Blowes, in a coma after the attack. | Photo: Chris Blowes

Australian surfer almost killed by twenty-foot Great White wins six-year fight to keep shark’s tooth embedded in surfboard: “I remember being in its mouth. All those thoughts come rushing through your head … ‘I don’t want to die … I don’t want to die’.”

Small recompense, but it's something… 

There is no more beautiful creature in the ocean than the White Pointer, the Great White, White Death. Those formidable teeth resting on the glistening red underlip, the beauty of her white underbody, the roundness of her girth.

Closer inspection of such titanic beauty, of course, is never wise.

Six years ago, South Australian surfer Chris Blowes was surfing an easy wave called The Right near Port Lincoln, a tuna fishing town on the Eyre Peninsula. 

Plenty of fish. Plenty of sharks.

Chris, who was twenty six, was sitting upright on his board among a pack of a dozen guys, a few metres from rocks, when what witnesses described as a 20-foot great white attacked and swam away with his leg and surfboard.

I was just watching the shark go out to the ocean with his board still attached. Obviously the shark still had his leg and he was still swimming around with it,’ one surfer told the Adelaide Advertiser.

“I remember being its mouth,” said Blowes. “All those thoughts come rushing through your head … ‘I don’t want to die … I don’t want to die’.”

Blowes went into cardiac arrest, paramedics performed CPR to keep him alive until he got to the hozzy where he was in a coma for ten days.

When the board was recovered by police, a tooth belonging to the Great White was found embedded his craft.

The Great White fang found in Blowe’s surfboard.

As per South Oz law, where it is illegal to possess, sell or purchase any part of white sharks – and those who breach the law can face a fine of up to A$100,000 or two years in the pen, cops gave the fang to the Department of Primary Industries and Regions.

For six years, Blowes, who now surfs with a prosthetic leg, pestered authorities to get the tooth.

Finally, after the intervention by a local politician, Blowes has his souvenir, the first time in South Oz history an exemption to the act has been granted.

“It was stuck in my board,” Blowes told the BBC. “I would never kill a shark for its tooth but it took my leg [so] I can’t see any reason why I can’t have that. The shark isn’t getting its tooth back [and] I’m not getting my leg back.”


Rumor: World Surf League considering dropping, shifting, just-announced Mexico event; bumping Surf Ranch up by two weeks!

WHOA!

What a day for the rumor mill. While you are certainly continuing to digest today’s scintillating whisper that International Surfing Association head Fernando Aguerre is pressing his advantage, attempting to break the World Surf League’s grasp on power by forcing Olympic-bound WSL surfer to march in El Salvador whilst waving flags, a new hot bit of gossip floats.

Where Aguerre remains unbent, it is alleged that the WSL is considering either dropping the just-announced Corona Open Mexico presented by Quiksilver that had been slated to run July 5 – 15, or shifting it to some other position on the calendar. The Jeep Surf Ranch Pro, scheduled for June 25 – 27, is, likewise potentially moving two weeks earlier.

Why?

Well, the Olympics is locked in from July 23 to August 8 and so much surfing, so little time. With Aguerre holding firm on his World Surfing Games dates (May 29 to June 6), it would mean those Olympic-bound WSL surfers would be flying willy nilly all over the globe in the time of Covid with scarcely any time to quarantine, much less train.

Imagine the exhaustion of Kolohe, Medina, Kanoa.

Imagine more the exhaustion of Australia’s and New Zealand’s surfers where going home equals a two week mandatory hotel stay.

Whew.

A giant mess or extremely fun?

Kelly Slater, meanwhile, is busily fiddling with his doctor’s note.

A virtual lock for the Olympics, no?

More as the story develops.


Rumor: In bold power grab, ISA chief Fernando Aguerre forcing furious Olympic-bound WSL surfers to attend entire World Surfing Games in El Salvador; Kelly Slater exempted via doctor’s note!

Scintillating.

The World Surf League, née Association of Surfing Professionals, has long been the only governing body the average surf fan cares about or pays attention to. It lays claim to the world’s best surfers, the world’s best waves, and while that notion has been challenged in recent years with the advent of Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch and contests there, it remains true that no great competitive professional surfer surfs off the WSL.

Well, for many years the International Surfing Association has worked in the shadows, building a vast network of countries (109 and counting), their national sporting dollars, hosting “World Surfing Games” etc.

