Teen surfer hit by suspected Great White at Cabarita on NSW's Far North Coast.

Surfer, 16, airlifted to hospital after attack by suspected Great White at Cabarita Beach

By Derek Rielly

2 weeks ago

“It was like there was an oil slick next to me, it was so big. It came up so slowly, and I literally shit myself and kicked it as hard as I could with my right leg."

A teenage surfer has been choppered to Gold Coast University hozzy after being bitten on the hand, arm and leg by a suspected Great White at Cabarita Beach, the one-time home of Chippa Wilson, a short-ish drive north of Byron Bay.

Nearby surfers helped the kid in and staunched the free-flowing claret with legrope tourniquets.

The attack, on a gloomy and wet mid-winter afternoon, was first reported by the on-the-spot Nicka35, a freelance reporter who covers on all things surf on the Gold Coast.

“People in the lineup did mention they saw a massive fin swimming and hanging out for quite a long time after the attack,” he posted.

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A post shared by NICKA (@nicka35)

Back in January, Jed Smith, the darkly sexy half of the Ain’t That Swell team, listed dire warnings from Cabarita locals about increased Great White activity.

Cabarita: Big White at Caba yesterday. Went under the lads at South Beach. 2.5 m White right under the lads and then basked around the corner of the headland.

In 2020, and just after the Tweed Heads Pro at Cabarita, foilboarder and noted local surfer Christian Bungate was hit by a Great White at the site of last weekend’s Tweed Heads Pro, the animal, which was described as a “tank”, leaving behind a tooth in the foil’s carbon fibres.

That hit came two weeks after Nick Slater was killed by a Great White at the Superbank, forty-five minutes drive north, four months after Rob Pedretti was killed by a Great White at Kingscliff, ten minutes drive north, one month after longboarder Chantelle Doyle was pulled out of a Great White’s mouth by her husband at Port Macquarie, a few hours south, and two months after teenager Mani Hart-Deville was killed by a Great White at Wooli, a couple of hours south.

Bungate knew it was a close call.

“It was like there was an oil slick next to me, it was so big. It came up so slowly, and I literally shit myself and kicked it as hard as I could with my right leg. I’m 100 per cent sure if I was on a normal surfboard it would’ve given the shark clear access to get straight back at me and it probably would’ve taken out my stomach. Instead it caught the wing of my foil board, hence why there’s a bloody tooth in it. I left my board and I crawled up the beach and I lay on my stomach bawling my eyes out.”

More details on the latest attack as they come.

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Italo F. pictured flying at Sao Paulo Surf Club.

New Sao Paulo surf tub memberships revealed to be more expensive than gently used Maybach!

By Chas Smith

2 weeks ago

It's a rich man's game.

The surf tub game is still in its infancy. While certain investors are wildly bullish, tossing money into developments with pools as centerpiece, claiming they will be the new golf course communities, others are not so sure, pointing to the debacle in Bristol or bad publicity from Palm Springs/Utah.

Though where does Brazil stand on the matter?

The surf mad South American nation, population 211 million, would be an absolute boon to savvy speculators if they could squeeze reals out of artificial wave enthusiasts. The average monthly Brazilian salary is $580ish USD. A day at Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch in Lemoore, California reported to run between $50,000 and $80,000 per day.

Well, if the price tag coming out of two new Sao Paulo projects is snaring any suckers, then the gold rush may well be on.

With over 11 million souls, Sao Paulo is the southern hemisphere’s largest city, stirring rage in the hearts of Sydneysiders. It is known as a major economic hub for South America though many traffic-choked miles away from any real surf.

Beyond the Club and Sao Paulo Surf Club, just opened, seek to remedy. Only four miles apart in the tony Santo Amaro district, both are currently offering memberships. Beyond the Club runs $125,000 for a family of four. Sao Paulo Club around $150,000.

A lightly used Mercedes Maybach sedan (no accidents, one owner, 9,330 miles), by comparison, costs $145,000.

Unlike Surf Ranch, the properties include tennis, squash, ski simulators, skate parks, spas and restaurants. There is a ski simulator at Hansen’s Surf Shop in Encinitas. It looks horrible.

The membership fee does not come with a home or condominium.

Are you enticed?

Are you enticed to buy that Maybach?

Act fast. Link here.

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Great Whites close to extinction suggest researchers.

“Less than 500 Breeding Great Whites left in Australia” shock report warns

By Derek Rielly

2 weeks ago

"The finding challenges fears Great White numbers are mounting. Such claims have been widespread since Spielberg’s horror classic Jaws."

Despite an eight hundred percent increase attacks on surfers since 1999 and one prominent ex-shark fisherman describing Great Whites as back to their “pre-white man biomass”, researchers have claimed their could be fewer than 500 adult breeding Great Whites left in Australian waters.

In research paid for by NSW’s Department of Primary Industries and conducted by Deakin Uni, coincidentally the same uni your ol pal DR is doin’ a literature course in, they say the species is closer to extinction than ever and despite it being protected since 1999.

Deakin’s scientists mapped the DNA of 650 Great Whites and found 275 of ’em were siblings, 511 half siblings on the east coast and 12 siblings, 29 half siblings in the southern oceans. According to the researchers, the interrelatedness means there’s only 500 or so studs and bitches pumping out the kids.

So why are kids being eaten alive in the surf, daddy’s disappeared entirely, and everywhere from Margaret River to Ceduna and Byron Bay via Tuncurry, Port Macquarie Wooli and Ballina?

