"I got an email from a friend tonight who said he clearly saw a shark figure during quarter-finals..." says Kelly Slater.
The days after an extraordinary event are the most wonderful, no? The adrenalized buzz has worn off, a touch, and conspiracists and the delusional and normal folk too are allowed to sift through the pieces, filling out a larger narrative.
Many have already suggested the shark was a WSL plant. CEO Paul Speaker had promised surfing would be bigger than the National Football League and for one glorious day it was! But just think of the work involved having a man in a shark suit down there for some hours and popping up and grabbing Mick and everyone playing along….It is why I never believe conspiracy theories. Too many moving parts! Too much work!
The Sydney Morning Herald has something a little less crazy and a lot more insidious though.
Kelly Slater says his friend “clearly” saw a shark in the water four hours before Mick Fanning was attacked, as footage emerges of what appears to be a shark metres from where the Australian was surfing earlier in the championship event in South Africa overnight.
During Fanning’s heat at the J-Bay Open, television cameras were able to pick up a dark shadow and what could be the dorsal fin of a shark a little further out from where Fanning was paddling four hours before he punched a three-metre shark.
Oooo-ee! Danger danger! CEO Paul Speaker himself said, according to the paper, that sharks had been seen in the area days earlier. Should the WSL have called the heat off or, at least, postponed? I think no because then we would not have had the extraordinary day in the first place but what do you think?
You can see it at minute 3:40 in Fanning’s round 5 heat, just before the heat recap.
Stop the presses…. :face palm: