The reality is that most people will never encounter a shark, much less be harmed by one.

"Each year, humans kill about 100 million sharks, and sharks kill four or five humans," said George Burgess, director of shark research at the Florida Museum of Natural History, where he tracks statistics on shark attacks around the world. "The real story is the other way around."

The fascination with the otherworldly creatures is enough to fuel any number of storytellers, as The Advertiser found out when we requested readers' first-hand accounts.

We'll admit that buying all of these shark stories without supporting evidence is like listening to fishermen talk story about their biggest catch.

"Some shark attacks occur at a bar after a few beers," Burgess said. "Attacks are in the eye of the beholder."

Here are a few of those close encounters that haven't made the cut for a motion picture.

Yet.

A cautionary tale

In an image taken with a disposable camera, Rico Leffanta captures a shark swimming in the waters near the North Shore. He posts his pictures on his Web site.

Bagshaw, of Makawao, Maui, doesn't want to sound boastful. He'd rather have others learn from his experience.

He was used to swimming alone in open waters and always took a knife, which he used to clear abandoned nets from coral. It was July 1996, and he continued swimming alone after his friend swam to shore.

"I heard a noise underwater that I'd never heard before, like someone dragging an empty cooler over the rocks and coral," he said. "I imagined a diver getting wedged in a cave, the tank scraping, so I swam toward the noise to see if someone was in trouble."

A large shape appeared, and Bagshaw knew from the bars and spots that it was a tiger shark. They were about 30 yards apart, and Bagshaw popped his head out of the water to yell for help, but no one heard him.

He could see its nostrils and eyes. Its head was about as wide as his shoulders and squared off like a snow shovel.

It came up and bumped him.

Bagshaw thought about smacking it in the nose with his fist but worried about missing and ending up with his hand in her mouth.

"I bopped her on the head as she gently lifted me a little out of the water," he recalls. "I could tell she wasn't hurt by my wimpy punch, but she seemed surprised and dropped down a bit."

The shark seemed to spin on the point of her tail and came up and bumped him again. By this time, Bagshaw had his knife out and jabbed toward the top of its head. The blade went in just above the gill slits on its left side. Bagshaw thought he'd sealed his fate by making a tiger mad and only slightly wounded.

But the shark disappeared, and Bagshaw swam ashore with the knife out in front of him, looking over his shoulder. Someone walking on the cliff heard his screams and asked what happened. The man said he did see something large in the water. He was Bagshaw's only witness.

Bagshaw is still awed by the experience.

"When people ask me to retell the story, I do so only if they will listen to the lessons I learned," he said. "I wore goggles, I could see her coming. If I hadn't seen her first, this story might have been different. I studied about sharks before and after, and I wasn't just armed with knowledge, I had a knife. The water was clear, I was close to shore, and while I was alone, I've read other encounters where people were attacked in groups. I think my only mistakes were curiosity about that sound, and being in the water during that time of year below a cliff where I know sea birds nest. But not 'running' was the best decision I made that day.

"I'm since grateful for meeting her, seeing her in the wild, not in a tank. Sometimes I think of her as a forceful friend who showed me a strong part of myself I didn't know existed. I'm only 160 pounds. If I can defend myself, anyone can. Learn about the ocean and who lives there. Go armed at least with knowledge and goggles so you can see whose house you are barging into. And remember that traffic accidents are still more likely and dangerous. As 'Dory' says in 'Finding Nemo,' just keep swimming. I still do."

Glory in the retelling

Jeff Clevenger doesn't often recount his tale, either. He just listens to the story grow when his buddies retell it. Clevenger, of Kapa'a, Kaua'i, remembers spearfishing off the Florida Keys when a 5-foot nurse shark came after his snapper. Clevenger got away with his catch, but his friends have made the story legendary.

"Every year, it seems, the shark gets bigger and meaner. Last time it was an 8-foot bull shark, and I was wrestling it Tarzan-style with a knife clenched in my teeth. The truth is, a hog snapper made it to the grill that night on Big Pine Key, and many Coronas were consumed. That day, I was the one that got away."

Sam is out there

The Rev. Neal McHenry's story may have happened 41 years ago, but he tells it in the present tense. And you would think a clergyman wouldn't be making things up:

"It's 1963 and perfectly glassy. The ocean just like glass, no ripples, 8 a.m. The sun is out."

