Who was scared to get in the water when 'JAWS' first came out? I was!
I grew up with the bayou in the back yard and the swamp in the front yard. We always swam in the bayou and would paddle our pirogues through the swamp, getting out every now and then to pull/push it through the shallow water.
Me, my brother, and a few cousins went to see it. After watching it, NONE of us would get in the water for a couple of days!
Talk about a psychological thing!

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How many guns are too many?

Didn't really bother me because shark attacks in Oklahoma are pretty rare

I mostly grew up in the Caribbean as an Air Force brat, & I remember that some of the bases that had beach fronts had shark nets to prevent attacks. I also witnessed a fisherman land
a small Mako on a very serious rod & reel. So I was already paranoid about sharks to begin with, & seeing the Jaws movies later on in life sure didn't make me feel any easier about getting near salt water!

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire

I was scared even tho' I was around 18 when that movie came out ... and i went to the beach a lot because I lived in Southern Calif.

I was also freaked by the movie Psycho and was scared to shower for years. I was a little kid when i saw that movie, tho'.

JAWS (the movie)dID a lot of damage to the Shark populations.

I was a scary movie in parts but did not make me afraid of the water. Grew up on Long Island and now live in Florida. Scuba dived all over. Barracudas scare me more than sharks.

People fear Sharks for little reason, kinda like snakes, they believe they all should be dead.

How about ARACHNOPHOBIA??

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Still Running Against the Wind

Snakes don't bother me. There were plenty of Water Moccasins where I grew up. I also had a few boas and pythons later in life.
Now spiders, that's a different story. I wouldn't say I am scared of them, I just don't want them crawling on me. But, I do fear the Black Widow and Brown Recluse!

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How many guns are too many?

I was flying in a DC-2 (yeah they exist) from Boston to Augusta ME and had been readin' Jaws on the flight from Denver.
There was oil leaking out of the engines on that ol plane and runnin' back down the wings.

I kept lookin' out the window, down at the ocean, and quietly sayin' " fly you ol ******** fly!!!"

That is hilarious! I actually LOL after reading the last part of your reply!

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How many guns are too many?

That was good for a laugh! Thanks! And yes I know what a DC-2 is. Loud and shaky! "Puddlejumper"

Didn't have to see the movie to not like swimming in the ocean. Talk about being out of your element. My feeling is that if you are more than ankle deep, all you are is bait.

Not me. I have wade fished the Galveston surf for 63 years. For sure there are sharks in the water. I have caught tons of them on rod and reel. 6" long to 6' long. Mostly Atlantic sharp nose (sand sharks) Black tips. with the occasional bull shark, hammer head lemon and tiger. The shark population varies from year to year.

It's true that some species are more aggressive than others. The sand sharks, lemon and black tips are virtually harmless. While the tiger and hammer head and mako are said to be a lot more aggressive. Without question the meanest shark that comes into our waters is the bull shark. they are mean and they are smart. If one were ever to hit me I'd expect it'd be a bull shark. I once caught a 250 pound bull shark off shore and I was very happy not to be in the water with him, in spite of my attitude ab out getting bit.

I have come in from fishing with "strawberrys" (Shark rash) on my skin and nothing but fish heads on my stringer an unknowable number of times. What I'm here to tell you is that sharks don't want you.

I know, I know....I have cable tv too. I've seen the shows. And there are exceptions but the truth is that sharks are ancient. Been around for millions and millions of years and basically unchanged in all that time. There were no humans to feed on back then. And a shark is not a creature that experiments with his diet. What he hunted millions of years ago is what he hunts now. A shark doesn't wake up one morning and decide to "try something different". When a human gets attacked it almost always could have been prevented by the use of a little common sense.
. Don't get in the water if you are bleeding...from any where on your body.
. If you have your fish on a stringer make sure it's at least 20' long to keep the fish (a shark will go after your fish) away from your body.
. Anytime you are in salt water keep your eyes open and be aware of what is around you. When you enter the ocean you have entered the food chain. Use your head. Jelly fish are there. Crabs and sea urchins are there. And nearly everything in the water that swims has TEETH. THINK ABOUT IT.

