No I have not been attacked by a large shark, nor have I had an opportunity to ph one. Along the Ca. coast you don't see many large sharks, and if you do they are often GWs which are protected. If you are looking for stories along that line there are lots of threads on the board about personal experiences.
This thread involved (at some point) a discussion on the use of phs as defense against marauding sharks while diving, and the use of phs in spearfishing in general.
I think a better question would be-where did you ever get the idea that powerheads were bad? or were unethical to use to hunt fish? or for that matter, weren't cool? They are very cool, if you like to spearfish, to hunt, if you enjoy firearms, reloading, weaponry in general, etc. I would agree they are not 'sporting' in the same way that fighting a fish on a line is, but you still have to hunt your prey, get the shot, still diving, still fighting the elements, etc.; you are not harvesting any more fish than you would with a spear point (one can poach and overharvest with any method), and as far as safety to meet a threat you can't beat them cheers zeN
