But who is to blame?

Well what a giant bummer. What a real wet rag. And imagine that you have mustered enough resources to fly all the way to Mexico’s Guadalupe Island not to surf, not to be “bait” as it were, but to slide into a metal cage, into the magnificent, “man-eating” Great White sharks’ natural environment in order to witness her blood-lust. His rage. In order to float there and be one with nature.

Then imagine that one of those exalted beasts swims close to the cage, sort of into the cage, and you witness glory first hand.

Right there.

But then imagine that encounter kills the bastard, I mean glorious creation. Literally kills it dead. That curiosity, as it were, killed the shark but let us read first from a dubious sporting website…

Disturbing videos have surfaced showing a great white shark trying to squeeze into a cage with divers inside at Mexico’s Guadalupe Island, and ultimately sinking after apparently dying from injuries it sustained during the ordeal. (Warning: The footage is graphic.)

Mexican activist Arturo Islas Allende shared the first video to social media platforms on Dec. 5, under a title that translates to “Negligence kills white shark.” He implicated a Nautilus Dive Adventures vessel and complained that cage openings were not adjusted in a manner to keep sharks and divers safe.

The divers, who were clearly frightened as the massive predator writhed after getting its head stuck in a cage opening, were not injured.

On Dec. 8, Allende shared the second video, showing what appears to be a dead shark sinking in the blue water. In the second video, Allende complains about noncompliance of rules by Nautilus Liveaboards and other operators at Guadalupe Island, and a lack of enforcement by Mexican authorities.

And then let us read from shark whisperer Ocean Ramsey…

Great white shark ecotourism is really good for monitoring shark populations, encouraging conservation, & keeping poachers away, but it needs to be done responsibly with the sharks welfare in mind. A couple years ago there were several incidents with white sharks getting into cages, which can harm the sharks gills & more & could also potentially harm people, however conanp and scientists from Pelagios and Ecocimati advised on better designs for cages with smaller openings so the sharks couldn’t get their head stuck or in up to their gills & also advised on better bait handling to keep sharks out of line with cages…However as you can see not all companies followed the guideline recommendations and now that white shark was reported to have died and those people could’ve been injured. It’s a tragedy to lose a white shark because the owner of that company didn’t update his cage design & it makes great white shark cage tourism look bad when it shouldn’t because other companies complied. The video is calling for the owner of that company to be held responsible & the government authority to enforce the guidelines & consequences for this incident. I support cage tourism because it allows for protection from poachers and show the value of helping to keep sharks alive & inspires connection for conservation and I know far more sharks die from nets and fishing but had the regulations for the cage specifications been followed this could’ve been avoided. Will the owner of this company please comply to the regulations for the sake of sharks and people?

I’ll be honest. That is too much for me to read. So, help me, who is to blame?

The eco-tourists?

Mexico?

Curiosity?

No way sharks.

Right?

All I know is that sharks, worldwide, will be looking to avenge this death. No surfing is recommended for weeks if not months. No surfing especially in California.

Just in time for the Pipe Masters!

We all know what the surfer’s drug of choice is. The one that most mirrors her wayward heart. The one that replicates his insatiable appetite in the water on land. It’s a love story (buy here) and in an apparent attempt to corner the elusive Christmas surf market retail giant Walmart offered a “surf-like” Santa Claus preparing a tableful of cocaine over the words “Let it snow.”

The sweater has, unfortunately, been removed from Walmart’s offerings and let us turn to People magazine for more.

The sweater’s description on the website read, “We all know how snow works. It’s white, powdery and the best snow comes straight from South America. That’s bad news for jolly old St. Nick, who lives far away in the North Pole.”

After the sweater was mocked and criticized on social media, Walmart issued an apology to Canadian news organization The Global News.

“These sweaters, sold by a third-party seller on Walmart.ca, do not represent Walmart’s values and have no place on our website,” the statement said. “We have removed these products from our marketplace. We apologize for any unintended offence this may have caused.”

The sweater, which was made by clothing company FUN Wear, is no longer available on Walmart’s website.

My question is, how will Walmart now corner the elusive Christmas surf market?

How will the executives hope to outfox gift idea geniuses at The Inertia?

More as the story develops.

The storm before the calm!

Today is almost the beginning of non-elimination heat surfing. Excited? You should be. Hawaiians are in the water vying for the two spots that have been carved down from fifteen, or something, a few years ago.

An absolute gutting.

I loved those older times, when Hawaiians, born and bred at Pipeline and/or Kauai, would run Champion Tour surfers up and down the reef. Scaring them into oblivion. Now these Hawaiians have their own “event” called the Pipe Invitational which feels a bit like an interment camp.

Does it not?

A representative from the World Surf League once told me, directly after the absolute gutting, that if I actually looked at the heat scores during those robust Hawaiian years, I would see most of them losing in early rounds and none of them really affecting much of anything.

Rude.

For surfing is what we feel in our hearts, not numbers that appear on bland pieces of paper.

No?

In any case, enjoy the show here but don’t forget to leave li’l ol’ BeachGrit open so you can be amongst friends for we do not know what the World Surf League is capable of. First they came for the Hawaiians, and I did not speak out — because I wasn’t Hawaiian.

Etc.

Come read the tale of Roger Casugay!

And have you ever done anything heroic or, at the very least, imagined yourself doing something heroic? I think it is human nature to picture ourselves at the very nexus of some colossal event. A hurricane blowing through town and access to Ol’ Doc Marten’s place has been washed out but we, fearlessly, grab our surfboards, paddle in and save the day. A child has climbed too high into a tree but we, bravely, climb up afterward, put the quivering youngster on our strong backs and, again, save the day.

Yes, we would all be great assets in/around any tragedy or high-stakes moment but what if there was also a gold medal on the line? What if saving the day also meant losing? Would we be that quick, that… selfless?

And let us meet true hero Roger Casugay from the Philippines. Let us study an example of good, proper decision making.

Filipino surfer Roger Casugay earned the Philippines its first-ever gold medal in surfing at the Southeast Asian Games today (Dec. 8). But even before winning the men’s longboard competition, the 25-year-old athlete was already heralded as the event’s hero for an unselfish act during a semi-final round last week.

Casugay was leading a one-on-one race against Indonesian surfer Arip Nurhidayat Friday (Dec. 6) when he noticed that Nurhidayat broke his ankle leash and was swept by towering waves at Monaliza Point, La Union in northern Philippines. Typhoon Kammuri (called Tisoy locally) has made conditions challenging at the 30th edition of the biennial sporting event.

Casugay, a surfing instructor, paddled back to Nurhidayat and helped him back to shore. Spectator Jefferson Ganuelas described the scene on Facebook, noting Casugay “rescued him not minding the ongoing race for gold medal.”

Sports fans—including many Indonesians on Twitter—are calling Casugay a hero, a title he’s uneasy with. “No, I’m not a hero,” he said to Rappler. “I didn’t really save him from drowning. He is a good swimmer. I just calmed him down.”

“We have a brotherhood in surfing,” he told CNN. “If someone needs help, you go. I didn’t think about winning and [am] just relieved that we were both safe. We were overjoyed when we reached the shore.”

Well, I guess the selfless hero won a gold medal anyhow and see? We should always be very dubious when served up a theoretical either/or. We should point to Roger Casugay and say, “Both.”