WHEN DA SHARK BITES
By Corky Carroll
For the past several years there have been continuous shark sightings in the San Onofre Surfing Beach area. It has been documented on television and in the papers many times along with photos and video taken for helicopters and from the beach. It seem that some great whites have taken up residence in the area and seem to be willing to co-exist with the surfers fairly well so far. At least they haven’t eaten anybody that we know of, yet. The other day I got an email from my pal and avid SUP surfer Ron Chrislip. Ron has been the main influence on me to take up paddling on the SUPs and he is so stoked on it that it is all he ever talks about anymore. A typical conversation with him goes like this:
“Hey Ron, howsit?”
“I love SUPs, you gotta do it. It is the best thing since sex and you will never go back once you start.”
“Cool, so what’s new.?
“My new SUP, it’s amazing.”
“O.K., see ya later then.”
“Yeah, I’ll be on my SUP.”
It goes on like that and no matter how many times you try and change the subject he reverts it back to SUPs. He is a lawyer, so he is good at directing the flow of the conversation. Anyway, he is stoked and that is a good thing. To be really and clearly “INTO” something, no matter what it is, I think is healthy. Well, maybe not if its cannibalism or something, but you know what I mean. So, speaking of man eating, here is Ron’s email to me:
“This morning I paddled out on my SUP at dog patch. I had cut my toe on the shore rocks on the way out and my toe was bleeding, although I didn’t know because the water was too cold. After about an hour some guy paddles buy and says he saw a big shark. I look on the horizon to see if I could see a fin, then I look down and a 9 foot great white shark was staring at me in front of my board about 2 feet away. Lucky I was standing and not dragging my bloody toe in the water. I almost fell on top of the shark. He stayed for about 10 seconds slowly circling in front of me. It seemed like an eternity. My board was slowly drifting toward him until I was almost on top the curious bugger, and then he slowly, very slowly, swam away toward a kayaker 50 yards away. I told the dude there is a shark swimming right towards you. We both slowly paddled in. It was about 100 yards to shore. I had this weird feeling that the shark was following me in. I didn’t fall or get off my board until it hit the sand. When I got off 2 dudes came up and said they had seen the same shark-9-10 foot great white. One guy had fallen in the impact zone and as he was splashing around the tail of the shark nearly hit him. It turns out that a great white juvenile has been scaring the poopoo out of people at San Onofre for about 7 years. The latest was 3 weeks ago when it knocked some guy off his SUP. Now my name is on the list of buyers for new shorts. Look it up on the internet. San Onofre is now the great white shark capital of the world. As I said I didn’t realize my foot was bleeding until I came on the beach and saw a trail of blood to my car. You see more stuff on the SUP, good or bad.”
Speaking of eating things, tomorrow is Mothers Day. No, the thought of “they always eat their young” is not what comes to mind. But with a few of my pals it might not have been a bad idea on their moms part. But what I wanted to say is that a Mama day gift basket from Wonderland Bakery makes a great gift item. They are in Newport Beach and do great things, including the new “Corky Cowacookie Surf Basket” that we have been lovingly designing. Happiness to all the mamas out there.
Lastly, you still have a week to get your entry into the “name my new massage chair” contest. Entries close on Friday.