I’m lucky enough to have parents with vacation property on Pawley’s Island, South Carolina. I’m also lucky enough to have parents willing to let me go there over Labor Day with some friends. We had a great time.

The weather was amazing. I think the hurricane that had just past through helped in that regard. The surf kicked up on the second and third day of our vacation, which made for fun in the water.

Hunt Hapworth, who was one of our guests, rented two kayaks. I had never kayaked in the ocean before, and found it to be at once tiring and enjoyable. When I first put my kayak in the water everyone on the beach started yelling at me. I turned to my left and saw a fin coming out of the water. It was then that I realized that they were shouting “SHARK!” I turned around and got out of the water

I had heard that people fishing had caught small sharks before at Pawley’s, but this was the closest I had ever come to a live shark. Needless to say it was unnerving. Eventually the shark got caught in fishing net and died in the ocean. We dragged it onto shore and buried it. Once on land we were able to determine that it was about six feet in length.