Imagine you’re this guy, just paddling along in your kayak doing some fishing off the coast of Santa Barbara, California when out of nowhere a very large and very angry hammerhead shark starts attacking you. In this scenario you are inside of your kayak, so when the shark begins to ram you it’s hitting plastic and not your legs, but this is scaring the ever living shit out of you because you’re hundreds of yards off the beach and if you were to capsize in that kayak from the brute force of the shark attacks you’d then be flailing around in the water with an angry hammerhead shark coming at you. Also, you’ve probably got some bloody fish with you since you’ve been out there fishing, so the shark has the scent of blood and is associating that wonderful scent with YOU and ONLY YOU at the moment.
Now I want you to take into consideration just how little plastic is between you and the shark. If you’ve ever paddled a kayak before you know that kayaks are not super thick, and every time that shark rams your vessel you feel it. Again, your way off shore to your mind is playing some serious tricks on you and the creeping realization that you might be soon experiencing a bloody shark attack is becoming very, very real. That’s exactly what happened to Mark McCracken last Saturday when he was fishing in his kayak a half mile off Gaviota State Beach in Santa Barbara.
Mark McCracken filmed the 15-minute encounter while he fished for bonito half a mile off Gaviota State Beach, near Santa Barbara, on Saturday.
“It hit the back of my kayak twice and I turned around to see it,” McCracken told NBC News. “I couldn’t tell if he was biting [the kayak] or if he was head-butting it but soon as I saw it I just started going at him with the paddle.”
The shark was “super aggressive,” said McCracken, a 33-year-old construction worker from Santa Maria, California.
The footage showed the animal circling round for several passes at the kayak and each time being hit away by McCracken’s paddle.
Once McCracken decided to row into shore, the animal’s fin was seen continuing in pursuit.
The shark “followed me all the way into about three feet of water,” McCracken said. “Even after I got out of my kayak and made it to the beach he was sitting right there…it was pretty creepy.”
If I were him I would have been crapping my pants. But major props must go out to Mark for keeping his cool and making it back to shore safely.
So. Much. NOPE: