As if there weren’t enough reasons to not surf New
Jersey in the summer, you can now add being catapulted into the air
by earth’s largest mammal to the list.
Local news sources have reported a breaching humpback whale
capsizing a twenty-five foot fishing boat thirty yards off D-Street
in Seaside Park.
Belted boat, beached at Seaside Park by feisty
mammal. Photo: Friends of Seaside Park/Facebook
The two fisherman in the boat were unharmed as was the mean ol
whale.
Breaching whales are not uncommon in the area at this time of
year as the water warms.
However, to have them cameo with such proximity to the shoreline
makes a paddle-out feel akin to a stroll in a Mozambique open
field, playing lottery with the Portuguese version of planted,
undetonated, war flowers.
When local fisherman with thirty years of experience casting in
the same waters were asked if they ever remember whales coming this
close to shore the answer was simple, ¨Never.¨
Scientists say it is the growing population of Atlantic
menhaden, a North American species of fish in the herring family,
that are bringing them closer to shore.
Either way, it somehow feels we should be prepared to become the
next orphaned Ishmael without a Queequeg on the next paddel out at
the Dirty Jerz.
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Rumor: The World Surf League “intent” on
holding the Triple Crown and Jaws Big Wave Challenge in the barely
foreseeable future!
But to float real forward thinking,
progressive, non-chicken plans like holding a series of
surf events on Oahu’s North Shore in, like, six months’ time and
also holding a big wave event at the iconic Jaws when the winter
swells start bashing, also like, six months’ time is where our
World Surf League plants its flag today.
Theoretically.
For a very fine source from deep within the vacated belly of
Santa Monica’s beast has declared that “the WSL is intent on
holding the Triple Crown and also Peahi, if there is enough
swell.”
Professional surfing could have, should have filled that void. A
boat in the Mentawis, a gathering on Tavarua, Snapper, Bells,
Western Australia, anywhere that could have had them, would have
had them.
Cornwall, England.
ESPN was broadcasting baseball re-runs. It would have paid top
dollar to broadcast live professional surfing in Cornwall,
England.
It has been the only thing co-Waterperson of the Year Dirk Ziff
wanted.
More eyeballs than football.
And it was completely botched by the weak-willed Santa Monica
bastards who failed to realized their moment, going all in against
the now accepted reality that Coronavirus is not an indiscriminate
mass killer but rather flu-lite.
Oops.
Will heads roll?
They totally should.
But here’s to December and the Triple Crown.
Allegedly.
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Fun Police: Delaware beach restricts
visitors to knee-deep wading after surfer gets “punctured” by
shark!
Summer is here, in the northern hemisphere,
with its coconut scented breezes, happy youth freed from the
bondage of school and water-based activities. Oh, no one will be
able to smell those coconut scented breezes, as masks are still
mandatory around much of the industrialized world, the youth are
not happy, having been restricted from learning, and water-based
activities have been limited to knee-deep wading in Delaware where
a shark hit on a young surfer has shocked and scared the already
shocked and scared.
Delaware, not known for surfing, is also not known for shark
bites, having seen its last nibble in 2014, but days ago and let us
learn more immediately.
Officials have closed Herring Point to surfing and swimming
until further notice due to a possible shark bite that happened. At
this time, beachgoers are also restricted to knee-deep waters
around the Cape Henlopen bathhouse.
We’re told that just before 1 p.m., a 12-year-old boy
surfing off Herring Point sustained puncture wounds to one of his
legs and was taken to the hospital by ambulance. Officials say it
was initially reported as a shark bite, however the bite mark is
being reviewed by state and fisheries experts to determine if it
was from a shark or possible other creature.
Natural Resource Police Park Rangers and lifeguards are
patrolling the beach area to warn visitors to stay in shallow
water.
Can 2020 get any worse?
Wading is such a terrible, terrible bummer. I had a friend,
once, with a paranoid mother who only let him wade. My heart broke
for him like it does for all of Delaware’s children.
Well, at least they have Sleepy Joe.
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Real Estate: Least famous Backstreet Boy
set to build $35m condominium complex called “The Surf” in Kelly
Slater’s hometown!
"I think everyone’s going to be looking up going,
‘I want to be up there!'"
