by The Editors on July 17, 2008
A few days before the Go211.com US Open of Surfing is kicking off at the Huntington Beach Pier, look what shows up on the Pacific Coast Shark News website:
On July 14, 2008 Grant Crawley reported the following; “At about 4:30 PM my son and I were walking along the shore at Huntington State Beach between Newland and Magnolia when we noticed what looked like a large piece, over 6 feet in length, of driftwood bobbing in the ocean, about 20 yards from shore. The object floated from North to South towards Magnolia. It washed up on shore just south of Lifeguard Tower 11. When we investigated it turned out to be a large sea lion, with its head completely bitten off. The wound still had blood trickling out.”
Hmm, anyone else see this?
[Link: Shark Research Committee]
by The Editors on July 14, 2008
New Smyrna Beach, Florida’s Kem McNair was snapping some photos of the surf when he caught a shark jumping in the waves (if you can call them that) right behind two surfers.
“I had just come in from surfing, grabbed my camera and walked to the water line with my friend Skipper Eppelin,” McNair said. “I saw something in the background and I thought, ‘What was that?’ “I looked at the display on my camera and there it was – a spinner shark.”
Those waves just don’t look good enough to deal with those line-up lurkers. Click the link for more photos.
[Link: Telegraph.co.uk]
by The Editors on June 20, 2008
John Vasbinder of Cocoa Beach, Florida has been surfing for 40 years and never thought about sharks until one nearly bit his hand off.
Vasbinder, district vice president of the Central Florida YMCA, was lying on his surfboard June 7, paddling out to catch another wave, when his hand hit something. . . Turns out, something bit his hand. . . “I thought I hit a dolphin or a turtle or something until I looked at my hand,” Vasbinder said. “The skin on my palm was peeled back in three places and a couple of my finger tips were bleeding.”
After 45 stitches he was all better. But the bull shark got away unharmed.
[Link: TCPalm.com]
by The Editors on June 20, 2008
From the LA Times:
Bruce Grimes gingerly clenches his stitched right hand, asserting as best he can that he was accompanied by angels the morning a large bull shark chomped “softly” on his arm as he paddled his surfboard.
“I could feel the inside of its mouth with my hand,” he says while sitting on a small wooden stool inside his downtown surf shop. “It was steely, all hard inside, like a bear trap.”
Follow the link for the rest of the story from a Zihuatanejo surf survivor.
[Link: LA Times]
by The Editors on June 10, 2008
Last night friends and family of Adrian Ruiz, the 25 year-old surfer who was killed by a shark near Troncones, Mexico, gathered for a traditional Hawaiian paddle out.
Holding a surfboard, Misty Spinney said it was Ruiz who taught her to surf at Linda Mar. “He was my best friend,” she said, “He was the most beautiful person, fun charasmatic loyal, fun human being to be around and you don’t say that about anybody. He was legit. . . . His mother, Sharla McDaniel struggled to hold back tears. “I feel him out here, it’s part of who he is,” she said.
[Link: KTVU.com]
by The Editors on June 2, 2008
So far this season three surfers (two Aussies and one American) have been killed by sharks while surfing in Mexico and at Zihuatanejo sign have been posted.
Large yellow-and-red signs reading “Caution — Swim at your own risk” were erected at the Troncones, Pantla and Linda beaches west of the popular tourist resort of Zihuatanejo.
So far experts are blaming the La Nina weather for cooling parts of the Central Pacific and through things out of whack. We think it’s just that the planet is pissed.
[Link: International Herald Tribune]
by The Editors on May 1, 2008
According to a Marcus Sanders story on Surfline:
San Francisco surfer Adrian Ruiz, 26, was attacked and killed by a shark while surfing at Troncones in Mainland Mexico on Monday afternoon. . . According to local paper Despertar de la Costa, the shark bit him on the right thigh, left a 15-inch wound, and he died from blood loss. He was about 300 yards offshore when attacked, and the situation was aggravated by a lack of emergency services at the beach.
[Link: Surfline.com]
by The Editors on April 28, 2008
Following the Solana Beach shark attack in which a 66-year-old triathlete was killed, the sharks in Florida have been going off. Three bites in three days at New Smyrna Beach.
The latest attack happened Monday as David Alger, 18, was surfing south of the jetty. . . . The beach patrol said he stepped off his board and was bitten on his left foot. . . . Over the weekend, two other surfers were bitten in separate incidents.
[Link: CF News 13]
by The Editors on April 21, 2008
According to the Orlando Sentinel, A 14-year-old girl was bitten on the foot by a shark while surfing Volusia County Beach.
The teen was surfing near Minorca condominiums between 8 and 9a.m. when she stepped off her board in knee-deep water and was bitten on her right foot. She was taken to Bert Fish Memorial Hospital and treated for puncture wounds and lacerations.
We’re glad she’s okay. Apparently that section of the beach is pretty sharky.
[Link: Orlando Sentinel]
by The Editors on April 4, 2008
Joe Giangrasso, 18, is at home recuperating from a shark bite to the ankle that he got while surfing at Florida’s Ponce Inlet.
“I thought he was going to hit me and hold on for a second. When I went to pull out, he clamped on harder and shook his head. I tried to reach, grab, and push, do whatever I could do. Finally he let go,” said Joe Giangrasso, the shark bite victim.
This is nibble number four for the year. Mmm. . .
[Link: WFTV.com]
