All in 2 seconds. Todd Endris was attacked at marina beach near monterey last week by a 14 foot great white shark. Read his interview here. Wow.
Guess this is another case of dealing with ‘the landlord’.
Locals 1, surfers 0.
I’m pretty unhappy to hear that a young college student who obviously loves to surf and was looking for uncrowded waves(like alot of us) had to go thru this agony and exspensive medical bills on top of it. My daughter found four sliced and diced sea lions within a hundred yards of each while walking her dog on this beach. I’m glad she decided to start surfing elsewhere a couple of months ago. I’m not a rich guy(few shapers are). If anyone has the wherewithall to start it I’ll put the first $100 in an account to aid in the paying of medical exspenses. Hopefully he had insurance. Lowel
McDing, I am in for $100 , also, just let me know where to send it. Thoughts and prayers go out to this young man and his family.
Very interesting interview. The Surfer seems very composed and thank God he is alive and seems to be in good spirits.
that’s cheap - he’s alive
it’s a risk we all run, by our own free will and choice, to one degree or another
In the interview he said he was fully insured…
Save you hard earned for a better cause, or put it towards a shark shield…
What I find interesting is that in a 2 second attack, the shark can determine whether or not he want’s to eat what he’s just bitten. I think the surfboard plays a big part. Surfers seem to get bitten and spit out more than say abalone divers or even spongers. Those guys get bitten in half or get bitten so badly that they die…more often then surfers. And there’s always bite marks on the surfboards. Now considering the potential PSI in a 14 foot great whites bite (if he wanted to he could kill you by sheer pressure and just crush you) it’s interesting that the shark has such an accute sense of taste or feel. After all he’s in the ocean all day every day. They didn’t find one tooth in him or the board. It was just a taste. That’s why he lived. Sure he lifted him out of the water. One of those things could latch onto you and take you straight down easily if he wanted. Is it the Fiberglass he tastes? Does the breaking glass send tiny chards into his sensitive gums which fires a no go signal to the brain fairly quick? What about the sound of crunching glass as opposed to squooshing seal blubber? Does a wounded human give off a different vibration than a wounded seal? A large pool of blood had formed around this guy. It was mentioned that as he rode a wave towards shore the wave behind him was all red. It’s said that a shark can smell a drop of blood from a mile away(I don’t believe it). Why wasn’t there like 10 sharks following him to shore or joining the attack? Why can’t they keep one alive in captivity long enough to learn anything solid about them? During shark week they showed big whiteys breeching off seal island in south africa. They had a tracking device attached to one and tracked it as well as monitored the depths which it swam at. It swam from S.A. something like 2000 miles north and back again over the course of several months. It never breeched the ocean surface again only at seal island. WTF is with these things???
And what about the dolphins? I’ve never heard of such activity during an attack?? Any thoughts?
Shark attack victim, twenty-four year old Todd Endris, remains at San Jose Hospital in fair condition, recovering from severe wounds to his leg and right torso. Endris’ injuries were incurred Tuesday morning, August 28th at about 10:30 am, while surfing with friends at Marina Beach in Monterrey. Sharks have been known to frequent the area, but there have been only 10 attacks there since 1952, two leading to fatalities.
The white shark lunged at Endris from the right, engulfing his torso, and part of his upper right leg.
Fellow surfers, however, report that something felt awry a few days prior to the attack. No one could have really known what danger lurked beneath, but there was a definite eeriness in the air. Wayne Kelly, a friend of Endris who surfed the day before, claimed that this sensation was escalated by the increased presence of a school of dolphins frolicking in the lineup. Common belief is that when dolphins are nearby, surfers need not worry about the unwanted company of sharks. Endris’ incident proved to the contrary. As he paddled deep to drop in on the second wave on the incoming set, he was blindsided by mortality in the form of a fifteen-foot, grim reaper from the murky deep. The white shark lunged at Endris from the right, engulfing his torso, and part of his upper right leg. The dolphins may have brought a false sense of security, but redeemed their reputation as they reportedly rushed in to batter the assailing shark, Kelly reports, “with their tails and noses,” and even went so far as to “surround” Endris as a safety blockade. Onlookers believe that the dolphins may have helped to save Endris from the clutches of death, a serendipitous explanation for the prolonged presence of the marine mammals.
Riding a wave of shock, Endris was able to reach the safety of the shore on his friend’s board. Three men helped the 6’3, 200 pound victim to ride in on his stomach as the foamy, blood-tainted whitewater pushed him to dry land. A 911 call was made from the Marina Coast Water District office and help arrived soon to airlift Endris to San Jose Hospital where he is still recovering.
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Sharks generally do not strike twice, but eyewitnesses were fairly certain that Todd would have been doomed had it not been for the dolphins who flew into a frenzy around the injured young man; that and the bravery of his fellow surfers who answered Todd’s yells for help and acted quickly on shore, utilizing leashes as tourniquets and preventing their friend from looking at the mutilated flesh on his back and leg.
