Water recreation businesses say the attention placed on shark attacks this summer has hurt their income.
“They’re concerned that they’re going to get attacked by a shark because that’s all they’ve seen on the news,” said Trent Ventura.
Ventura is the owner of Carolina Paddle Company.
He says his company started out in Hawaii, but as a Grand Strand native he wanted to bring it home.
Over the last four seasons, Ventura says sales are up and popularity in the company has grown.
He says this year has been different.
“I get a lot of people that call up and ask where we do our paddle board tours and where we teach people and if it’s out in the ocean; and pretty much every single one of them ask if it is going to be near a shark,” said Ventura.
He says his company and other paddle board businesses say that fear of sharks has cost them.
“We’ve seen about a 50% cut in our business from this time last year,” said Ventura.
He says when customers find out a lot of his paddle board lessons are done in freshwater and not the ocean their fear disappears.
Ventura does hold surfing and paddle board lessons in the ocean as well.
He says you are definitely not alone when you are out there.
“We see sharks out in the ocean all the time,” said Ventura.
He says most of the time, sharks keep their distance and you will never seem them
“There is no reason to be afraid of getting in the water. That’s one of the best parts of Myrtle Beach is getting in the ocean”
