The Peconic Puffin Windsurfing Blog

About that fatal shark attack

I’ve spoken to quite a few windsurfers since the terrible news about Stephen Schafer, the kite surfer in Florida.   There’s probably nobody who’s ever sailed the ocean who hasn’t had The Fear at one time or another when a waterstart wasn’t coming together.   We all hear about the overwhelming odds against being attacked by a shark, though we also know those odds don’t take into consideration all the things we waterpeople do to drop our silly asses in front of sharks.     Locally on Long Island you rarely hear about a shark siting (my one experience at the Bowl last June notwithstanding.)   But still, we know we’re taking a variety of risks out there, and this is a ringing reminder that sharks are on the list, however remote the odds.    According to news reports, the kiter Schafer was known to believe in the buddy system…friends were puzzled to learn that he’d been out alone.

This merits particular attention given one amazingly positive note about the incident: A local lifeguard named Daniel Lund spotted Schafer floating in the water 400 yards off shore.   Lund paddled out with a rescue board, saw that Schafer (still alive) was surrounded by circling sharks, and went in to get him anyway.

What commitment.  What balls.   Let’s hear it for Lifeguard Daniel Lund.

Beyond Lund’s heroism, it’s worth noting he was able to approach a badly bleeding person in the water, drag him onto a board, and paddle out of there, even with sharks all over the place.    This is all the more reason to value the buddy system:  if one of us somehow manages against the odds to get hit by a shark, the rest of us have every reason to believe we can get in there and get our friend out without becoming victims ourselves.

That's my .02

R.I.P. Stephen Schafer.

(If you're not familiar with the blog of windsurfer/kiter/marine biologist James, this happened in his local waters, and you may want to check out the several posts he did on the incident.)

The Gilgo Shark Isn't My Shark

A large basking shark (is there any other kind?) has been making appearances on the south shore of Long Island over the last few weeks.   It was photographed while it cruised by some local surfers at Ponquogue a few weeks ago (a friend SUPing in the area who saw the thing described a massive fin) and seems to have washed up dead at Gilgo a few days ago.   A few people have suggested to me that perhaps this was the shark that scared the hell out of me at the Bowl last month.

T’was not.

The basking shark that washed up (as well as the one in the photo) is at least twenty feet long.   Mine was seven feet.   I’m fairly sure I would not describe a twenty-something foot shark swimming in spitting distance of me as only a third it’s size.  And the fin shape in the photographs of the basking shark is not the shape or size of the fin I saw.   Etc. etc.   Mine looked more like the fellow in the second photograph…lean, built for speed and business.

In any event, Long Island plankton are breathing easier today!

(Top photo: a basking shark at Ponquogue, photographed by Matt Murphy, courtesy http://27east.com via the Southampton Press.   The bottom photo is something I found and tweaked that is a good approximation of what I saw over my right shoulder at the Bowl.)

My Shark Encounter

Seventeen-plus years of windsurfing and I’d never seen a shark.   I never wanted to see a shark, but if I did my preference was to see a fin perhaps 100 yards in the distance, swimming parallel to shore, oblivious of me.   That’s not what I got.

What I also wanted if I ever saw a shark was to be planing and well powered so I could head back to the beach and maybe have lunch while the shark left the area.  That’s not what I got either.

Sailing outbound at the Bowl in side-on winds, I was maybe 600 yards from the launch and 200 from the beach when I jibed off some swell.   Caught the sail, got back into the footstraps, and then a big lull had me quick-step out of the straps so I could shlog.

And then my head just turned upwind…I must have heard it surface.   I was staring at a black triangle, ten feet away from me.  During the first thousandth of a second I thought “not a dolphin” (I’ve never seen a dolphin off of Long Island, but one can hope.)    For a quarter second I thought “I can’t believe I’m staring at a shark fin”.   Then I thought “it’s the size of a very large slice of pizza.”   Then some swell changed the angle of the light reflecting on the water, and I saw all of the shark.   About seven feet long, swimming slowly parallel to me.    And it was so very much a shark.    It wasn’t swimming by, it was swimming with me, checking me out.   I have no spitting skills at all but I could have easily spit on its head.    I was not happy.   None of the other guys were anywhere near me…it was just me and this shark. 

