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I (Colin Smith) was on a boat
at the bait buoy [13 miles off Oahu]. I
had jumped over the side and speared a 15-pound
dorado when these two bronze whalers, 10
and 12 feet long, came in to check me out.
The more aggressive of the two came in for
a closer look. I don't think that it wanted
to eat me - it was just being territorial.
I called his bluff to some degree and he
came at me like a freight train. It's like
going to battle: Once the can's been opened,
you've got to keep goin'. I had fired my
spear earlier, and with nothing to defend
myself, I started beating the shark with
the wooden part of my gun, which was like
hitting a brick wall. I hit him in the eye
and he rolled over, bit my gun, shook it,
and swan away. When I got back to the boat,
I thought, Next time I'll be prepared.
Round two came immediately when
I went back into the water. This
time I had a spear in my gun but didn't
have time to load it. Both sharks were about
15 feet away from me when I started swimming
aggressively towards them. To this day,
I can't think of anything more intense.
As soon as I swam at them, one of them took
a bead on me and swam straight at me at
40 miles per hour. I would have bet the
house that wasn't going to happen, and I
about shit. He meant 100 percent business.
I lunged at him early, but he was coming
so fast I couldn't tell when he was going
to hit me. He was two feet from my head
when I lowered the gun, struck him in the
gill plate, pushed with everything I had,
and stuck him absolutely as hard as I could.
If I had done anything but that, it would
have been a really bad thing.
He was actually on top of me, and
his tail thrashed so violently on the surface
that I later heard from the guys on the
boat that water was blowing like 15 feet
in all different directions. They
thought I was dead. Beneath the surface,
there were air bubbles everywhere and I
couldn't see my hand in front of my face,
so I stuck with the same aggressive plan
and swam through the bubbles in his direction,
ready to stick him again if I had to. When
I saw him moving slowly away, I could tell
he'd had enough. I'd defiantly had enough
so I swam back to the boat.
People ask me why I do things like that,
and I tell them that I don't want to be
afraid of living'.
I've always known that the ocean is a dangerous
place, and that's what I love about it.
There's no thought of slowing down.
"You're
not going to break your neck sitting at
home, but you're not going to climb a ten
thou-sand foot peak either. Special thanks
to Chris Aherns for letting us share this
experience." -S.G.
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