Kelly reports that his friend is in “good condition and he’ll live, but he might be in the hospital for a while.” His wounds are no longer life threatening at this point and it is predicted that he will recover full use of his leg as the majority of the damage was inflicted upon his torso. Beaches from Marina all the way to Moss are still closed for an undetermined amount of time. Locals are skeptical about returning to the water, but hopefully time will quell their fear and they can return to surf soon.
the great white typically doesn’t attack humans, it just tastes them to see if they are anything interesting. Unfortunately his taste buds are on his lips next to the industrial sized razorblades we refer to as teeth. The taste buds just instantly tell the shark that our flesh and blood has way to low a fat content to be seals or other marine mammals. And in most cases the shark doesn’t “attack”. Have you seen a carcharias carcharadon attack? It would split a human into mince meat in one movement, if you survive, it wasn’t an attack, it was an inquisitive tasting session…
The surfboard may play a role if the shark had bitten only the surfboard and went off as happens often, then it realizes that surfboards don’t taste like marine mammals…
What’s a 250k medical bill when you have your life and the story of a lifetime eh…
I hope the chap will surf again.
I hope the shark remembers humans don’t taste like marine mammals…
People are quick to humanize the behavior of dolphins and think of them as sentient, loving, caring creatures. They are still wild animals! Perhaps the shark was after the dolphins and they were using the surfer as a distraction. They are certainly intelligent, but as animals they are hard-wired for self-preservation and survival. We must not forget the lessons taught us by Siegfried & Roy!
to continue with LokBox’s “what’s with these things?” sentiment…
did anybody else see the sharkweek episode with the white’s going
after penguins that were swimming along on the surface? the shark
would go to bite and the penguin would swim down and poke him in
the nose. the shark would totally abort his attack… what’s up with
that? a 20lb bird pokes a white shark in the nose and just calls his
bluff! huh?!?
got in the water yesterday at one of the local beachbreaks south of S.F.
one of those ones where the bottom just drops off into oblivion. lot’s of
pelicans diving. baitballs surfacing a couple hundred yards out. 3 guys
out. then just me…
this story was definitely on my mind. fall is the time when i don’t really
mind some crowd.
my prayers are also with Todd. thank God he’s alive and has insurance.
he said he’ll only pay $3500 out of pocket.
on the plus side, he’ll have some really bitchin’ scars!
When traveling in that area,I usually stop and surf, Lover’s Pt./Big Sur River…been chased out of there a few times by large sharks.Herb
A few weeks ago a juvenile (10 ft or so) White took a seal off one of the nearby beaches, actually it was about 5 mi from where I generally surf. Apparently the White munched away on the poor Pinnaped while beach goers watched.
The scenario wasn’t a unique one - seals get hit all the time, all over. What made it unique is that there really hasn’t been much of the way of White activity in my little corner of the World for quite a while, which is likely due to the fact that the seal population was decimated a while back and only now has the population begun to recover. Point is ‘being munched’ has been on my mind of late.
Your comments regarding the behavior of the White were interesting. Whereas I think prevention is unlikely, I do think there may be a possibility for mitigation. Or, to put it another way, to make a surfer/surfboard taste sufficiently unpleasant enough to stop the attack from going to completion.
You’ve already suggested one way - the board doesn’t taste too good. With the addition of the right additive to wax, the foot pad, or any of the composite’s components you could make truly untasty board. The same would likely be true for any component of the board, including fin boxes and fins. In fact I think a number of these kinds of solutions have been considered. How seriously, I don’t know.
Of course my favorite would be a surfboard with a surprise filling, sort of like Bubblishous Gum. I’m just guessing, but I suspect that watermelon wouldn’t be too high on a Whites list, but of course there is also the possibility of other fillings, like a full-blown repellent as a ‘liquid center’, or perhaps something strawberrilishous. Compsand boards could incorporate a nice repellent sandwich center – the choice then being whether or not to ‘hold the Mako.’
I know you’re into new products for fins, and a while back you seem to be considering making ‘spats’ for fins (and putting aside the sanity of someone who would, for the moment) perhaps you’ll consider incorporating a little repellent into the chemistry of the add-ons. Really, what mook wouldn’t buy the insurance especially if the price was sort of in that POP range – that’s Point-of-Purchase, you know the low cost stuff merchants put by the cash register. Fact is after the recent local ‘incident’, I wish had such a product – not to use, but to sell… okay to use… but don’t tell anyone.
kc
I remember reading a similar story about Dolphins in New Zealand protecting some swimmers when there was a shark around, in this case the Dolphins actually herded the swimmers together and then formed a guard around them.
I found some links with the story:
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/28258/newsDate/24-Nov-2004/story.htm
http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2004/11/24/dolphin_newzealand041124.html
yea ive herd the story about the dolphins also, ive also herd another story about a group of dolphins actually chasing a shark away from surfers. pretty amazing if you ask me.
Quote:
yea ive herd the story about the dolphins also, ive also herd another story about a group of dolphins actually chasing a shark away from surfers. pretty amazing if you ask me.
For some reason I always feel a bit at peace when I see a couple dolphins in the area. Not sure if this comes from the idea when I was a grom growing up that “dolphins are your freind” or watching Flipper on TV or something else. Seems like I see more and more dolphins at my local breaks, not sure why. Some of them get within a couple feet.
AAAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!
As a Swaylocker i liked this part of the interview:
Quote:
[b]What size board were you on?
A 6’0”. A little fish. A 7S.
Is it all torn up?
It’s pretty thrashed. It looks like someone took a cheese slicer along the bottom of it.
[/b] So i’m so sorry for the guy but the shark did something good after all…
Lokbox, i remember Mr Bert Burger writing here the same kind of activity from the dolphins while a shark was trying to attack a girl i think, and the dolphins never left the girl alone untill the shark went away if my memory serves me. I think Bert told us this just after a friend of him died during a shark attack.
Coque.