Yeah, they’re there.
First, my sincere condolences go to shark attack victim Leeanne Ericson and her family. The following words and observations aren’t meant to belittle what she is going through, but all the recent news of countless shark sightings and her attack have, of course, impacted my own experiences in the water.
As a person that surfs more than 200 days a year in and around the very waters where the attack happened, I have found myself exhibiting some interesting behavior since that fateful day in late April. In my 30 years of living in Southern California, I have only seen sharks while surfing a couple of times, and I’m happy to keep things that way.
Let’s start with the day after the attack. I had decided in my mind that while I know sharks live in the ocean, entering their domain has always been a risk on my part–with or without a recent attack at one of my local waves. Why stop now? I have a 9-year-old son in the Jr. Guards program this summer and didn’t want to transfer any subconscious apprehension onto him or my 13-year-old daughter. So, the following morning, I headed to Cotton’s, just a mile north of the attack. It was a beautiful Sunday morning and there was some swell. Much to my surprise, the crowds, while a bit on the thin side for a Sunday morning, were still out en masse. Lowers was seemingly unaffected by the perceived threat with at least 30 people in the water–just a stone’s throw from the attack site.
Admittedly, I was tentative during that session. I’d found myself unconsciously lifting my feet up while sitting on my board, and scanning the water’s surface within a 50-yard radius for signs of trouble. I noticed that everyone in the water seemed to be hovering in close proximity to each other. Meanwhile, on the beach, the state guards jammed “beach closed, sharks” signs into the sand and patrolled the beach. In spite of this and San Clemente’s three-day closure of the beaches, they never made an effort to call anyone out of the water. I was actually pleased to see the state officials allowing its citizens to take responsibility for their own actions, rather than making that decision for us. Conservative ideal in an otherwise liberal state.
I don’t think I went more than 30 seconds during that session without imagining what I would do if I or one of my fellow risk takers were struck. It was an uneasy feeling, to say the least.
I returned the next day. It was considerably bigger, and I was surfing a peak about 50 yards away from anyone else when my leash broke on a closeout about 100 yards from the beach. Needless to say, it was an uneasy swim to retrieve my board. In the days that followed the attack, there have been many sightings, some of which I attribute to hyper-vigilance and mass hysteria created by the media. I’m still paddling out in what is now starting to be called the “Orange Triangle” and so far, haven’t seen anything alarming (I’m knocking heavily on my pine desk right now). I did surf SanO after a sighting with only half a dozen surfers in the water on a day that, under normal circumstances, would have seen a full parking lot. We were all on longboards and most of us, again unconsciously, kept our feet up on our boards while waiting for waves. Despite our obvious subconscious fear, we all stayed out catching waves and relishing in the fear-induced lack of crowd.
As I mentioned, I have two school-aged kids. My wife and I own a retail bodyboarding business, have a son in Jr. Guards this summer, and are partners in a bodyboarding camp here in San Clemente, so our connections to the ocean are intrinsic to our existence. We rely on the ocean for our livelihood and a situation like this happening just before the start of summer is a dark cloud on what should be the best time of year for those of us in Southern California. When we talk to our friends who also have school-aged kids, the conversation inevitably turns to sharks with parents debating whether or not they should pull their kids from ocean-related camps and activities. Some parents have simply decided they aren’t letting their kids in the ocean… for now. My hope is that once the initial shock and hype fades from the headlines, so will the mania that accompanies it. The problem is, a lot more people are actively looking for our befinned villains, meaning there’s a “sighting” every few days. Yes, I think we’re all looking forward to the day the “This Just In…There are sharks in the ocean!” Ron Burgundy memes disappear from our Facebook feeds. We can get comfortable going to the beach with our friends and kids and get back to enjoying all the ocean has to offer. That day can’t come soon enough for me.
