Cape Hatteras: Two shark attacks in two days!

Let's go surf! No… wait… 

It ain’t the time to be in the water around Cape Hatteras, or anywhere in the states North and South Carolina, for that matter.

On Friday, June 26, a man was in waist-deep water on Hatteras Island when he was bitten on his leg and back. An hour earlier on the same day in South Carolina, a man was bitten while swimming off Hunting Island.

The next day, Saturday, June 27, a 17-year-old boy got hit while swimming, bitten on the right calf, ass and both hands.

A little under two weeks ago, in two separate attacks only 90 minutes apart, a 13-year-old girl and 16-year-old boy each lost an arm at the same North Carolina beach. His below the shoulder, hers at the elbow. The girl also sustained serious tissue damage to her leg.

(Read about that two-pronted attack here.)

Who knew raquetball could be so… fun!

 


Mick Fanning and the most important thing ever.

Ever. By far.

Sports broadcasting is obsessed with building hero narratives around every single moment. Every little shot, putt, throw, kick, swing, pitch, backside 360 or tube carries the weight of the whole world. The participants/observers will talk about the event with much gravitas, afterward, letting the viewer know that history would not be the same if it had not occurred.

Here Mick Fanning wins the 2013 Association of Surfing Professionals world title. An astroid did not hit the earth because of it. Thanks Mick!


Dane Reynolds at home

Video: At home with Dane “Danger” Reynolds!

A beautifully intimate ten-minute short as snatched by best friend Jason "Mini" Blanchard… 

In this intimate portrait of a surfer suddenly back in the game, we see Dane Reynolds preparing for a trip to the Mentawai Islands.

He is captured at his barn-style house in Carpinteria, California, the one he shares with his girl Courtney and their son Sammy Boo and their triumvirate of dogs (Pam, Boogie and Truffle) and in moments reminiscent of the nineties film Kelly Slater in Black and White he is asked what he has for breakfast and ponders such weighty questions as whether or not to eat before a flight thereby negating the need to eat the airline’s own food.

The trouble is, Dane shrieks, the one time he ate before a flight the food served was so good he had to eat it! Absurd!

There’s a little surf in this short, although not enough if it’s surf you’re coming for, and it finishes with wise counsel from its maker Jason “Mini” Blanchard.

Mini: Have a good trip… rip

Dane: I’ll try.

Mini: All you have to do is rip.

Dane: That’s what I’ll do then.


Suicide tourism
Hawaii is a must-visit destination for any person wanting to end it all under a rainbow. “Suicide tourism” is what it’s called and it is big business on the big island (and all the other islands too). Suicides are the second-leading cause on non-resident death in Hawaii after drowning.

Suicide Tourism Booms in Hawaii!

Come for the waves, stay for...ever!

Hawaii is, without doubt, a must-visit destination for any true surfer. From Kauai to Maui to Oahu’s famed North Shore there is no shortage of amazing waves to discover and aloha spirit to experience. Welcome to Paradise… as the most famous book ever written is partially titled. (buy here!)

Hawaii, though, is also a must-visit destination for any person wanting to end it all under a rainbow. “Suicide tourism” is what it’s called and it is big business on the big island (and all the other islands too). Suicides are the second-leading cause on non-resident death in Hawaii after drowning. Traveling to exotic locales to polish off a life well, or maybe poorly, lived. “I think a lot of people might make decisions based on what they think about a place…” suicide expert Kenneth Tardiff told Honolulu’s CivilBeat.com. “…Hawaii is a really impressive place to think about and so is New York City. Suicide can be a very emotional thing.”

The Empire State Building, Golden Gate Bridge and Niagara Falls are all leading destinations but so are Waikiki’s many hotel balconies. Those are the most common places for visitors to utilize . Educating hotel staff as to recognizing people who may be suicidal is an important step but the subject, overall, is a difficult one that many don’t want to discuss. Maraya Grambs, though, the executive director of Mental Heath America of Hawaii, though, told CivilBeat.com that public awareness is key to preventing suicides. So there you are. Read more here.


Jeremy Flores injured
Last Friday, June 19, the Reunion Island-born surfer Jeremy Flores was pitched head-first into the reef at Lakey Peak. A tube gone wrong? A takeoff awry? "A fucken air," says Jeremy. "All frothing to learn all these tricks and ended up landing head-first on dry reef."

Jeremy Flores: “No major brain damage!”

And despite catastrophic facial wounds, says he wants to be back for Teahupoo…

Last Friday, June 19, world number 10 Jeremy Flores face-planted into the reef in Sumbawa, Indonesia. 

In four-to-five-foot low-tide waves at Lakey Peak, Jeremy tasted a little rock after… what… a tube gone awry? A mangled takeoff?

“A fucken air,” he says. “All frothing to learn all these new tricks and ended up landing head-first onto dry reef.”

When an emergency helicopter came to take him to the BIMC hospital in Bali, Jeremy posted a photo (the one on the left above) on his Instagram account (@floresjeremy) with the message: “Worst 24h ever. Hit my head on the reef in the middle of no where in Indo, lost My memories for more than an hour…deep cuts all over My head & face… 24h later the Helicopter finally came get me to take me to an international hospital where i just got 2h of surgery on My face…the good news is there is no fracture…I would post a picture of My actual face but it would choc everyone so i won’t lol #nevergiveup

So what happened after he hit the reef?

“I lost my memory for an hour and twenty minutes,” he says. “Didn’t where I was or who I was. Wiggolly Dantas and Jake Paterson were there to hold me and take me back to land where I waited 20 hours for a chopper to come pick me up. So I had to stay up all night ’cause I wasn’t sure if I could sleep. I was super scared to lose my memory again. Wiggolly was there all night making sure I was alright. Then the next day, the chopper finally came and took me to the hospital where I finally had surgery on my face.”

Them sure is deep cuts.

“Thirty stitches on and around my face,” says Jeremy. “No major brain damage.”

Right now, Jeremy is back in France and doing tests there “’cause there are small fractures in two different places on my face, under my eye and on my cheek.”

I ask, have you lost your looks?

“I was putting pressure on the surgeon the whole time, telling him the whole time he better make me look good.”

Were you worried you might end up looking like Catherine Deneuve, the once-beautiful French actress now reduced to caricature? (Click here!)

“More like Frankenstein,” he says. “I’m still doing tests and MRI’s and shit. It’s pretty fucked but the cuts are healing super quick. Nothing if official yet but I’m hoping to be back for Teahupoo. But maybe sooner! Or later. Too early to say.”

In the meantime, here’s a little teaser from when Jeremy’s face was whole and he was ripping New Zealand.