Extreme Grinch.

But what did you do on Christmas day after opening your gifts? Attend a boozy brunch? Head to the movies? Shiver uncontrollably while contemplating how finite life truly is?

Go surfing?

Surfing would have been the right call, paddling off those extra lbs, communing with nature etc. except, as you are very well aware, we are currently living through a shark apocalypse and the beasts respect neither life nor holiday tradition, religious or non.

And the Great Whites’ Jehovah’s Witness-like attitude was put on wickedly scary display at an Australian beach not far from Burleigh Heads that is proud host of a new artificial reef.

Our source, preferring to remain unnamed so as not to raise the shark’s hackles, was there enjoying a warm and sunny Christmas day with his family.

“It was a little onshore, not amazing, but there were a few waves hitting the reef.” He said. “Interestingly, when the council first made the reef it was super shallow and looking like there’d be a wild wedge but the council scooped out a bunch of the rock to make it deeper and, obviously, less dangerous. It’s not as good but it breaks and it attracts marine life.”

That dreaded marine life.

In any case, our source saw two teenage surfers, good surfers who are likely innocent but one never quite knows with teenagers these days. They told him they were going to hit the reef. He watched them catch a few early afternoon waves then suddenly a jetski comes flying in, snags both boys and races them to the sand.

Our source asked them what happened. They replied that they were circled by a Great White so close they could see the markings, scratches, on its monstrous dorsal fin.

The beach was shut down for one hour.

There was nothing on local news but much chatter in the lineup and in town about the predatory visitor.

“We’ve definitely seen an increase in sharks since the reef. We’ve seen a few bulls, a few smaller sharks.” our source said, “But nothing like Christmas Day. This is Jaws.”

Would Jaws stop you from surfing the new artificial reef?

Per the council’s description:

The artificial reef is constructed of large rock boulders and is 1.5 metres below the average water level at its highest point. Significant investigation and design effort has gone into designing the artificial reef, including coastal data analysis, computer modelling and wave tank testing.

It both sounds and looks fun but…

…oh I just don’t know anymore. I think we gift the ocean to the hideous, horrible, carnivorous sons of guns at this point.

I think if you received a brand-new surfboard under the Christmas tree that it be returned for a beach volleyball.

Very scary.

Destroyers of cinematic glory.

Well hell. Well awful, no pause in the Great White Apocalypse hell. And you thought, for one brief minute, that the “man-eating” Great White shark respected holidays? That she took time off like you and your banker?

Well apparently you have not learned enough here, here, here, etc. about his predilections, his perversions, unsurpassed work ethic for just yesterday, Christmas Day, a monstrous beast attempted to eat an entire goat boat plus its captain just off Cape Saint Francis there in bucolic South Africa, home of The Endless Summer’s “perfect wave.”

Oh, the indignity, the nastiness is clearly two-fold but let us get hard facts and details etc. before snatching our pitchforks and booking long, long, long tickets. Let’s head directly to a local news’ source.

Nahoon Beach has been closed to beachgoers after a shark attack early Thursday.

Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality said at about 7am, a shark attacked a surf ski off Nahoon Reef.

“The paddler is fine with no injuries,” the city said in a statement.

“ … The beach will remain closed as a safety precaution.”

City officials will monitor the area.

A swimmer drowned on the beach earlier this week.

Geoff McGregor, the National Sea Rescue Institute’s East London station commander, said: “At 4.45am, Monday, December 23, NSRI East London duty crew were activated after reports of a drowning in progress at Nahoon Beach.”

A 23-year-old woman, from Queenstown, was found washed onto the beach after being swept out to sea by rip currents while swimming.

And on Sunday, two paddlers sighted a shark in the water at Oyster Bay.

Johannes Lodewyk van Rensburg, NSRI Oyster Bay station commander, said they responded when alerted to a double kayak washed up on rocks at Oyster Bay Point.

“Two men had been paddling from St Francis Bay to Oyster Bay and they were 300 metres offshore of Oyster Bay when they noticed a shark in the water.

“One man fell out of the double kayak and then the second man fell out of the double kayak. They both swam to shore without incident, abandoning their kayak,” he said.

