shark myth - I see it as a description of a perfectly human reaction. We cannot be fully rational and politically correct all the time. At times we react, based on deep-seated fears. If we are to deny that we have fearful incidents with spiders, sharks, lions, elephants, and Thai jails, we would be living a lie. Part of life is overcoming our fears, and part of that is knowing which ones are real and rational.