With a title about as direct as Snakes On A Plane comes a new South African documentary film Surfing And Sharks, “a film about close encounters in South Africa.”
The focus point of this film will portrait 3 local surfers that live and surf in Eastern Cape and KZN their history and involvement in the surfing industry and their ideas about shark attacks / encounters in their daily life, backed with a A-List panel of shark specialists, we aim to inform and educate the viewer to bridge the gap between myth and reality.
The film premieres December 15, 2011 at the Wavescape Film Festival in Cape Town, South Africa.
Eric Tarantino, 27, is lucky to be alive after getting his by a shark while surfing at Marina State Beach near Monterey, California at about 7 AM on Saturday, October 29, 2011, according to a story in the Monterey County Herald.
Tarantino. . . was bitten along the right side of his body by a shark that took a 19-inch chunk from his red surfboard. He had wounds on his neck, shoulder, wrist and forearm, witnesses said. . . Dana M. Jones, Monterey Sector superintendent for the California Department of Parks and Recreation, said his injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.
San Jose surgeons operated on Tarantino for two hours Saturday to repair injuries to the muscles in his neck. . . Dr. Michael Gynn said he was lucky, because the shark missed all major vessels. Gynn said Tarantino is expected to make a full recover, adding he was awake and alert by Saturday night.
Thanks to the quick work of Tarantino’s friend Brandon McKibben and people on the beach Tarantino made it out of this one alive.
Bobby Gumm, 41, was surfing with friends at Newport, Oregon’s South Beach on Thursday morning , October 20, 2011, when the water beneath them began churning, according to a story on KHON2.com.
The group was out for about an hour when Ron Clifford says he saw the water boil beneath them. . . “I saw the water churning up like there was a bunch of piranhas,” said Clifford. “All of a sudden I saw a dorsal fin that was at least two foot in length high and as I saw it the frenzy and stuff I saw the shark actually lift my friend up with the board and everything, it looked like an old geyser or something just lifted him out of the water about 10 feet.”
Gumm, who lost 23 inches of his surfboard to the shark, reportedly made it back to shore uninjured. “”He’s a great short boarder and he said he didn’t want to surf again and he was very blessed that he could see his kids now,” said Clifford.” We can understand why.
When a baby Great White shark washed up on Venice Beach, California with a hook in its mouth, it didn’t take long for a crowd to arrive. Luckily, the crowd included one man who was not afraid to remove the hook with his bare hands.
Viewer Elvia sent in this video of the rescue, saying the shark became stranded on the sand near the Venice Pier after it latched on to a fishing hook. . . “The rescuers were heroes,” she said, as her camera captured surfers and other good samaritans trying to lead the Great White back to the water.
While it appears that the surfers in the video did very little in the rescue, it was a nice contrast to that horrifying shark fishing video that was going around earlier this month.
Former European bodyboarding champion and surf camp manager Matthieu Schiller, 32, died after being attacked by a shark near Réunion Island’s Boucan Canot beach on Monday, September 19, 2011, according to a story in the Daily Mail.
One of the surfers, Kamel said: ‘I was waiting for a wave with my feet in the water. We saw the shark and the next thing I knew was that he screamed and raised his arm. . . ‘We then saw a cloud of red blood in the water where he had been,’ he said.
Fellow surfers were at first able to get to Schiller and began moving him to shore when he ended up in the water again. Schiller’s body disappeared beneath the waves and has not yet been recovered. This is reportedly the fourth attack and second death on Réunion Island this year. Our thoughts are with Schillers family and the 1,000 people who gathered at the beach yesterday to celebrate his life.
Northern California and Florida surfing is quite different.. Florida is warm and flat waves. NorCal has freezing ass water and huge unruly waves most of the time. One thing they have in common, oddly, is sharks. NorCal’s great whites are a little gnarlier than the sharks found in Florida. Just ask Benjie Rose.
Benjie Rose was sitting on his board 40 yards off of Samoa Beach at a spot called Power Poles on Sunday when a white shark came up under him, hitting his board and knocking him into the air. . . His board badly damaged and with a bloody nose, Rose managed to paddle into a wave and rode it onto the shore, where it broke in half and he discovered teeth marks.
Rose was very lucky to have gotten away with a broken board. This reminds us that it’s quite nice of Rip Curl to hold their Pro Search San Francisco event right in the middle of the Red Triangle, isn’t it?
A 21-year-old bodyboarder was killed by what was believed to be a white pointer shark today (Sunday, September 4, 2011) while riding waves with a friend in The Boneyards near Bunker Bay in Naturaliste, Western Australia, according to a story in WA Today.
Sergeant Anderson described those who pulled the victim from the water as courageous. “You’ve got to take your hat off to the young fellow who was surfing with him and his mate for bringing [the victim] ashore, the nature of his injuries was significant, it’s not something that even volunteer rescuers or emergency services like to see,” he said.
According to witnesses quoted in the story the bodyboarder was bitten in half at the waist. “”They were saying they were just two metres away from him. “From the waist down, it was just all gone.” Our thoughts are with the man’s family and friends.
Daniel True, 19, went out for a surf Friday (September 2, 2011) at Florida’s Shark Bite Bay Ponce de Leon Inlet and was in four feet of water when felt something hit his let.
Officials say True made it back to shore and received medical attention. He then drove himself to the hospital where he got 34 stitches.
Hurricanes really seem to bring out the sharks. . . or is it the surfers?
Florida, Florida, Florida. Add Shane Lancaster, 19, of Keystone Heights to the list of surfers bitten by a shark while surfing Florida’s sunny beaches.
“The water was probably up to my belly button and I slid off my board. And as soon as my foot hit the sand, (the shark) grabbed ahold real quick and it was gone,” Lancaster said. . . “It wasn’t like I was screaming,” he said of the pain. “It was scary and shocking, that’s all.”
After a trip to the hospital and some stitches Lancaster was back home and feeling okay.
Lifeguards closed two miles of San Diego, California beach today (August 31, 2011) after a shark was reported sighted just south of Children’s Pool in La Jolla, according to a story in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
About 2 p.m. Wednesday, three men in their 20s who were on boogie boards reported seeing a 12-inch tall dorsal fin at the beach off Casa Reef, just south of Children’s Pool in La Jolla, San Diego lifeguards said. . . The animal was swimming just past the surf break, said lifeguard Lt. Nick Lerma.
San Diego’s Mission Beach has reportedly been closed twice in the last week after sharks where reportedly spotted in the water there.
We have to agree with one of the quoted surfers who said: “It’s the ocean. There are sharks in there, whether we see them or not.”
