Kneeboard Surfing USA Community Forum

8:28 a.m. May 4, 2004

PACIFIC PALISADES – Will Rogers State Beach was open today, a day after several sharks – some as long as eight feet – were seen swimming as close as 100 yards from shore.

"There have been no sightings today," said county lifeguards Capt. Garth Canning. "We advised swimmers to stay out of the water yesterday, but we did not order them to stay out, and some went in the water anyway.

"Going out in the water is always dangerous," Canning said. "On Sunday, we made over 380 rescues in the county area. Sharks are just another danger, and we're on the lookout for all dangers."

Authorities have not determined the species of shark sighted off the coast yesterday, but there were concerns that the animals could have been potentially dangerous mako or great white sharks.

Dave McNair, a San Diego-area diver who viewed television news footage at 10 p.m. Monday on KUSI-TV, said the sharks appeared to him to be white sharks.

The footage was an aerial view of the sharks in the surf zone.

McNair, who shared his views via e-mail with fellow divers, emphasized he was not a marine biologist, but merely a "shark fan."

"They had the classic great white shark shape," he noted "(The) nose was triangular – not pointy, pectoral fins were broad and triangular/crescent shaped – not long and slender, broad girth of the tail just before the fin, body overall stocky – not slim and long, and a brief angular glimpse of the dorsal fin sure looked broad like the pectorals.

"Even their movement was reminiscent of video I've seen of (white sharks)."

To McNair, the only odd item appeared to be the sharks' coloring, which he noted was very dark."

The mako shark is the only other shark with similar characteristics, McNair observed. "These sharks were moving fairly slowly, slower than what I thought Makos moved like."

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Maybe we should we send kneelorider* to check it out? j/k ....

Tough too vote on that one. I had a chance to surf W-Side of Oahu, a really fun looking 2-4ft and peaking, beachbreak, with no one out. Right after that bodyboarding was killed. I passed on the chance. Man Eating Sharks are scaring and if they think theres a food source, why take the risk. I'm gonna vote on when the beaches are opened.

Ler

380 rescues? That number is quite high in my opinion. The lifeguards need to do a better job preventing incidents from happening.
Here in Florida, lifeguards periodically close beaches for shark and predatory fish activity . Usually it's a case of small sharks following and feeding on a school of baitfish. In most cases, we're back open in 30 minutes.
I tell people, "When you enter the water, you enter the food chain".

On the drive home on Monday morning, my wife spotted a large shark just north of County Line (LA/Ventura). She knows her stuff since she's lived in Catalina and has been in the water surfing and diving around sharks.

Do any of you remember waaaaaayyyyy back in the late 1980's when Mr. Zogg's Sex Wax briefly came out with a new product: Shark Jerkey?

There's an article in the SF Chronicle Sports section on coping with Sharks. Look in SFGate.com...

Anyhow, a 30-yr surfer/diver/kayaker described how he saw his 1st GWS while surfing the P*tch, North of B*l*nas
Spots a 3ft high dorsal about 80 yds out, heading towards him...
He takes the next wave... not in, but paddles down to the estuary.

?????

8ft Tigers would get me out of the water. 8ft Blues? Big for a blue... but nah. 8ft Mako? Probably. 8ft GWS? Young and aggro? Nice young sharp teeth? Out for sure. 3ft high dorsal? Picture a duck running across a pond...

I'm praying these grey boys chop some young pro in half on a sunny Sunday at Malibu... our Summer crowd problems would be solved.
EQ

EQ I herd thery were swimming off of Hermosa as well.Have you herd anything like that.

..

How bout Lower's, there's those 6ft grays, lurking at San O. About one city block away. Nobody cleared out at either spot. Some people even paddled out just to see the sharks.

...entering the food chain...

I'm as much of a wuss as the next person but this is actually one of the things I like about surfing in Nor Cal. When else in my life am I forced to be that real about my choices? Off the beach I am indeed food and always a bit aware of the potential in back of my mind. Keeps me awake and humble. (And its often the one that is not seen that gets ya!). I also figure, if I gotta go, better to feed some threatened, harrassed wild creature than slowly rot in some cemetary after the indignity of an autopsy, not ot mention that code blue crash cart and tubes and beeping monitors etc.

Hmmm, am I being morbid today?

Obviously, the 20% voting "If the waves are good, I'm out there even before they open the beach!" have never had the "up close and personal"
experience like alot of us in Nor-Cal. Once you look "Mr. Toothy" in the eye your priorities change real quick.

Sorry SCGARY, but I grew up in Norcal, learned to surf and still have a house in Stinson Beach (place of two recent attacks) and have had MANY spooky experiences between SF and Santa Cruz.... btu if some one gets chomped at Lowers, I'm out there the next day.

SoCal sharks are Pussy's
EQ

Once you look "Mr. Toothy" in the eye

I think that there is what you call keepin' it real

eqKneelo wrote:Sorry SCGARY, but I grew up in Norcal, learned to surf and still have a house in Stinson Beach (place of two recent attacks) and have had MANY spooky experiences between SF and Santa Cruz.... btu if some one gets chomped at Lowers, I'm out there the next day.

SoCal sharks are Pussy's
EQ

Ah Yes! Natural Selection at work.

This shark thing is getting interesting.There are other species that are often mistaken for whites.We've also have salmon sharks,that are quite similiar,smaller but almost impossible ti id.Also,objects underwater are magnified by +-15%.We occasionly get schools of thresher sharks that zoom around chasing schools of anchovies.Naturally all this activity has beachgoers screaming.This particular incident made the local news and it was stated that as many as five whites were seen off stinson beach on the same day! Many times people mis id.cal. sealions as sharks.They have a resting pattern-lying on their side pectoral flipper extended upward[it's a method of thermoregulating] I'm generally leery of shark sightings from from those not acquainted with the ocean enviorment.
As far as that sighting of a 3ft dorsal fin,That's hard to believe.The usual rule of thumb for shark size is-8'of lengthfor 1ft of fin.That would be a 24ft shark.NO way!
Generally what happens is that when white pops to the surface,part of the back directly under the dorsal fin will also be exposed-more than a foot in some cases.If that was the case and the shark was that high in the water then the tail would also have been visible-I never heard that-I'm not saying it wasn't a shark,just skeptical ya know! And for the guy in the kayak-20yrs experience.Would you believe any one who actually rides one of them things-dangerous,a menace to society,and a hazard to navigation!!!!!