"He's still on the beach now... they've been doing
CPR to him."
Earlier today, a Western Australian surfer
was attacked by a shark at Gearies Beach, an hour-and-a-half
south of Perth.
Ben Gerring, who is 29, lost part of his leg and, according to
news reports, is “fighting for his life.”
From PerthNow,
Falcon Bay Beach Cafe worker Shaimous Wright said two men
came rushing in after 4pm asking for ice, telling him someone’s leg
had been bitten off.
“We gave it to them for free, apparently his leg got bitten
off,” he told PerthNow.
“They ran in saying ‘we need ice, we need ice, his leg was
bitten fully off’.
“We don’t know if they knew him, all we know is that they
were just trying to help.”
He said customers and staff were in a state of shock over
the incident.
Jodie Hough, a Halls Head local, said the man was still
conscious when he was brought up the stairs from the
beach.
She said he had no right leg from the knee down and believed
a couple of people had dragged him from the water.
A reporter from the Mandurah Mail,
Nathan Hondros, told the ABC:
“The gentleman was on the beach by the time we got down
here,” he said. “Ambulance crews were trying to
resuscitate him by the looks of it. RAC rescue chopper came in
yeah, so it was just quite desperate and heart wrenching
scenes. He had lost a leg from what looked like above
the knee, so it was quite a savage attack by the looks of
it. We had a talk to some of the surfers who were out there in
the water with him, but look, they weren’t in the mood to talk
while their mate is in serious trouble,” he said.
Earlier in the day, a 10-foot great white had been spotted
nearby. Beach is closed etc.
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Episode three of License to Chill is a sparkling
document of February's big-wave contest The Eddie, in which Mason
Ho, the star of this six-minute short, finished eighth. | Photo:
WSL
Come see Mason Ho slay Waimea Bay in his sparkling
weekly video series…
The new Mason Ho web series License To Chill,
I’ll posit and debate, is better than anything I, or you, could’ve
imagined. He’s such a handsome and smooth pebble!
Kolohe Andino says, “The way his brain works is a lot
different than any of my other friends. It’s refreshing to hang out
with him, and get him talking about something. It’s like he’s a
complete innocent.”
Do you remember episode one, when Mason threw himself against
the cliffs of Uluwatu and shared a boogie board with the three-time
world champion Tom Curren?
Or episode two, with its tour of the Oahu coastline, traversing
north to west? The rock-hopping? The V-Land roll ins?
And, just then, episode three arrived on the Lost Surfboards
blog. Ep 3 follows Mason at this year’s Eddie contest, where he
finished eighth. See Mason pull into Waimea lefts, see Mason slay
the shorebreak, see Mason do this, that, and appear as a droplet of
golden sunshine on the often dark North Shore.
“With who his family is, he could’ve been a fucking prick,” says
Bruce Irons. “But his Dad would never let Mason be a kid like that.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”
Finals day at the fair sex Fiji Pro. Why no
title sponsor? Men or women, WSL can’t lock that shit down. Why
not? One of the stops everyone looks forward to. Potential for
magic.
Volcom had it, right? Split when ZoSea took over. Smart decision
on their part, probably. But you’d think the WSL’d be able to find
someone to kick down a bit of dough. Maybe there are reasons.
Hamilton started things off playing the one armed bandit,
stealing title points from tour members. Hell of a lot of wildcard
spoilers going down this year. No matter how Bethany finishes
she’ll be the mainstream media darling over the next few days. Rest
of the ladies can go to hell.
It’s really too bad she’s so religious. Obviously an amazing
human, overcome adversity, positive mindset, blah blah blah. But I
just can’t get behind anyone who uses the spotlight to push their
faith. Which she does. Has her own bible thumper non-profit, uses
surf to steal minds. Fuck that noise.
I’m sure that opinion won’t make me any friends. Whatever. She
gets to push her agenda, I get to push mine.
Johanne Defay’s accent is absolutely fucking adorable.
Moore/Enever was pretty crazy. Gotta love C-Mo’s barrels, how
she pushes through her turns. One of the shortfalls on the female
end. Maybe it’s a lack of size, strength, but when it gets a little
bigger a lot of the ladies back off towards the end of their turns.
Enever was doing it pretty bad. Lip checks instead of top turns. On
guys it’s a full fear move. Section starts to suck, run for the
shoulder instead of bomb to the bottom. But the ladies are tiny,
might just be difficult to bury a rail at full speed. They manage
pretty well on the smaller ones.
Super mismatched heat. Not that Enever don’t surf real good, but
Moore’s on another level. Surfs like a man. Which is an absurdly
sexist way of praising a top level female athlete, I know.
Sorry.
Hamilton and Defay got real lucky they didn’t draw her in the
semis. Now they’ve each got a 50/50 chance for a finals finish.
‘Cuz Carissa’s on a tear and I’m calling a win for her while
watching the quarters.
I’m increasingly impressed with Ms. Buitendag. Tons of power
behind her turns, great style despite her lanky frame. She’s
getting better too! Put Conlogue to sleep pretty effortlessly, but
faces Moore in the next round. Gonna be pretty shocked if she makes
it through that one.
Defay rips her first wave of the heat to shreds, things don’t
look so good for Hamilton. 9.2, backs it up with a solid 7. Seven
minutes in and Bethany’s combo’ed. Not that it matters. This ain’t
her full time job, performance so far’s sure to earn her some more
talk show appearances.
Man, type about the tiny weak little ladies backing off turns
then Defay comes and puts the idea straight to bed. Absolutely
hammers her third wave, snags an 8. Follows up with an even better
one. Digs Hamilton a hole so deep she can’t see sunlight.
