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”.