I am no economist, but if I had to make serious
pronouncements about the landscape, post Covid-19, I would say that
commercial real-estate is going to be a real bummer. People have
decided they no longer have to be in an “office” to “work.” Every
other business is officially out of and every other person is
deathly afraid of human scum.
My feelings about residential real-estate are not so bearish,
especially when it comes to unique projects called The Surf, backed
by a Backstreet Boy, and set to soar over Kelly Slater’s hometown
of Cocoa Beach, Florida.
The Surf property is located on North Atlantic Avenue
between Minutemen Causeway and North First Street, just north of
Coconuts on the Beach and Beach Shack.
The 25-unit structure will rise from the long-vacant site of
Ocean Dunes, a vacation rental complex that got battered by
Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne in 2004. Crews demolished the damaged
Ocean Dunes complex in 2005.
Prices range from $800,000 for a 1,770-square-foot unit with
three bedrooms to $2.2 million for a 4,080-square-foot,
four-bedroom penthouse, listed by Alyssa Boyd, broker-owner of Sand
Dollar Realty of Brevard.
The Surf features two-car garages for every condo,
oceanfront balconies with glass railings, floor-to-ceiling windows,
11-foot ceilings and a two-story lobby.
“Anything that’s new and fresh around here, I get excited
about. We’re bringing a slice of Miami-South Beach. Cocoa Beach is
a hidden gem to me. That’s why I relocated my family here, instead
of Orlando,” Howie D said.
“The fact that we decided to change the pool, from being on
the beach side to the front side on A1A: I think that’s going to be
a hot spot. I think everyone’s going to be looking up going, ‘I
want to be up there,’ “ he said.
Which one is Howie D?
The Surf will also be a twelve minute walk away from the Kelly
Slater statue.
Will you invest?
Will Kelly or has he repatriated to Australia?
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A happy interaction tween five year old and Great White
in Mex. | Photo: @thebucketlistfamily
The fog of war: Major newspaper runs
“exclusive” story based on flawed study claiming Great Whites have
“little interest in mammals” two days after fatal hit on
surfer
"Australian researchers found little evidence of
marine mammals in the stomachs of the 40 mostly juvenile great
whites they examined."
On Sunday morning just a little
before eleven, Gold Coast surfer Rob Pedretti was hit by a
Great White shark, a ten or twelve footer, according to an
expert in these things.
A pal, Frank, and another Gold Coast surfer, Mark, tried to
fight the shark as it circled the trio, occasionally charging,
leaving dings in Mark’s board, following ‘em to the beach where
Pedretti died.
No bite-and-release mistake here.
Two days later, The Sydney Morning Herald, a newspaper
that is to the left what The Australian is to the right,
and therefore virulently anti-netting, culling etc, ran a chirpy
sorta piece bannered “Shark Debate” and with “environment” and
“conservation” built into the URL headlined, “Study shows
surprising diet of sharks with little interest in
mammals.”
Great white sharks are picky eaters, altering their diet to
meet changing needs as they grow. Mammals are of little
interest until the animals mature and bites on humans are likely to
be mistakes.
Research published on Monday in the Frontiers in Marine
Science journal by Australian researchers found little evidence of
marine mammals in the stomachs of the 40 mostly juvenile great
whites they examined.
Richard Grainger, a PhD researcher at the University of Sydney
and lead author of the paper, told the Herald, “understanding what
sharks were likely to eat and where could help the public minimise
the small chance of an interaction with humans. People should also
avoid dawn, dusk and other times when the water may be murky, such
as after rain.”
Here’s the flaw in the study.
Studying “mostly” juvies ain’t gonna help anyone when it comes
to minimising “the small chance of an interaction with humans.”
Dolphins and whales don’t get hit by juvies only by bigger,
older sharks, although the paper concedes, “The hunting of bigger
prey, including other sharks and marine mammals such as dolphin, is
not likely to happen until the sharks reach about 2.2 meters in
length.”
We’ve learnt the published guidelines on avoiding White
shark attacks are straight up BS. They like clear water, sunshine,
small surf. The mistaken identity theory was the first casualty.
White sharks, we learnt, are curious to aggressive. What makes
a looker, into a circler, into a bumper then a biter we don’t
know.
In a 2012 TED x talk, Grainger’s co-author of the paper, Vic
Peddemors, from the NSW Department of Primary Industries, joked
that the recent fatalities of surfers in Western Australia had
constituted a “bumper season”.
