So, I was going to spend all of next week golfing and surfing...I even found a guy who has a cherished and rare key to the mystial 'black beach' road running through UCSD campus. And then this happens:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080426/D909HG880.html
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080426/D909HG880.html
The victim by the way, happens to be a friend of mine's boss's husband. She works for a vet in Del Mar. He founded the clinic she works in. Small world. Ironic also that a vet, the one guy whose spent his life caring for and preserving animals, was picked out of 10 swimmers to get shredded by 8 thousand pounds per square inch of razor sharp pressure from a 7-foot long 1 million year old sandpaper skinned fish. Apparently nature really doesn't appreciate Karma. (Maybe he was an evil vet?) Either way, I feel terrible for the guy's family. But like I always say: "If you are going to die, at least make the evening news doing it."
Seriously, what are the chances of being eaten by a shark in Southern California? Well, apparently you are 250 times more likely to be killed by lightning than by a man-eating shark (http://www.maneatingsharks.com/). And very much less so in Southern California. What are the chances that this should happen a few days before I plan on learning how to surf a shortboard? (normally-1,000,000,000 to 1) but with my luck more like 1.5 to 1.
Except he wasn't eaten, his legs were shredded, not eaten. Why didn't he get eaten? The answer is here: http://library.thinkquest.org/3935/SHARKS.HTM
Apparently great whites like to sneak up and bite down on thier prey, then leave for a bit waiting for their prey to weaken, then they come back and eat them. But strangely, great whites rarely eat humans when they come back for them?
Don't sharks like to eat humans? They eat seals... Maybe we are too bony? Or they know that red meat is fatty? Especially Americans? (Are humans red meat?) But this guy was a 66 year old triathalete, no fat there...
But if you are worried about sharks, swim with a dolphin. They've been known to deter sharks and even beat on them by ramming them (although never a great white). This story is famous: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=3613343
Oh well I'm going surfing anyway. I'm a bit afraid of sharks, but I think big cats are worse. Lions and tigers are awesome--and freak me out. At the worst, I'll be the first Cache Vallite ever ended by a shark attack, which is a distinguished, albeit, disappointing finish to an otherwise fantastic life thus far.
