Of Great White Sharks and Surfers

Of Great White Sharks and Surfers

Of Great White Sharks and Surfers: the media and the movies can make or break your reputation and this certainly is the case with the good old Great White Shark. He has been demonised more than OJ, Oscar and even mosquitoes, as he swims around sporting the reputation of a callous cold-hearted murdering animal.

And yet this reputation is totally underserved if you examine the facts before you…

This video…an incredible drone production by an incredibly talented, and clued up dude, presents some challenging thinking.

Carlos Gauna is this cats name and he deserves a medal for putting the jury in front of this compelling and irrefutable evidence. To set the record straight.

And free the Great White Shark from it’s killer reputation!

But ok. Great White Sharks do eat people and all sorts of cute (and tasty) things that we enjoy too. Like seals and turtles. And there is no doubt, that in dirty water conditions, any surfer on a shortboard or a booger, will appear to be a seal or a turtle. In really bad disguise.

A black wetsuit paints the picture even more real. And is the preferred outfit for most surfers.

And there we have it…mistaken identity, dirty water, and a whole lot of bad luck. Is what it takes to get bitten by a Great White Shark. So that’s not to say it doesn’t happen, and won’t happen, to you. Nope, if you are the kind of person that likes donning a sealskin looking shiny black wetsuit, and dabble right in the kill zone, you are a willing target. Whilst surfing, swimming or foraging in murky waters where Great Whites hang out, you are firmly in the firing line.

The water only has to be slightly murky or bubbly for identity confusion to happen.

The featured video by Carlos, was shot and made in Southern California, where they luckily seem to enjoy clean water like this. In the Cape where many a surfer and Great White encounter used to happen a whole lot, the water is mostly very clear. Hence the successful deployment of shark spotters. Who incidentally, have seen zero great whites since those idiots came through False Bay capturing and tagging them. A few years back. Killing one and seemingly scaring the others (there were about 40 living there at the time), the hell out of False Bay!?

Even more reason to kick back at a clean water beach somewhere around the peninsula, and soak those toes!

And ride a longboard!

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