I focused on getting away.   Bearing off seemed like a good idea (the beach was downwind) and there was a tiny bit of increased speed.   I stopped looking at the thing and focused on the rig, encouraging myself with the thought that the shark probably wasn’t planning on attacking.   Yeah we’ve all heard the statistics that you’re more likely to be hit by lightning than be attacked by a shark, but I think those odds shorten some when:

1.    You’re by yourself hundreds of yards from shore.
2.    A shark is ten feet away from you, and not leaving.

Anyhow I was shlogging on my broad reach, making little headway and hoping for a gust to get me planing (I didn't get one.)   Then the thought hits me “unhook, unhook!”   What if the wind dies completely for a moment…hooked in I might not be able to do a mad balance dance, and then I’d fall in.   A minute later I start thinking “maybe I should hook in” worrying about fatigue.    Then I had my stupidest thought:  Look behind me and see what the shark is up to.   I started to look back when a voice in my head said “ARE YOU INSANE WHAT IF YOU LOSE YOUR BALANCE!” which snapped my head back forward, where I saw a nice wave forming…perhaps five feet high, which was plenty for what I needed.   

The first swell took me a third of the way to the beach.   I rode the second the rest of the way in.   I was on the beach.

I walked my gear a few hundred yards back to the launch, where the guys were hanging out waiting for the wind to come back.   I was looking forward to telling my story, so they could laugh at me and reassure me with their own experiences…these guys have been windsurfing in the ocean for ages (this is just my third ocean year) and surely they’ve seen plenty of sharks.

I started with Scott.  “Really?” was all I got.

Then Bill Barber.  Bill surfs, so he must see plenty of sharks.  “That’s rare,” he told me.  In twenty years in the ocean he’d only seen one on Long Island.

Then Fisherman arrived.  Fisherman is in fact a commercial fisherman, he knows what’s up, and he will not let me down.  He asks me to describe the fin.  I tell him about the pizza slice.  Fisherman says “that’s pretty big”.

Shit.   The whole plan was to get reassured so I could go back out and sail without fear.   But that didn’t happen.*   

Then the wind came back up and nobody cared about my shark and they all went out.   Jon Ford and Jeff and Ethan and Jimi all showed up and didn’t care about the shark and they sailed too, so of course I went back out, though I kept my runs short…no long excursions to the outside for me.   And if you’ve ever experienced some nervousness sailing in the ocean, distracted by imagined perils in the deep that caused you to be tentative in your sailing and screwed up your technique, imagine how you’d do sailing in waters where you know there’s a shark… a shark you've already met and that has demonstrated some casual interest in you.   I was fine on the inside, but for the rest of the day on the outside I was a tentative mess.   What knucklehead sails back to the shark?

I'd happily sail the Bowl again tomorrow, though.  

* Jon Ford arrived later and said he’s seen the occasional shark hanging out by the sand bar in the past. 

(Top:  I'm jibing well on the inside, but I'm not smiling 'cause I'm headed back towards Shark Town.  Photo by Bill Doutney.)

When Nine Feet of Shark Gets Five Feet of Air Next To You, What Do You Do? (video)

So what do you do?

1.  Are you calm cool nature guy, who says "did you see the distinctive pattern to its fin and how it spun in the air?  That's a spinner shark...not dangerous to man."

2.  Freak out and leave the water immediately.

3.  Stay calm, but having noted that a nine foot long shark has just leapt out of the water choose this moment to take a break and watch your comrades play in the water.   And see if any of them get et.

(First seen on Hudson River Windsurfer, who recommends Fishbase.org as a source of details on fish, sharks etc.  If Peconic Jeff will start sailing with his iPhone, bookmark Fishbase and promise to drop his rig and look up sharks the moment they start leaping around us, I may put myself in category #1.   Until that time I'll be spending time in answers #2 and #3.)

Windsurfers Eaten By Sharks...The Movie

Who knew this thing existed?    There's a reason we didn't.  Great White is a ripoff of Jaws so odious that the studio was able to get this movie out of theaters in two days (and prevent it from being released as home video.)   Here's a description of Great White from "The Crane Shot":

"

The big Windsurfing Regatta is coming up, and even though one teen has already been chomped on, the mayor refuses to cancel. That leads to an amazing scene in which the shark plows through dozens of windsurfers like bowling pins, knocking them into the water one by one".

We've talked about the paucity of windsurfing appearances in movies in the past, but we were ignorant of Great White.    I wonder if there are any bootlegs around.

Shark Shield Not Ready For Prime Time

Some windsurfers and surfers worry about sharks, some don't, and some lie about it. I myself don't worry about sharks, but I prefer to waterstart as fast as humanly possible when I fall in the ocean.

