this is my home break …
man, i cant wait to get a closer look at those great whites! i mean ive seen sea lions, seals, dolphins, i even saw a whale there once, but now the man is in town, i better go pay my respects! um, on second thought…
http://www.registerguard.com/news/2004/09/22/a1.sharkattack.0922.html
Glad the kid only got a nibble, but even a nibble by whitey sucks for us humans. I wish I could paddle out once without thinking about the man. I live about 100 miles north of gold beach at a pretty notorious shark magnet. I paddle out, catch my breath, and the first thing I do is look down and think about whitey. I stop myself pretty quick though, otherwise I’d never be able to enjoy surfing, and I know the odds are slim to none, but just once, just once I’d like to think about him after the surf, not before.
If your home break is 100mi north, that’s my home break too, so you probably know me. Another local you probably know and I were out there several years ago all by our lonesomes when the landlord came up behind the other guy. I noticed a bow wake and yelled, other guy did an abrupt move and probably startled the shark, which bumped his leg and turned sharply away. Other guy was sucked underwater up to his neck, popped up paddling with eyes as big as tennis balls. Ocean went flat for what seemed like forever, until friend caught a wave that I couldn’t quite scratch into, leaving me alone wondering if I was in fact alone. Eventually caught a wave in and recounted the episode for other guys on beach. Assessment…interesting if you call having your adrenal glands sucked dry in a matter of seconds. I still surf alone, but also wish I could just not think about what a sharky spot I call home. Dumbass fishermen dropping their crabpots nearby probably doesn’t help either. Another resident dumbass wants to start chartering shark watching trips and chumming to produce whitey for the tourists. Didn’t the Santa Cruz guys have this problem awhile back? Seems to me that as soon as you make that association between humans and food, surfers are cooked.
wow!!! we were on our way home from the swaylocks anonymous big sur party and we stopped to surf there. tj actually said, as we were trying to decide to go out, “the sea life looks humbling.” i laughed and agreed. the food chain aspect of the place was indeed humbling. body surfing sea lions, pelicans diving for food. the waves were pretty darn good, too, and no one was surfing. we finally paddled out when we saw someone else suit up. the line-up turned out to be non-locals… hmmm very mysterious. anyway. i’m not trying to sound psychic or anything, but i was as sharked-out (mentally) as i’ve ever been. the water was murky, the salmon were running, the large mammals were mocking us… the whole nine yards. when we got out, the locals, who were absent from the line up, informed us of the attack. yikes! it was great to get back to our home break a little further up north. we surfed yesterday morning and then again in the evening. no sharks, no murk, no sketchy stuff… phew. i hope the guy who got nipped recovers well. aloha… nellyda
Prior to about 4 years ago, I`ve surfed at night many times.
This happened recently (in the day) at one of our local breaks:
http://www.rense.com/general57/oregonsurfereyetoeye.htm
About 10 years ago I was surfing Waddell Creek (NorCal)with one other guy when we were encouraged to rapidly leave the water by one of those guys in a grey suit.
I still surf at night, but not river mouths.
Yeah, sometimes I pull up at Wadell and it just feels sharky. Can’t describe it but I just get that feeling sometimes. So far so good though.
There are spots between there and Pacifica that I won’t even go out because they ALWAYS feel sharky.
Remember the discussion a few months ago about painting a board like a fishing lure with all the glitter and stuff?Kind of makes you wonder doesn’t it?
Too bad there’s not more research on what visually deters sharks in the PNW. The zebra pattern guy notwithstanding, it’d be nice to know how to paint one’s board to advertise, “tastes bad.” The trouble is, who wants to be the first one to paint a pattern that turns out to be a really effective, “eat me” sign.
Didn’t one of the South African guys get eaten with a POD on? The only conclusion one can draw from that is that the device doesn’t work 100% of the time.
I think that basically Sharks bite first, decide whether to eat later. So I don’t know if there is anything we can do to deter that first exploratory, “i wonder what this tastes like” bite.
About 10 years ago I was surfing Waddell Creek (NorCal)with one other guy when we were encouraged to rapidly leave the water by one of those guys in a grey suit.
I still surf at night, but not river mouths.
I Surfed Waddell once with a another friend from Hawaii. We surfed it alone and while waiting for a set he pointed out a very large outline of something swimming near us…scared the bejesus out of us. It surfaced and it turned out to be an elephant seal. We both took the next wave in.