The end of a dream

[CanariaChick]

Ok, this officially terminates whatever dream I had of ever surfing in Australia.

Shark Bait (http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/16/australia.shark.ap/index.html)

[NoKnees]

That's pretty bad. Shark bait is an understatement.

Weird timing, as last night I watched a program showing some research they did along another section of the coast of Australia. This one showed great whites hanging out in the outer surf zone. Just sitting there, doing nothing. This section of beach wasn't as densely populated as others, but still had a lot of people in the water surfing and swimming. There had only been two shark attacks there in the last twenty years or something crazy like that.. The sharks were just "resting" there. Since sharks have to be moving to extract the oxygen from the water they don't get much donwtime. By just hanging in the surf, they let the tidal action do the work for them, moving the super oxygenated water in the surf move them around... Evidently they don't snack much when they are resting here.

[BillinDenver]

I picked up snowboarding so quick because I grew up and spent much of my life surfing Florida's east coast. I surfed through high school, through the marines, through college and right up till I took up flying. Fly down the coast of florida at a couple hundred feet over the surf...and you will never surf there again. I stopped counting the sharks after about 5 minutes..it was simply amazing. Sure, I had seen my share of sharks while surfing, had them chase bait out of the water within feet of me many times....but you always assume it's a rare occurance for them to be in your vacinity. We would get out of the water, wait 5 minutes then paddle back out. Flying over it, and seeing the sharks between the surfers and the land...often....really set me straight. So, I took up jet ski's in the surf. The teethy types don't like the noise, you can catch every wave you can see, you can jump them, front to back, back to front, ride them like a surfboard and best of all...no paddling out in hurricane surf where 45 minutes later you are finally outside the break....one ride later, do it again. On the ski, gun it and go until your legs are so tired you can't stand up....weeeeeee, big fun.

Bill

[MARK]

The majority of shark attacks happen in five feet or less of water, obviously by smaller sharks. I will always remember seeing footage shot by a news helicopter a number of years back. They were flying along an east coast beach with very clear water and I swear that there was a minimum of one shark per person in the water around them. I'm not talking in the general vicinity of the swimmers, I mean many of them were underwater literally within feet of the swimmers. I had never known that there were scenarios that drastic until then. Makes me surprised that there aren't actually more attacks than there are.

[BillinDenver]

Yup, that's what I'm talking about. Hundreds of sharks, and all over the surfing areas. Sebastian inlet has the best surf on the east coast and was where we always hung out. A couple hundred yards off the coast and on the other side of the inlet is a reef called monster hole. Very nice break, we rode jet skis there all the time...but it's called monster hole for a reason. Flying over it...my god the number of sharks. They would shy from the running motors though.

A friend of mine hit a particularly large break far to late on a sea doo (BIG jet ski). He shot straight up in the air instead of out. Now the bright thing to do when you hit a wave after it's peaked is to eject and swim back to the boat after you hit the water. He decided to stick it out. The boat hit tail first and plunged deep. His floatation device tried to stop him...he remained seated and as the handlebars went down....they broke both of his femurs. So there we all are, sitting in the middle of monster hole, waves crashing and sharks known to be everywhere and he is screaming....and bleeding. I had the guys keep circling on their ski's while we drug him to shore. Paramedics got there (not easy to do, no beach access on that side of the inlet) and looked at us like we were stupid. I had to agree with them on that one, and didn't go back to monster hole again. The memories of him screaming like that never quite left me.

Anyway, sharks...bad. Surf good. Opening of Vails back bowls tomorrow ..... priceless. :D

Bill

[TBone]

No sharks in Lake Michigan...get a nice 1 - 2 foot swell on really windy storm days. It's money! ;)

T

[canuck]

Pretty rational Dad huh?

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_asiapacific/view/122910/1/.html


I'd be out there trying to kill the f@cker myself!!

[bebop]

Anyone knows if the North CA coast is infested with sharks too? I just moved to the Bay Area and really want to learn how to surf...

[NoKnees]

I wouldn't say infested, but we get a few attacks a year. They aren't always, and lately not even usually fatal. The sharks take one bite and realize they screwed up. They just don't care for the taste of the thick suits you need to wear over here...

Anyway, don't worry about the sharks. You are more likely to crash hard and drown yourself than be attacked by a shark... Nice hunh?

[Ripzalot]

my home beach is dead center in the middle of the two counties with the highest number of attacks....in the world.

http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/statistics/gattack/MapFL.htm

and i still wouldn't want to surf in australia! :eek:

netted beaches, maybe.....