Rumor had it a 14-foot shark named Sam patrolled outside the surf break known as Ricebowls, and McHenry says surfers would see Sam from time to time. There was a 10- to 12-foot summer swell that day. McHenry was 17 years old, out in the lineup at a spot known as Zeros, which was bigger and scarier than Ricebowls.

"We are young, strong, good big-wave surfers, and our adrenaline was up," he remembers. "It's our home break, and it's perfect."

So McHenry's reflecting on the beauty of the water when he sees a ripple the size of a dinner plate about two feet from his friend.

"I thought, 'What a strange little boil.' The boil slowly opened up and without a sound grew and grew. Slowly, in the center of the boil, a 12-inch fin slides up into view," he recalls. "It's Sam."

His friend didn't even notice it until McHenry commanded him to paddle away.

"I looked into his eyes and told him how close he came to being shark bait," McHenry said. His friend's board was 11 feet long. Sam, he remembers, was at least three feet longer.

The main thing they were bummed about was the fact that they missed the huge set coming in. But, McHenry says, "Sam is somewhere out there."

'Shark highway'

William Watson can remember even farther back than that. It was summer 1952, and he was spearfishing along the cliffs of Mokapu Point at Kane'ohe Bay.

He was searching an underwater cave when the sun shining on the cave floor went black, and he saw the belly of a large shark above him.

The shark started back out to sea on his third pass, and Watson ditched his gear and climbed lava knobs to get out of there.

He still thinks there's a "shark highway" from deep water into Kane'ohe Bay.

Was I seeing things?

Mark Cunningham

"I'm kinda bummed. I'm kinda relieved," says the former lifeguard who has been playing and working around O'ahu's coastline for nearly 50 years. Here's his best shark tale:

"About two years ago, I'm out at Point Panic for a pau-hana session. It wasn't 9 feet and glassy, more like 2 to 3, fun and relaxing. The sun had dropped behind the Wai'anaes. Dusk was approaching. So was dinner time."

He remembers positioning himself in the water, savoring the moment and the view of people enjoying Kaka'ako Waterfront Park at sunset.

He was waiting to catch the perfect wave, when ... "There, between me and the peak, already riding the wave, was a torpedo? A mini-sub? A dolphin? A shark? In all my years of riding waves before or since, I've never seen or felt anything like it."

He describes it as something "like seeing a ghost" or like being repelled by a huge black magnet.

He turned to survival mode, and after dropping in on the shadow, he rode the whitewater close to the rocks, raced out of the water and stared out.

"No fins, shadows, weird wakes or splashes," he said. "I looked long and hard. Nothing."

He went to the shower to rinse off, all the while watching the water. A friend came up to rinse off his board and saw the look on his face.

"You saw it, too," his friend said. All Cunningham could do was smile and be thankful he was still in one piece.

It was what I thought

Julius Ludovico

"I shouldn't have been surfing where I was surfing to begin with," he said. "I sat way out in the lineup. It was a big day that day ... I knew I had to go back in for work, but I was just having too much fun. Then, as I was waiting, I saw this 'thing' sticking out. Memories of the movie 'Jaws' came to mind."

He decided to paddle in as fast as he could.

"Next thing I knew, I was at the shower. Another surfer was looking at me and was like, 'You saw it, huh?' and I was just relieved that I got away."

'The shark face'

George Meyer calls it "the shark face," that look that people get when they experience it.

"Ask anyone who surfs and they know the look of something bad on their friend's face while in the water," he said.

Last year, while surfing in Hickam harbor, Meyer said, he caught a long ride over the reefs. As he was paddling back out over the channel, he saw his friend paddling toward him with "the face."

"He said that we have to leave because Mr. Tiger had taken off on the wave behind mine and was actually following me in," Meyer said. "I am glad I did not see it, but you can't forget the look in someone's face after they experience the sighting. Needless to say, we left."

Caught by surprise

John Wythe White is familiar with "the look."

It was a sunny weekday morning in May when a late-season swell was bringing three-foot waves to the North Shore. White, of Hale'iwa, was out at a surf spot called Walls, a 15-minute paddle from shore close to Hale'iwa harbor traffic.

