Shark Encounter at TOBAY Beach

My wife Audra and I are newlyweds and we are both teachers. For young loves attached at the hip, having our schedules in sync works out perfectly. I am a high-energy person and I fill my time off with activities. I give her a lot of credit, she is down for almost anything I throw at her. A few years ago, Audra followed me into the ocean and I taught her to surf. She actually caught her first wave days after she learned how to swim. Another trait of my wife’s worth mentioning is that she can easily be worked up when an idea gets into her head.

Audra's most recent idea is that sharks are among us and that they crave the flesh of teachers on vacation. She’s actually half right. The victim of this idea has been her surfing. Audra’s time in the water this summer decreased because of several factors. The first frightens many each year, Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. The second is the recent Fire Island “shark attacks.” I theorize that one may have been a bluefish and that the other was an accidental collision with a juvenile shark. I regularly debate these points with my equally worked up Mother-in-Law. The third is the NOAA surf fisherman at TOBAY Beach. He was recently featured on News 12, and early in the summer, my wife watched him reel in a shark for tagging.

A few weeks ago, when a small swell reached Long Island, I asked Audra if she’d come surfing. She shook her head no. I don’t mind surfing solo, however, I became bummed because when it’s clean and not too big, there’s nothing better than surfing with the woman I love. In the water, there was a large crowd of mostly older guys. I love older surfers because they have wisdom based skill. Surfing is a great pursuit because it requires athleticism and skill. The athleticism is given to the young, but the skill develops with age. This is why at the age of forty-six, Kelly Slater is only now talking about retiring from professional surfing. As the swell decreased, the crowd thinned until I was left with the core of the older guys. I admired their abilities. I watched them catch waves that I wouldn’t even have paddled for. Then we saw a special site, dolphins coming up for air just yards away from the lineup. I thought my wife, an animal lover, would love to hear about what happened, but when I told her it freaked her out even more.

One day last week, the rain cleared up and we decided to go to the beach. The tide was low and there was a small swell. After some coaxing, I convinced Audra to paddle out. Lately, the waves are breaking well, because of the area between the shore and the sandbar filling in over the winter. This surfer’s delight is a lifeguard’s headache. The filled in bottom invites swimmers to wade out further than usual. Once there, they get into trouble as the tide rises. My wife was happy to learn that she barely had to paddle. After riding a wave she could push her board back and wade to where the waves were breaking. I was happy because I knew it would be a longer than usual surf session for her. We caught wave after wave, and I commented how nice it was that it was just the two of us in the lineup. I was hopeful that the idea that she was going to become shark bait was likely out of Audra's head.

I was riding a new board that day and I wanted Audra to try it out. We switched boards and I laughed, as her’s was clearly undersized for me. Standing next to mine, Audra looked out for a wave. I looked at her and I saw her face erupt into pure terror. She began pointing over my shoulder screaming, “SHARK, SHARK, SHARK!” She turned and started running towards the beach. I yelled at her to get on her board and paddle. She wasn’t getting far running in water, and if there was a shark, putting some fiberglass between them seemed like a good idea. On her smaller board and falling behind, I remembered my experience from the week before. I called out to her “Are you sure it wasn’t a dolphin?” Certain of what she saw, she screamed that it was a shark and begged for me to get out of the water. She was now growing upset with me because she didn’t understand why I was moving so slow. Hearing her cries, a crowd gathered on the beach. As she reached the shore break, I still had a good distance to paddle. I yelled for the crowd to point it out. One woman did, and it was still right behind me. I begged to know how far, but she only pointed. Long ago, I convinced myself that only juvenile sharks visited our waters feeding on the fish near the shore. I told myself that Jaws was further out to sea looking for bigger meals. I took surf trips to destinations where shark attacks are relatively common and always had faith that I would be fine. This was different, my wife and the people on the beach suggested to me that I was in trouble. I dared not look back as I paddled. I was actually shaking on the board. I had heard of people shaking with fear before, but I took the expression for granted. You actually do shake when you're scared.

When I finally made it to the beach, three women met me. One was Audra. She was frantic and yelling at me for “taking my time.” Another was asking me if she should get the lifeguard. The third was the one who pointed for me. She was laughing. She had been watching us in the water. She told Audra that she surfed great and was watching a pod of dolphins swimming near us the whole time. I couldn’t believe it. Embarrassed, I settled down, I told my wife that she was a “goober,” and I remembered the wisdom my father shared with me years ago, “Don’t turn your back on the ocean.”

Audra will likely surf again, but the fact is that we are more likely to suffer an injury in a car accident driving to the beach than we are in the jaws of a shark. I get annoyed when people vow to stay out of the ocean because of an overly hyped up shark threat, but sharks are out there. Actually, dolphins and sharks have the same food source. So let this be a warning to you, it’s important to stay alert when in the ocean and when operating a vehicle. Pray for surf and please don’t text and drive.