I've seen the shows where certain areas around Australia and other foreign places have experienced an influx of creatures that the sharks feed on for one reason or another and this has attracted the sharks. I would not be getting in those waters. I'm just talking about the Texas gulf coast and the sharks we have here and how nature has things set up here.

I have been getting bumped and scraped and robbed in the surf for decades and if a shark ever wanted to take a bite out of me he's had plenty of opportunities. To be honest I've always worried more about stepping on a stingray or getting hit by a Portuguese man of war. That is a frequent occurrence in my area. Knock on wood, I've been lucky and never got hit by either.

Bottom line is just use your head. If you are in an area that is having an increase in shark attacks then go bowling. But for the most part you are safe as long as you keep your wits about you.

That is all just my opinion based upon my years of observation and experience. So if you go in the water and bet bit don't blame me.

good googly moogly yes....terrified...i just watched it on dvd last week

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SWCA#2208
KK4EMO

It definitely changed my mind about going for a moonlight swim down in Cape Cod.

Bruce seemed to be quite a chow hound.
He loved Polish and Italian food.

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Doesn't hasta call me Johnson

a DC-2 was REALLY OLD when Jaws came out

Thanks
Mike

Yup, it had a plaque on the bulkhead in front of the front row of seats saying the plane was built in 1942 and that was about 1975.

Jaws never scared me....Marsupials do....because their fassst.

Let us all be very thankful that spiders don't fly!!!!

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Wake me when it's over...

Me and my brother went to see Jaws when first came out in Wichita, Ks. and thought it was scary enough, a year later I went to Ft. Lauderdale, Fl. for a visit and while standing on a fishing dock we could see a snorkler on one side in crystal clear water minding his own business and on the other side a large white object was moving fairly fast parallel to the beach and towards the unknowing snorkler and about the time the man turns to see the large sea cow they are almost face to face. Wow, you should have seen the reaction of both of the snorkler and the manatee.


Ever seen them paratrooper spiders dropping out of trees around sunset, kinda eerie to be standing there when it happens.

I was married when Jaws was in theaters, and my wife insisted on leaving. I had to wait until my eventual divorce to see it all, on DVD. I like it, but had problems with some casting, which I think Spielberg did for reasons that can't be discussed here. In particular, I detested Richard Dreyfuss as the icththyologist. He was very unlike the man in the book. But I knew a guy who did remind me of the one in the book. He wasn't an actor, though.

I enjoyed the cameo appearance by Peter Benchley. I read all of his books. His personal addictions were a great pity and reportedly cost him his life, too soon.

The book is FAR better than the movie, and I read it first; was very eager to see the film. It also includes a subplot not seen in the movie, about an affair between the scientist and the chief's wife. Both seemed quite a bit younger in the book.

I laughed as the chief tried to pronounce a wine name, Le Montrachet. Called it Mount Rachet. It is actually a very famous and quite expensive white burgundy, made of Chardonnay grapes, as is required by law in that Appellation (sp?) Controlee.

As for sharks, I've read all of the books the chief was looking at and have others about sharks. I've studied shark attacks for over 30 years, and have some specialty works on that.

Great Whites are undeniably very dangerous, but the Bull Shark kills more people, is much more common, and usually very aggressive. They secrete more testosterone than any other animal that I know of. And they are active in both brackish and fresh water! The world record, over 13 feet, was caught in a fresh water South African river, where it is known as the Zambezi shark, as they travel,so far up that river

I laughed during a Baywatch episode that described tiger sharks as innocent. They actually have a very grim record of man-eating.

