Mavericks — On November 3, 2005, Tim West and Chris Loeswick were surfing Pillar Point at Mavericks in Half Moon Bay. It was 4:45 PM and they were about 400 yards from Sail Rock and 750 yards from shore. The swell was about 11 feet with limited water visibility from suspended debris in the water. Dan Temko, Harbor Master, Half Moon Bay reported the following; “West and Loeswick were surfing the inside break at Pillar Point and saw good waves forming on the outside. West started paddling over the channel that leads to the outside break. It was low tide and the depth of the water was 22 feet on the edge of the shelf. West’s board was struck from below lifting West and the board about 2 feet out of the water. West fell into the water and his board landed several feet away. There was a lot of thrashing by the White Shark for 3 – 5 seconds when it struck the board. It departed without any further actions toward the surfers or the board. A tooth was discovered buried in the bottom of the board.” White Sharks are known to frequent this area. Caution should be exercised when utilizing this location for your ocean water activities. Additional information will be posted when available. This is the third White Shark attack to be reported from California in the past 15 days and fourth for this year. Please report any shark sighting, encounter, or attack to the Shark Research Committee.
if you were old and crusty like me I wouldn't warn you, but I'd hate to see a youngun chomped.
Bill:
You guys are pumping the GWS attack propaganda way out of proportion :smt011
jmairey:
Bill, please elaborate.
since your post followed mine, I assume 'you guys' includes me. :smt010 :smt009
So far I haven't seen false information posted or anything. pretty much facts? no?
Seems like 18 foot long 5000lb man-eating fish that frequent our local fishing grounds are worth talking about? I sure hope so!
It's scary sure, in fact it's really scary, but that's no excuse for not talking about it.
Well, maybe that's a reason for not talking about it, but that's denial man, denial! that's a reason, it's not an excuse. there's a difference.
If anything there's not enough info. Assessing risks is difficult at best. For example, is it more dangerous to drive to fish or to actually fish? I'm not entirely sure, none of us have been killed by drunk drivers or by sharks. so who knows.
I can't even find any hard info on this one fatal kayak attack. can you? All I see is that it happened at malibu. (does potto know about this one I wonder?)
But this is your site, you tell me what I can post about any risks to kayak fisherman and what I can't and I'll abide by your rules.
maybe you need a special scary forum. urchins. sharks. drunk drivers. waves. fog. a place for the trouble makers of the world really.
sincerely,
j
LoletaEric:
JMairey is freaking me out--I love it! :smt002 Get me scared enough to where I don't mind not going for lingcod and abs until next April and I'll be happy. The GWS issue is one not to ignore, but you have to accept it to be doing what we're doing. Sure, I'm not going salmon fishing at the mouth of the Klamath in late summer--unless we have a group! But really, I'm not going to seek out known 'sharky' spots, but I do end up yakking and diving in and around them at times... It's about minimizing risks while having the ability to enjoy an area to some extent. Some well-informed and reasonably responsible extent. Now, this extent is no doubt different for us vs. our wives/SO's, and we must also weigh that factor when deciding on a reasonably responsible risk. It's similar to surfing in more ways than just the shark--a pro died on the North Shore recently--I doubt that anyone quit surfing...
Bill:
I guess I am just reacting to the fact that it seems like every other post includes some GWS factoids lately. There have only been what 3 reported GWS attacks on kayaks in the entire history of reported attacks on the west coast. The chances of getting attacked by a GWS on a kayak are so incredibly small I don't think getting all worked up about is worth anyone getting worried about it. People do far more stupid things that will get them killed on the ocean and no one seems to worry about that. Not having a VHF radio while fishing on the ocean, going out alone, in the fog, not filing a float plan. All of us is guilty of of least one of these errors in the past. Let's not even get into the risk of driving to fish :smt003
You can talk about whatever you want on this forum, I am not going to censor any topic, as long as it is relevant. I just get a little goofy when I picture someone who might be interested in fishing on the ocean but they are terrified of getting attacked by a GWS. I would hate to propagate that fear when it appears that given current historical evidence the likelihood of that occurring is very very small.