It seems to happen at the start of every summer. You hear them all over the place, and it doesn’t matter where, but everyone seems to have a shark story. Working in a surf shop I hear them all the time. Just the other day a guy came in who was half way through a round the country surf trip and had three encounters in the last two months. I was for no good reason particularly edgy yesterday surfing a mellow beachy near Portsea… in the intermittent rain.

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There was a few older guys on mals huddled together a couple of metres away and as my friend Nick was paddling back out he gestured out to sea. I assumed he was informing me of set or something but there was nothing there. I turned back around to NIck as if to say “what?”. As soon as I did, a one and a half metre dark shape darted between my legs, so close I could feel the turbulence in the water with my feet. I had never been more terrified in my life, I shat bricks. After I realised I hadn’t actually released excrement into my wetsuit I instantly thought of all the stories I had recently heard and how I was going to drive home with one leg. Luckily for me a few more metres down the beach it breached the water to reveal it’s dog like seal head.

Now you are unlikey to be attacked by a bear whilst snowboarding, a rabid dog (way more likely to be a cop or disgruntled citizen) whilst skating, or even a shark whilst surfing, but stay safe out there this summer.