"I was looking right at it. That ain't Flipper, my man."
Yesterday, the three-time world surfing champion and ultra-purist Joel Tudor issued a warning to surfers via his Instagram account alongside video of what appears to be fat-as-hell Great White breaching in the lineup.
Written in classic tongue-in-cheek Tudor style but not kidding, either.
“Don’t surf Cardiff. It’s infested with ten-foot White sharks that are attracted to soft tops, stand-up paddlers and tourist swimmers. Stay safe and find a lake or go take a hike. This was today at 8:12 am.”
The post opened a floodgate of Great White chatter.
Former tour surfer Shea Lopez wrote, “When these pups grow up it’s gonna be a different story in SoCal waters. They were all over Lowers the past three days.”
“Result of almost thirty years of no local net fishing inshore,” Tudor replied. “Those dudes used to cull the count quite a bit and helped keep the balance. Since they have been gone the numbers are crazy.”
“Same in Florida,” wrote Lopez, “Used to be we were protected by the actions of the fisherman understanding the ecosystem and being in charge of doing not only what is best for them but also the community that they live in as it affects everyone from their children to their grandparents. Now we have been put in harm’s way due to the change in regulations and the elimination of what had been working for as any can remember. And working well. What next. We have to make an effort to stop the inevitable.”
The inevitable, of course, being, mmmmm, Australia, surfers and swimmers dying every other month in hits by Great Whites, like, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. Scientists predict 1800 hits by sharks in Australian over the next forty-five years.
One follower wrote to Tudor, “It is a dolphin! :)” to which he replied,
“I was looking right at it. That ain’t Flipper, my man.”
Good times.
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Sharks have been here since the beginning of time people getting in the water and need to remember that it’s their home not ours and when you get in the water you’re taking your chances I’m tired of hearing all the BS about sharks you’re going into their territory not the other way around sharks are just doing what sharks do
Well if you don’t believe the guy go swimming/surfing and you’ll find out if he’s right or wrong. If we don’t see you again, adios have a better life in the after world. It’s that simple no need to say anything and just go find out for yourself if you’re going to be a meal or not.
I think Joel wants to surf Cardiff to himself… I didn’t know Great Whites happy hour snack preference is soft tops, SUPS and tourist swimmers…sounds like they are the crowd elements Joel would like to have go BYE, BYE….
Climate change is ruining my snow boarding. We should cull everyone in cali. I believe them not spreading their self righteous bs will bring the balance back.
Yes we very scared of great whites here in Aus, so many attacks 🙄🤣. It’s the ocean leave it be. If that scares you stay out. Pussy yanks
I live in Carpinteria and see great whites often. They are juveniles, probably like the one breaching. The adults here don’t care about humans. The juveniles like the bat rays. I’ll take the increase in sharks over the increasing overfishing that we were experiencing under the cover of fishing rights.
Libtards ran off the fishermen. Real geniuses aren’t they? The save the planet nut jobs who voted for Creepy Joe.
This is obviously just an article promoting overfishing in the San Diego waters. 1800 hits over 45 years isn’t even alot. More people die from driving their cars everyday. People probably die more from cows. Let nature repair itself. Let fish thrive and other animals exist. Overfishing hurts the ocean more than it helps.
Beach Grit always has these horror story articles to hype the anti-shark crowd.
Fishermen “understanding the ecosystem” is one of the most laughable things I’ve read lately.
Finally, something in Encinitas that doesn’t have anything to do with homeless parking lots or PCH bike lanes. But I’m confused, because it obviously is, but exactly how is this Blakespear’s fault?
We can’t kill a wild, precious animal we still know very little about, because dudes want to surf ? We have done enough damage to this planet and life on it without calling for a cull of great whites! Wow. A 10ft-er is like a teenager. This size gw is still learning and they(sharks) are known to enjoy waves just as much, if not more than the surfers, and it is THEIR HOME & TERRITORY. Should humans be culled right off their couches in their living rooms? Why punish a shark for swimming in the ocean? Jeez ! Is surfing so important that it should be ok to kill animals for simply being where they live? Humans are so self righteous, like their rights are all that matter. Well, I’m not that kind of human. Sorry. Leave them alone. Live and let live. They have water parks where you can surf day and night, knock yourself out, but leave the sharks alone. They are under enough pressure as it is caused BY US, shark fin soup, red tide, and God only knows what other toxins, indiscriminate netting(netting is not fishing-btw) just our garbage alone is enough to devastate all ocean life.. Why add to their miseries any more than we already have. What if next, we just decide to cull surfers?
Please!
*clap*
Go to SeaWorld and quit wasting everyone’s time with your stupid comments. I lived in Tahoe, you know the woods. Guess what? There are bears. No big deal till they are in your yard eating your trash. The more there around people the less afraid they are. They wonder into neighborhoods and guess what? They are trapped and taken elsewhere. How do you do that with 18ft 3000lb sharks??
Joel Tudor is the Joe Rogan of surfing a lot of opinion and low on fact. Drift nets and Long lines produce more by catch than useable product. The Great White and its prey the Sea Lion are protected species. The Great White gained protection in the early 1990’s and was on the verge of collapse locally. Mean while the Sea Lion population exploded tilting the ecosystem out of wack. So to compensate for this explosion nature produces more sharks to combat the Sea Lions. And for Shea commercial fisherman must be regulated or they will over fish an area, which is why there is a rise in Fl. Your ecosystem is the most compromised. First educate then state.
tudor: have your crew paddle-out in advance.
Seeing a white shark whilst surfing in SD waters would be the most exciting thing to happen to someone all session. Waves are so fucking terrible in SD. The opposite of exciting. No wonder Joel Tudor is a longboard world champ. He hails from an old mans surf paradise.
It is always sharky after it hasn’t rained all summer and then big rains wash everything that has accumulated out to sea, including any carcasses that lure sharks to the inshore regions. Same thing happens during spring run off when snow melts and all the animals that died during the winter gets washed down into the rivers. Surf the piers and avoid the river mouths is the best approach if you are going to paddle out. The rain came early this year, later rains means the run off doesn’t hit the ocean until December. Hopefully the big rain has clear everything out and the sharks will head off to look for sea lions somewhere else.
We used it for mapping clear cuts in Northern California in a “programming for environmental science” class. Fortunately within 5 years, the more user friendly and aesthetically pleasing GIS had taken over. I kinda miss the sound of data being spewed out by those old printers. Talk about fucking paper jams!!
Biden: “May my farce be with you.”
FORTRAN all day, every day. Sadly my ancient FORTRAN professor wasn’t smart enough to see the future in GUIs and object oriented languages. He loved his IBM mainframes.
Shea Lopez’s quote is pure home schooling.