Sweet jeebus, Carissa is killing it this comp. Like, especially
so. 9.77 on her first wave, just straight bashing the lip, snagging
some cover. Repeating last round. Buitendag is surfing well but she
just can’t touch Moore at her best.
Still though, Bianca is laying down some big swooping carves.
Putting her size to good use. She’ll go down fighting. Her last
post-heat interview was… odd.
Put some duct tape on her board, give it an “African fix.” Awful
close to saying “nigger rig it.” I don’t think it’s unfair to
suspect a South African of casual racism. Because of, you know,
history.
Heat’s turned into a real back and forth battle. Might’ve
written Buitendag off a bit too soon. Could be a shocker.
I’ve said it before, I’m saying it again. The WSL needs to stop
running women’s heats when it ain’t good enough for the men. Give
the ladies their own show, quality surf, they shine, sparkle.
Poor Bianca. Judges just handed the lead to Moore with a gross
overscore. With the way these women are ripping a snap to hung up
top turn shouldn’t be a 7.27. They can do better. Buitendag’s
forehand carves are magic!
Moore did better. Has it in the bag with five minutes left.
Blasted the fins out the back for her second 9+.
Ha! I forgot Hamilton rides for Rip Curl. Remember when they
used slaves to make jackets? Remember how they just swept it under
the rug?
Defay/Moore in the final. Nice end to a day of ripping.
The little French girl is on fire today, but so is the bubbly
Hawaiian. Wish they’d just head into the next heat. I’ve got shit
to do. Rather not wait around for them to get to business. I
understand the reason for the break, but it’s slightly inconvenient
for me.
Final starts on a lull. Weak exchange of single turn waves. Set
swings wide and catches them out of position. So typical. Whole day
on fire, final is a total anticlimax. No way of controlling it, no
fix. Just cruel reality.
At just under fifteen minutes in Defay gets a decent one. 8.4.
At the rate the ocean is delivering the goods it might be enough to
hand her the win.
If Rosy Hodge agreed to play “would you rather” with me I’d come
up with something way better.
But really I’d just stammer, trail off, and go hide in a corner
somewhere.
Damn, disappointment. Really thought we were gonna get something
special here. But the ocean doesn’t want to cooperate.
Seven minutes left and we start to see some energy. Moore on
firing, links a huge bash into a finner. Comes unstuck and Defay is
right behind her. Dismantles it all the way to the inside.
6.67 for Moore. Pretty high for a single turn. But it was
an amazing smash. Defay earns an 8.7 though, so Carissa is in a
deep combo and no matter what Pottz says she doesn’t have much of a
chance.
Two minutes left and Carissa Moore needs 17.11. Show’s over.
What a day! Hooray for Defay!
Sucks that things ended on a slow note, but we got an entire day
of top notch action.
If you don’t watch the women, and I know a lot of people don’t,
go hit the heat analyzer. You won’t regret it.
If this current generation has brought anything
to the world it is memes. Maybe the “Greatest Generation Ever”
scoff at the pointlessness, the shallowness of repurposed comedy
snippets but what the hell did those geezers ever do for
anyone?
Maybe the “Baby Boomers” scratch their heads and wonder how
millions upon millions of people can be moved by something so…basic
but what the hell did those old farts ever create,
entertainment-wise?
Maybe “Generation X” (that’s me!) slide our clumsy thumbs over
technological wonders we don’t fully understand….wait. I’m a loser,
baby, so why don’t you kill me!
Memes are great by any measure. And the ones that get on the
spike are almost always very funny. This one, by Norwell9,
of the great Matthew McConaughey emoting to various El Niño makes
and misses has not gotten on the spike yet but can we help get it
there? Can we share it a million times between ourselves and get it
mentioned on E! TV later tomorrow eve?
Watch and I can guarantee laughs! Also, did you know that I can
spell McConaughey now without consulting the Internet? This my the
first writing where his last named snapped fully into place. It has
taken a decade and a half but I’ve arrived. Butane in my veins and
I’m out to cut the junkie!
Michael Tomson is kinetic. A complete
experience and the stories he has saved in his razorblade brain
could melt the paint off most walls. Interesting? The most!
The surf industry is dying, says Michael Tomson!
But he knows how to revive it!
Welcome back, dear enthusiast, to our second
installment of BeachGrit TV’s Like Bitchin! Its
poor production value matched only by its lack of host talent.
But who needs a host when you’ve got Matt Biolos? Not us.
Did you like
when he dipped those surfboards in his halved water
heater? Did you laugh when we went to a Donald Trump for President
rally together and slapped minorities? It was a good time.
And I will tell you with complete certainty that a host, even as
skilled as Ellen DeGeneres would fall totally flat next to our next
shining star. If you are unfamiliar with Michael Tomson’s legacy
please take the time to read Matt Warshaw’s post in the Encyclopedia of
Surfing. It begins…
Forceful, articulate, self-destructive pro surfer and
surfwear entrepreneur, originally from Durban, South Africa;
world-ranked #5 in 1976; the founder of Gotcha. Tomson was born
(1954) and raised in Durban, and began surfing at age 10, along
with his younger cousin and future world champion Shaun
Tomson.
And is very well-written but can’t match actually being in a
room with South Africa’s Greatest Export (Besides Diamonds and ….
Gold)™.
After reading Warshaw’s work you’ll know he surfed
professionally, founded Gotcha, sold it to Perry Ellis and called
it a “whore,” founded MCD, sold it etc. but what fascinates me more
is his finger on today’s pulse. He knows why our surf industry is
dying. He knows how to revive it. He knows what’s next.
And so, I humbly invite you to sit down and enjoy a few minutes
with the one, the only Michael Tomson.