"We were waiting out a lull when, no more than six feet in front of us, a large shark popped out of the water — not head first, but its entire bulk appearing all at once, launched into the air in the style of a spinner dolphin," he recalls. "From snout to tail, its body was contorted into a rigid curve, like an archer's drawn bow. It splashed back into the water and disappeared as suddenly at it had appeared."

The surfers looked at one other for a moment in shock. Then, without a word of coordination, they all caught the next wave out of there. On the beach, they talked excitedly about the incident. They agreed it was a tiger shark, at least 8 feet long, and that they must have surprised it as much as it surprised them.

"Ever since that day, I have been viscerally aware that, should a shark decide to attack me, it will do so without warning," he said. "I won't see it coming at me 'Jaws'-like, dorsal fin parting the water like the periscope of a submarine. I won't see it at all."

Just checking you out

Kevin Batey

"There was a large, dark shadow just below and to the left of me," he said. "I first thought, 'What's that?' Then I saw the fin and realized it was a shark. It had come up from behind me and just cruised to a stop to check me out."

Batey swung around and booked it to shore.

The last time he went back to his favorite surf spot, he heard one of the other guys telling his buddies he had seen something in one of the swells.

"We all knew what the 'something' was," Batey said. "Nobody went in."

The captain's advice

Lisa Davey

Because she was not a diver, she didn't intend to watch the controlled feeding of sharks.

The boat captain said she would be safe if she wanted to snorkel at the top instead.

But one shark was more interested in her than the chum below.

It circled and glided past her and the boat.

"As I neared the boat, the shark passed by me and brushed me across my stomach," she said. "I flew out of the water and up the stairs with fins on. To this day, I don't really know how I got out of the water so quickly, but I can tell you that I will never, ever forget that feeling on my stomach."  

Kodak moment

Other encounters have more of a documentary style. Rico Leffanta has proof. He takes pictures, including one taken off the North Shore at arm's length with a disposable camera.

He posts photos on his Web site, www.geocities.com/rleffan ta/shark.html, where he insists sharks can seem more like Walt Disney toys than predators.

"I tend to stay out of the ocean when the water is murky, or when populated with jellyfish or man-o'-wars," he said. "I also try to keep my arms under my chest, as I believe sharks are attracted by outstretched arms, which are easily mistaken as fins by amorous sharks."

Respect for the sea

Linda Kaiser

Some people run marathons. Linda Kaiser swims channels (such as the 20-mile channel from Kaua'i to Ni'ihau she completed in 10 hours and 45 minutes). It is safe to say she has spent a lot of time in the ocean.

In 1990, she was swimming from Maui to Moloka'i with swimmer Mike Spalding of Maui. They left the beach before sunrise. A beautiful moonbow sent them off. Their escort boat waited offshore. The sun rose, and it was a clear day with light wind and good current.

"We were about an hour from Moloka'i, and I got stung under both arms by a Portuguese Man-o'-War," she said. "It was quite painful. We decided to take a feeding and let the pain subside."

She began swimming again when something caught her eye.

"It was just a dot in the blue void, but getting bigger. It took a while for my mind to register that it was a shark coming straight up from below us."

She was awed by its beauty, but her mind clicked in. She grabbed her friend and said the dreaded "S" word.

"Mike grabbed me and prepared to punch the animal. I had visions of Mike's hand disappearing into the shark's mouth. As it got about 10 feet from us, the shark altered its path and dove under us. He passed so close I had to lift my feet out of the water. We lay on our bellies and watched the 10- to 12-foot gray-green animal pass under us four times. He was in no hurry, just kept checking us out."

Their escort boat approached, and by then, the shark had descended back into the blue void.

Kaiser and her partner kept swimming, their hearts pounding. Once in shallow water, they felt safe.

"Had that shark attacked us, he probably would have killed one of us," she said. "He was very big. But he was just curious. He made no move toward us. I realize that when I enter the ocean, I am a visitor in another world. I am humbled to be allowed to visit this world and to be tolerated by the creatures in it."

Careful with the jokes

For Lisa Tam, respect means no longer bodyboarding alone or after 5 p.m., ever since her close encounter off Diamond Head, the day she saw the shadow. She beat the shark to shore, but it left her with a sense of caution.

"I always joke around with my husband and say when it's my time to go, I would like it to be quick and dramatic like a shark attack, over instantly with a good story for the kids to tell," she said. "I think I should stop saying that. Bachi!"