In an editorial for the Sydney Morning Herald calling for the end of shark nets in NSW and riffing off the search, it’s editor Bevan Shields writes,

“The finding challenges fears that their numbers are mounting. Such claims have been widespread since Steven Spielberg’s horror classic opened and provided a lucrative living for many, like Queensland sideshow alley shark hunter Vic Hislop, to catch, kill and display the species. But Great Whites fuel our beach culture’s deepest fear, and until now, exact numbers have evaded reality.”

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Bristol's The Wave struggling with debt, finance etc.

Britain’s Manmade Wave Dreams Crash as Second Wavepool Closes

By Derek Rielly

2 weeks ago

Two from two!

The recent mania for building wave pools as an economic panacea to economically depressed backwaters has been laid bare as the folly it always was with the closure of another tank in Britain.

The Wave in Bristol, which charged ninety-five pounds for an advanced session and by advanced a three-foot tube that chandeliered and required supple hip flexors to squeeze into, has been shuttered indefinitely in a financial dispute between majority owners Sullivan Street Partners and another funding partner.

Sullivan Street Partners, who injected twenty-seven mill into the joint, said the closure stemmed from issues tied to the bankruptcy of a director at JAR Wave, another funding partner.

On May 22, administrators released a 47-page report outlining The Wave’s challenges in repaying loans and financing used to fund the millions of pounds needed to construct the facility in the late 2010s. Opened in 2019, the facility faced significant setbacks due to the Covid pandemic a year later.

Hazel Geary, CEO of The Wave, said: “This closure is not due to operational shortcomings or insufficient customer interest, but rather a financial technicality entirely separate from our commercial performance.”

Still, no word on if the gates are gonna swing open again on the world’s first full-sized Wavegarden Cove.

Two years back, the world’s first modern wave pool Surf Snowdonia, which used Wavegarden’s now obsolete early tech, was shuttered after a troubled eight years. This despite the Welsh government kicking in four million pounds to give it some sorta appeal to non-surfers by adding an adventure park to the place.

As Chas Smith reported,

The Welsh lagoon, which opened in 2015 to much fanfare, had suffered a series of setbacks of late. Lower revenues and less Welsh interest and what have you. There was a brief thought that a Hilton Garden Inn, opening onsite in 2021, would spike wild growth but… have you ever stayed in a Hilton Garden Inn? Oh, there’s nothing wrong with the medium tier business chain but also nothing really right about it either. A Four Seasons or Ritz might have been a better option.

The Wave in Bristol hit headlines a few years back when it entangled Britain’s VAL community after telling ‘em they had to prove their expert bona-fides via a licensing system if they wanted to ride Bristol’s Wavegarden on the advanced setting.

Interestingly, The Wave’s Founder Nick Hounsfield told BeachGrit that it wasn’t technology holding the place back, it was the surfing level of its customers. The Wave hit headlines a few years back when it entangled Britain’s VAL community after telling ‘em they had to prove their expert bona-fides via a licensing system if they wanted to ride the advanced setting.

“Quite a few people are struggling to be honest what their ability might be,” he said.

The requirement was subsequently removed so long as you self-identified as a “highly experienced and proficient surfer, able to negotiate more powerful waves with confidence.”

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Kelly Slater, and apparently son, like turtles.

Winningest ever surfer Kelly Slater deepens relationship with the majestic turtle!

By Chas Smith

2 weeks ago

“Tao” is “turtle” in Thai.

The turtle is, by every measure, an exemplary creature. A symbol of steadiness, longevity and wisdom. Significant and ancient. Researchers in the Levant recently uncovered one of the oldest religious artifact ever, a 37,000 year old turtle. Hinduism and Chinese mythologies depict the turtle holding up the earth on its strong and handsome shell. Various Southern African and Native American folklores share similar themes.

Kelly Slater is, then, in good company when it comes to turtle appreciation. The 11-time world surfing champion dressed up as a turtle, once, and released a sandal with turtle shell/moon markings. The press release read, “Kelly was particularly moved by the mysterious and special relationship between the moon and the sea turtle. Turtles hae 13 large scales that represent the 13 lunar cycles in each year and 28 smaller scales that represent the days in each cycle. As a tribute to these coexisting forces, Kelly designed the top of the sandal to mirror the moon’s surface while the bottom sole to represent the turtle’s scales.”

Buy turt-moons here.

Even better than honoring the turtle with a sandal, Slater, it appears, has gone one better with the birth of his son. The baby boy was introduced to the world almost a year ago, now, the 53-year-old telling Barton Lynch, “We got a little boy and my friends think we’re playing a game with him because we haven’t said the name. Because we actually, we actually don’t call him anything. We gave him a name for his birth certificate but, as of now, we don’t have a name to call him. So, we’re kind of just, like, letting him figure out his personality.”

Well, it appears that, like papa, little baby Tao, as the name was revealed to be after many months of anticipation, shares his father’s personality.

While many assumed the name to be related to the venerable Chinese philosophy, an eagle-ear’d listener to The Grit! Podcast shared that “Tao” is also “turtle” in Thai.

Now, this could be considered a fun coincidence except Slater’s main business, Firewire Surfboards, are manufactured in Thailand.

So there we have it.

The rounding of the shell.

Listen for more talk about Italo Ferreira’s new perfume venture here.

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Eat beach grit spam!