Surfing is far more hazardous than I suspected. During Lesson #1, my friends and I shuffle-shuffle-shuffled our feet to ward off the lurking stingrays that stung a man near us just after we finished our lesson… and that stung 60 beachgoers at that spot the next day. During Lesson #2, this past Sunday, we swam with a great white shark.
Not that we knew it. We thought the worst in store for us that day were the jelly fish we spotted in the water around us and washed up on shore. We didn’t know that a half hour before our lesson, a nearby kayaker spotted a shark. The great white, which was longer than the 12-foot kayak, swam up to the boat, brushing it with the fin of his tail. Later that day, some six hours after we’d left, life guards spotted a large dorsal fin coming straight in to shore. Now if that doesn’t send you to the “Jaws” scene where Rob Scheider races up the beach screaming at swimmers to get out of the water, I don’t know what will.
Luckily, a local expert has pointed out that there’s nothing to fear. “The sharks are normally found on the coast of California, sometimes we spot them,” said Nick Wegner, a marine biologist and shark expert. “Most of the time they’re there, we just don’t see them.” (Source: Great White Shark Spotted Off La Jolla Shores | NBC San Diego)
Yeah, that makes me feel better.
Now I want to take surfing lessons! What an aquatic trip!
Yeah, that’s good to know there’s nothing to fear.
EXCEPT THE POSSIBLE LOSS OF LIFE OR LIMB.
Did you know that there are no sharks in DC?? Or at least not the kind that can consume a human in two swift bites!!