Their kayak was found barely damaged, on Monday.

 

I honestly don’t understand most of that, assuming it’s in Afrikaans, but clearly see the words “Great White shark” and “St. Francis Bay.”

Let’s remember her the way she was.

Great White sharks sure are rude.

Destroying cinematic fantasy with a flash of the teeth.

Bastards.

But goat boats. I mean… you get what you deserve? Karma etc.?

No surfing in South Africa until we reach the bottom of all this and, as always, more as the story develops.

Healthy, Olympian, rich.

And you certainly thrilled at John John Florence’s stirring return in the Pipe Masters no doubt. His coming into the draw, in his own backyard, and mixing up two fabulous storylines. Namely, his rivalry with one Gabriel Medina and his keeping the greatest surfer of all time, and neighbor, Kelly Slater out of the Olympics.

While John John failed in his first objective, getting lapped by Gabs in the quarters, he succeeded in his second, sending Kelly home (next door).

But rumors floating around greater Orange County suggest that there was a third, more vital, reason for John John’s Pipe run. Namely, that Bluestar Alliance, new owner of Hurley, were demanding a halving of his yearly rumored 4 mil a year salary.

And “What?” you say.

“How?” you gasp.

Because, apparently, Nike, Hurley’s last parent, has boilerplate language in athlete contracts that allow for a 50% pay reduction upon athlete injury. The top brass rarely, rarely trigger the clause but, allegedly, Bluestar’s east coast executives learned of it and were shocked. “What?” They said. “We pay the guy with the gimpy knee 4 mil? Get his agent on the phone right now and tell him he’s taking a 50% pay cut.”

Magically, majestically, John John surfed his way into the quarters and the entire world hold’s its collective breath for this summer’s Tokyo Olympics etc.

John John not injured! Healthy! Olympian!

Rich.

How excited are you for Snapper, by the way?

Much time to… get back on the sled and reset, as it were.

More as the story develops.

"It's something that's becoming a concern..."

But what did you get for Christmas? A fine pair of socks? Merino wool sweater? A lovingly refurbished Samsung Galaxy Note 7? Maybe a drone? Oh, you are not alone if you received a drone. The once-prohibitively expensive modern miracles have dropped in price so precipitously that they feature under Christmas trees and Hanukkah menorahs of all economic classes, from the lower-middle all the way to the straight upper.

And have you flown your gift yet? Sent it soaring over local park or beach?

In my one-time home state of Oregon a record number of drones are careening through the sky, especially over nude beaches and let’s go straight to Eugene’s Register-Guard for the latest troubling developments:

On a warm afternoon last July 21, a drone was spotted flying across the southern end of Smith Rock State Park.

It was a weekend, and the park’s honeycombed cliffs were dotted with rock climbers while hikers spread across the miles of trails below.

Suddenly, something went wrong.

As the drone buzzed toward Asterisk Pass and Llama Wall, it smashed into a cliff just above a team of rock climbers. The drone fell, nearly hitting the climbers, before breaking into pieces on the ground, according to a report obtained through a public records request.

Nobody was hurt, and the drone owners never found, but the incident highlighted a growing issue at Oregon’s state parks.

“It’s something that is becoming a concern, not in the majority of parks, but really at the most scenic ones — places like Smith Rock, Silver Falls and on the Oregon Coast,” said Katie Gauthier, a policy coordinator at the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department.

That has led to conflict.

Rock climbers have threatened lawsuits over concerns drones will cause an accident. Hikers have complained about a lack of peace and quiet. Even one of Oregon’s nude beaches has seen a drone show up — carrying a camera.

Now, I sort of worry about the safety of the rock climbers and the privacy of the nude beachers but mostly worry about the rest of us for, again, I once lived on Oregon’s coast and cannot tell you how little the sun shines. How it hides for weeks and months at a time. And if this footage of Oregonians “sun”bathing nude was ever released, I fear it would cause much blindness and unspeakable damage.

It is ok for nude Oregonians to see each other as their eyes are accustomed to the glare but Australians and Californians, Brazilians and French would be forever harmed. Forever and ever.

More as the story develops.