I've seen photos of attack victims, including the damage done to Rodney Fox. It isn't pretty. The worst were in a book by a French author who worked with the Natal Shark Board in South Africa to produce a remarkable book. You may be able to locate copies, so I'll list it. They have sold very cheaply Online, but you need a strong stomach to view some photos.
"The Jaws of Death", by Xavier Maniguet. A sticker on the cover warns of disturbing photos inside. Believe it. Exercise discretion in letting children read this book.

Shark attacks ae real and more common than the shark huggers want you to believe. But common sense and reading the right books will help to minimize the risk.

And, yes, I felt a little uneasy in the bathtub after seeing the movie. But I managed to bathe without bringing a knife to the tub...just in case! (However, my son did have to stab a grey reef shark off of Guam after it made a pass at him while he was spearfishing and didn't seem content to steal a fish. And I once published a whole article in a knife title about successfull use of knives and spears in defending against sharks.)

Alas, when a shark reaches the size of some Great Whites and tigers a knife probably won't help much. They're just too huge.
Makos are not sometimes just really large; they are incredibly acrobatic. Like other Isurid class sharks, they may also be more intelligent than most sharks. BTW, some sharks seem to be at least partially warm blooded.

They are fascinating creatures, but deserve to be treated with caution. Another member/shark hugger may appear here for the sharks. We have at least one on the board.

When I lived in FL we would go fishing under the SkyWay bridge. Talk about Tiger sharks and Hammerheads!

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How many guns are too many?

I did eat a Shark steak in Tulsa when attending the gun show one year.

Our swimming hole was in the river, we usually eyeballed it closely for Water Snakes or Cotton Mouths before we jumped in. When Snake was yelled loudly folks would get out pretty quickly. But due to some mean Cotton Mouths Sharks never made it to the Ozarks.

I was a lifeguard working on the Jersey Shore when the movie "Jaws" came out, not too many swimmers in the water that summer (including me). I went to see it with a buddy who was a LEO and had served with the First Air Cav in Vietnam, we both screamed like little girls a few times during the movie
Peter Benchley got the idea to write the book "Jaws" from research he did about a shark attack along the Jersey Shore in the early 1900's.
I moved to Florida right after that and now I am more afraid of gettting stung by a stingray than bitten by a shark when at the beach.

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"Life is short, hunt hard"

Who says America hasn't been wussified?

We have one of those tagged Great Whites off the coast of SC, so we have a real jaws swimming around. Me personally I don't like the ocean all that much, or the beach for that matter too many dang tourists.

What part of FL?

And those flying monkeys just ain't right.

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How many guns are too many?

Aloha,

For those of you who are REALLY Paranoid of things with sharp teeth,

you can always consider one of these:

Deep Six in FL: Reef, Sanuk, Olukai sandals, Costa sunglasses, Aqualung Dive equipment - BANGSTICKS AND POWERHEADS

One company did make one to accept a 50 BMG cartridge.

Just remember that like all dangerous game, a Brain or central nervous system hit is preferred.

A shark does Not have a nervous system like a mammal.

Try NOT to be in the water when setting one of these off.

They are Extremly LOUD, plus the Concussion can be nasty.

Yes, I have in the water when a shark was Banged by someone else.
We were spear fishing.

Also, to consider is that you will Never hear the shark coming up behind you. Wherever you are looking is the Wrong location.

Me at Rodney Fox's Museum next to the prehistoric ancester of the Great White.



Personally, I am more afraid of a box jellyfish than a shark. You can SEE a shark, but a box jellyfish will reveal itself After you have been stung and After you start going into shock.

I took my open water certification dive the week after I saw the movie. Sharks are sissys.

Spiders, now that's a whole 'nother story!!!

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James L. "Jim" Rhiner

"How about ARACHNOPHOBIA??"
"Spiders, now that's a whole 'nother story!!!"

It is my professional opinion that spiders are the most terrifying creatures on earth and were put here by the Devil!

it's ironic that this post is running right now. CNN is reporting a shark attack around New Zealand. That's the first one I've heard of in a long time.

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Lounge Lizard Extraordinaire