Don't veer too far away from the popular Sri Lankan point…
List the ways a surfer can be disappeared and you don’t, as rule, include death by ancient reptile. But, at the picturesque righthand point Arugam Bay in Sri Lanka, a wave popular with beginners and small-wave shredders, you may now include the crocodile.
A journalist for the Financial Times as well as a newly annointed surfer, Paul McClean, was staying at a nearby surf camp, and had gone to the toilet and then went to wash his hands in a lagoon “known to be crawling with crocodiles,” reports London’s The Sun.
Fawas Lafeer, owner of Safa Surf School, located up the coast from where the incident happened, said: “A local fisherman witnessed a man being dragged into a river, set back from the beach, by a crocodile. The fisherman was on the opposite side of the river and downstream of the incident location.”
He added:“This is the first known crocodile attack in Sri Lanka. Both tourists and locals surf at Elephant Rock, which is a beautiful secluded beach and very safe.
“Crocodiles in Sri Lanka live only in the fresh, back waters of the jungle. It is almost unheard of for them to come close to the beach. The salt water actually turns them blind.
“Local search and rescue teams are working alongside the police and British Embassy in attempt to locate the man’s body.”
Meanwhile, a Scottish tourist, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: “A British tourist was at a surf spot called Elephant rock.
“There’s a lagoon right next to the sea. He went to the toilet next to the lagoon and was grabbed by a crocodile.
“There are lots in the lagoon. People last saw his arms in the air in the water and then was grabbed under. Horrible.
The body of Mr McClean, who was twenty five, is yet to be recovered.
Surfed Elephant Rock a few times amongst many others away from the Bay, due to the fact there was small swell and it was full of Euro-kooks and local swarms. Always found the claim that the crocs didn’t hang out at the beach a bit rich considering how close they were. I can deal with sharks and pretty much all other assorted water creatures in my head enough to get over it, but crocs man. No.
Oat bran my fishy friend, is your ticket to Hi-Perf logging.
Psyllium husk is the more mature man’s friend. And Charlie Hunnam, aka Kid Fibre, swears by it.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
Num’sayin?
Dynamite is the answer
Oh you must be able to coax jazz out of anything!
Good for nothing fucking crocodiles. Shoes, handbags, belts and jackets aside…
In the late 90’s I was surfing the Rivermouth at Avellanas in CR. Pulled out of a wave and after surfacing prone on my board, to my right traveling out into the line up was a saltwater croc no more than 20-25 ft. away. It wasn’t super massive big, maybe 8-10 ft. long, but I tell ya what, it scared the shit out of me. I hauled ass for the beach like I was in a paddle battle with Kanoa’s interference coach. Spastic as fuck getting in my own way.
I fled a lineup in Sumatra in the same way although the reptile later revealed itself as a barnacle-covered log.
Had to stand on the beach at periscopes while the tide got too low and the wind came up as a croc was circling in the channel you paddle out in. Still went surfing after it left but fuck me if the smallest fish or bit of seaweed didn’t scare me every couple minutes.
I had a similar situation in CR, tamarindo. Rivermouth. Watched them slither in and out of the water a hundred yards up … amazing how when yr young and it’s cool , when yr old it’s stupid….
A couple years ago some guy got his foot mangled by a croc while surfing at the Tamarindo rivermouth.
Please tell me (in secret) that you are trying to turn others off your favourite trip location?
psst! ……it’s been many years since I’ve been back there. Last time I was there you could still buy shitty weed and blow from the “hammock guy” at the turn around at the far south end of town.
“Hammock’s Blow for Blow – ins”
First day in tamarindo I paddled across that river mouth at sunset to get a few waves at playa grande. Then paddled back across to run through lagoon to get to The Crocodile Hotel. Then got drunk and ran back through naked to swim at night. Then woke up in morning for croc boat tour. The pointed out the crocs that I was unknowingly playing with the night before.
That rivermouth is the real Crocodile hotel . Amazing how there is not a prosthetic somewhere in this conversation….. how good were those banana splits though..????..!!!!!
cull!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Croc nets!
Wonder if your protected “species/shaper” punched two holes in this guys board in the past two weeks?
That’s not a knife?
A knife?
Did they have Crocodile Dundee in Oz, or was it too offensive/silly? Honest question!
Is this a safe space?
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
I was going to put a meme of a joke going over a persons head, but umm , I’m in a good mood. There was once a man named Mick raised by Aborigines, he learned of the trade of the Earth and it’s watery beasts (crocodile) . He even had a hat, made up with the teeth of said beasts, however one day he was plucked from Australia and put in New York, love, the wonders of the modern world, bedazzle him and he ends up in a bathroom where a knife is pulled on him, at which point he says “that’s not a knife” and pulls a large blade out and shocks the American (or Puerto Rican) street tough with his machete like knife. Thus this joke, tying back to a crocodile and therefore being cruel and usual in the face of death as we just took on a godamn super storm and am glad to be alive, the last part is just a fact.
I see you’ve played knifey spooney before
Yes being the short answer,4 dabs of hash oil and no electricity since Irma may have made me reminice on the days of when we had “light” and “Hulu” before the fall of our people after the “the windy-ness” took away that gifted by the gods of FPL (Florida power and light) an ancient Illuminati that harasses me every month for money, even though since the darkness came, I have yet to see safety colors.