The ISA’s chief, and onetime Reef sandal founder/owner Fernando Aguerre, has been a tireless champion for its mission, to “make a better world through surfing (2 ft beachbreak closeouts),” which culminated in surfing’s being accepted into the Olympic Games, the ISA its official governing body ahead of Tokyo.

Very exciting.

Covid, of course, threw (or through depending on dialect) a wrench into the Olympic works but it is all officially back on and months away.

Before Olympic surfing, though, comes the World Surf Games in El Salvador, and here Aguerre sees his moment to wrest more, maybe all, power from the World Surf League.

In a sizzling rumor, it is whispered that the man well-known for colorful suits and playful cultural appropriation, is forcing WSL surfers who have qualified for the Olympics to attend the opening ceremonies, to surf their heats, then attend the closing ceremonies.

Ten-ish full days in El Salvador right in the midst of the WSL’s season.

The World Surfing Games are set to run from May 29th to June 6th. The World Surf League’s Rip Curl Rottnest Search is set to run May 16th to May 26th. If it goes the full window, Olympic-bound WSL surfers will have but days to cross the globe, quarantine in El Salvador, march and wave to adoring fans, surf, march and wave to adoring fans, fly home, quarantine, train, fly to Tokyo, quarantine, train.

The Olympic-bound WSL surfers are, allegedly, furious but Aguerre is unbent. This is his moment to break the World Surf League’s hold and he will not succumb to any pressure campaign.

First alternate on the U.S. team Kelly Slater, it is rumored, has received a doctor’s note that will allow him to miss the World Surfing Games yet attend the Olympics.

Dang trick foot injury that only allows him to surf pristine barrels.

With the WSL in reported financial straits, will this be it? Will owner and co-Waterperson of the Year Dirk Ziff hand surfing’s reigns to Aguerre and say, “Good riddance…”?

Next year’s World Champ crowned in Tel Aviv?

More as the story develops.


Open thread: Comment live Margaret River Pro, Day Three!

Shy VAL seeks hot surfer boys!


Byron Bay’s famed peace and love ethos threatened to come undone due growing animosity between leashless and leashed longboarders: “To the f*cking wanker riding his longboard without a leg rope at The Pass tonight…”

The Troubles.

If there is one place on earth where peace and love are guaranteed to reign, overcoming all odds, never fading, it is Australia’s Byron Bay. The quiet town of under 10k some 500 miles north of Sydney, 100 miles south of Brisbane, is an absolute dream with an organic açaí bowl in every stomach, a just-finished yoga session tingling on every limb.

The Coast of Utopia.

New home of one-time Venice-adjacent surf publication Stab.

But horror of all horrors, the unthinkable might be happening as growing animosity between leashless and leashed longboarders threatens to break the community apart.

Per a just posted message to Byron Bay’s Facebook Community Board, Stephon London writes:

TO THE FUCKING WANKER RIDING HIS LONBGOARD WITHOUT A LEG ROPE AT THE PASS TONIGHT… YES THE ONE WHO LOST HIS GREEN LONGBOARD WHICH COMPLETELY SMASHED MY PARTNER LEAVING INABLE TO WALK NOW…

THANKS FOR HELPING HER ONTO THE BEACH THEN LEAVING HER THERE WHILE YOU JUST PADDLED OUT TO  DO THE SAME TO SOMEONE ELSE… I KNOW EXACTLY WHO YOU ARE BECAUSE I SAW YOU OUT THERE… IF I SEE YOU IN THE WATER TOMORROW ARVO YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE A REALLY SHITTY TIME.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU DICKHEADS WHO THINK ITS COOL TO SURF WITHOUT A LEG ROPE!

IT’S NOT 1964 IDIOTS!

YOUR ENDANGERING EVERYONE ELSE IN THE WATER BECAUSE YOU THINK YOU LOOK HALF COOL. YOU DON’T YOU ARROGANT PRICKS.

SOMEONE WILL GET KILLED SOON FROM THIS BULLSHIT RECKLESS BEHAVIOUR.

At time of writing, over 100 concerned citizens and citizen-adjacents have weighed in. There appears to be very little support for the fucking wanker on a leashless green longboard.

But does he have the silent majority in his corner?

Many questions.

More as the story develops.