Originally Posted by Piggie

I am really glad I lived before all the Jaws stuff occurred. As a teenager I spent as much time off the shore in the waves at Cocoa Beach as I could find time. Thousands of hours of my feet dangling under my surf board. Back then there were about 2% or less of the people on the beach as you find now. So I am sure that had a lot to do with me never hearing of anyone being attacked on the east coast. I also didn't watch the news in those days and was working on fixing dings in my surfboard when stuck inland.

Funny too back then we hardly ever saw a shark. I even remember that feeling on my legs of a sand shark brushing up against me walking out in the water. Sand sharks never attacked anyone. Nor did the black tips. The larger species in the tiger family (sands are also tigers) worried us. Sand sharks are typically never over 100 pounds, and that is big.

Now at Daytona for the last several years someone gets bitten by one of the small tiger species (sand or black tip). I think it's purely the fact there are about 50 to 100 times the number of people in the water than when I was a kid. First the odds go up. Second I think the sharks are getting used to seeing legs and humans and their fear is lower than 40 years ago.