For those windsurfers who do worry about being eaten alive or losing a limb to these fish, shark repelling technology would be a welcome bit of gear to add to one's quiver. Unfortunately the stuff is still in beta. Or alpha. Engadget reports on a test of a new electronic shark repelling system from Australia called Shark Shield. They put the thing on a surfboard and sent it out into sharky waters off of South Africa. A Great White swam up and bit the device.

Maybe the batteries were in wrong.

(Story submitted by Peconic Jeff. Photo nicked from The Horse's Mouth.)

Gabrielle, She Storms in Hatteras

OBX Bill has been posting about Tropical Storm Gabrielle, which came into Hatteras yesterday and "didn't do much damage" according to the national media (By Outer Banks standards they probably didn't even tie down their dogs. They know storms in Hatteras.)

Bill reports winds up to 45, good clean fun etc, nothing extraordinary. Then I read this bit:

"Today (Sunday), we are expecting strong SE winds and a rare Cove Sesh! The only drawback to the Cove is that we have heard that the bull sharks are mating there at this time...May have to sail a little conservative in the waves to avoid any long gear swims?!"

The bull sharks are mating. I myself would be disinclined to disturb them in any way. The bull shark is not one of those sharks who, despite their fearsome appearance, actually pose little threat to humans. No, that's not the bull shark. The bull shark officially ranks third in the number of attacks on people, but according to the good folks who produce Shark Week bull shark attacks are underreported, because bull sharks are difficult to identify as a species. Many attacks attributed to big-ass sharks of indeterminate species are likely the work of bull sharks.

Bull sharks eat people who are minding their own business. How do you think they react when interrupted in the heat of passion?

Sharks are Scary

Who thought that this photo in an old post was a bit of Photoshop trickery?




For you doubters out there, here is another image from the same photo shoot, as well as the story behind the photos. I encourage you to click on the photo for the full effect. Thanks to Bonnie at Frogma for the details.

OG Puffin Steve is back from a recent eco-adventure in the Galapagos Islands. Besides verifying the theory of evolution, the good doctor also came back to share his newfound love for and comfort with sharks. Sharks are not a danger to humans, and are fine to share the water with, said he.

I'm sure he's correct. And as I've been swimming more I have been more comfortable with the fishies myself. Still, I'm going to check in with Steve the next time he blows a jibe on the outside in the ocean, to watch him take his time with his waterstart. No rush...

Be a Good Fish and Go Away. Please.

(Photo from fresh99.com.)

Grab Bag

Three bits on other people's blogs that I've admired but not found a way to break out into something larger are now presented, 'cause I just feel like sharing:

1. A nice little tale of swimming with Tiger Sharks from Pono House, which is the Maui-est of the Maui blogs in my estimation because it doesn't try. Bill is just "there" (not that I don't enjoy Giampaolo!)

2. A little boat named Puffin is reason enough to shout out Tugster, a wonderful blog about the boats that ply New York harbor. Everything from container ships to schooners, from achingly beautiful handcrafted sailboats to the latest poop haulers all somehow fit together here. Want to spend a minute meditating on how beautiful a coil of rope can be? This is the place.

3. Nothing little about this wall of water about to ruin someone's waterstart from The Horse's Mouth. If it's wind powered and you can ride it on the water, The Horse's Mouth likes it (also fish and pretty girls.)

Pull A Bethany

Inspired by a great photo of her in The Horse's Mouth I did a little web surfing on Bethany Hamilton. If "Bethany" isn't enough for you, she's the teen surfer who at age 13 lost her left arm to a tiger shark. Her response was to display so much Right Stuff that Chuck Yeager surely pumped his fist in the air, when ten weeks later she was back in competition!

The Wetass Chronicles proclaimed "Her name should be incorporated into surf lingo, to describe a jaw-dropping recovery, as in: "Dude, he was going to face plant on the coral, but pulled a Bethany and shot the tube to daylight."

More Bad Fish

Bull sharks disable, then sink a shrimping boat off of the Florida coast.

All sharks please take note: I have no issue with sharks...be you tigers, bulls, the landlord, whichever. But these PARTICULAR sharks...it must be said that they have crossed the line.

Bad Fish

If a shark has you in its mouth, poke shark in eye with vigor until released. It worked for this guy who was getting swallowed head first by a great white.