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From the Surfers Village.

Fergal Smith, 21, was two miles off the coast of Perth in Western Australia when he caught a wave. Fergal, of County Mayo, Ireland, only realised he was inches from the shark when photographer Phil Gallagher showed him the photo.

Contributors to Australia’s Surfing Life magazine awarded Fergal the “Euro surf-dude of the month” award. ASL website reads: “Just imagine being in the barrel and looking at a massive shark like you’re at the bloody aquarium or something. Hats off to you Fergal Smith, you’re our Euro surf-dude of the month.”

Photographer Phil Gallagher, 29, from Perth, said: “Great Whites are common out here but I have never seen one that near to a surfer before.” Fergal Smith said he “couldn’t help but laugh” when he saw the photograph but added that his mother Brid, 51, had “freaked out big time”. He added: “I saw a grey shape in the wave but I thought it was the reflection of a slab of rock - how wrong was I?”

Since 1876 Great White sharks have been responsible for 65 deaths and 242 recorded non-fatal attacks worldwide. Australia has had the most fatal Great White attacks in the world with 27 deaths, the most recent in 2005.

There’s no question Stand up paddle surfing is about to go mainstream. Board prices have come down significantly and its becoming more and more visible. USA Today has an article that talks about Laird Hamilton’s involvement and promoting the sport. What’s becoming apparent of the sport is that is has the potential to be a true mainstream sport and accessible to a huge range of people that wouldn’t have considering surfing. Here’s a link that talks about SUP in lakes and rivers. The USA Today quotes Laird Hamilton as saying that SUP “will be bigger than surfing.”

I tried Stand up paddle surfing (SUP) last week for the first time  and was pretty impressed. I got up cruised around a bit in fairly choppy water at Sunset and made a weak attempt at paddling into a wave. What was more impressive was watching a friend of mine, a girl who’s been learning surfing for a few months, stand up on the board and blaze back and forth on the thing. SUP have the huge advantage for lighter surfers. So while I was struggling a bit, Cristina was cruising along effortlessly. Not surprisingly, she loved it.

It was seeing that and hearing about another friend of mine, also new to surfing, getting hooked on SUP that made me see the real future in the sport. I’ve tried to teach dozens of friends of mine to surf. Usually they go out once or twice, maybe catch some whitewater, then later get frustrated by the crowds and how difficult it really is to catch a wave in most places. It’s completely discouraging sport to learn anytime after you’re 20 years old.

SUP is relatively easy to learn and people can appreciate a lot of aspects of surfing without hassling with crowds, learning new surf breaks, and getting worn out just paddling the board out. Just paddling around on the board is fun, and likely to get more people who weren’t likely to stick with surfing to do it.

SUP does have a few drawbacks. It’s currently expensive to get a set-up ($1200-1500 for the board and $300-500 for the paddle). It’s a bitch to haul the stuff down to the beach especially for lighter surfers. And it’s definitely going to cause some tension in the line-ups.  In spite of these draw-backs, I believe it can have true mass appeal. As more people give it a try, more people will be out enjoying surfing and the ocean and hopefully supporting the causes most important to surfers like clean water, protection of threatened breaks, and protection of marine life. The risk of dozens of SUP surfers crowding line-ups exists, but surfing has always policed itself. The beauty of SUP is how it enables surfers to take in the surroundings and appreciate a view point other than inches from the water. SUP surfer can also cover a lot of ground relatively easily, so hopefully a lot of them will be surfing in area out of the way and more difficult to get to.

Garrett McNamara at Pipeline

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The notorious Tawainese longliner fishing boat, Ho Tsai Fa No. 18, ran aground on the reef at Padang Padang in Bali, Indonesia at 7PM on Friday night - just in time for opening day of the highly anticipated Rip Curl Padang Cup event the following morning.

“The whole surf community is pretty concerned about the boat as it’s leaking fuel,” said Rip Curl’s Andy Higgins. “With a swell arriving on Friday afternoon, it could break open. So apart from the fact that this could make running our events—the Rip Curl Padang Cup & Rip Curl Pro Search—there impossible, it poses a big threat environmentally as well. Either way, it’s on the top of our ‘to do’ list until we find an appropriate solution.”

Taiwanese authorities had been seeking assistance from the Indonesian government to find this boat well known for illegal fishing practices that’s been missing since May 13, 2008. Taiwanese skipper Tsai Wen-chen and approximately 16 Indonesian crewmen were on board when it went missing.

From Solspot.com

Check the video of surfers riding Padang by the boat.

The boat has settled on a much more precarious looking angle today, and it’s starting to leak a fair bit of diesel. In fact the whole area around it reeks of diesel. The local ladies on the beach are not too stoked… lucky the wind is offshore, but a bit of swell could bring it in. I don’t think it’s gonna take too much to tip it over… there’s hardly any swell now but the biggest sets are rocking it in a very sketchy looking way. If it tips it’s gonna be a massive environmental stuff up.

Looting has kicked into overdrive and so far it doesn’t really seem like any effort is going to be made to get this thing off the reef. It’s slowly being dismantled on site and anything of value is being taken. There’s people all over it and around it. The load of fish has been cleaned out, now crew are taking petty containers, tanks, radio gear etc. A lifeguard came past proudly holding the steering wheel and I was like no way, this thing isn’t going anywhere, ever.

You can’t help assuming that it’s starting to look like it could become a permanent feature of Padang Padang.

Even if they did want to get it off, there’s no real big tides until Friday, when some swell is supposed to kick in as well. If no-one gets it’s off the reef by then it’s gonna get smashed back to Taiwan. Let’s hope it doesn’t get smashed square into the lineup.

Yes, the sharks have returned. Well, they were actually always there. Three fatalities (San Diego and two in Mexico) and a fatality in the Bahamas have whetted the media’s appetite for the sensational and dark nature of the Ocean’s beast.  This past week there was an attack on a swimmer on the Isle of Palms in South Carolina. It was the second attack of the year and resulted in minor injuries, but has fed the media’s shark frenzy. Sightings of one or more large great whites off Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts have also set off the media. There has not been a great white attack in Massachusetts since 1936, but that hasn’t stopped the media from printing headlines like, “‘Jaws’ returns to stalk Martha’s Vineyard.” In spite of the article’s headline, it goes on to say that there’s been a couple confirmed sightings of sharks or a dorsal fin, but no attacks. In the 19 years of the shark fishing tournament, no one has caught a great white.

In spite of the media’s hype, shark attacks and related fataties are still excedingly rare. Check out our post on your chances on dying from a shark attack in relation to other causes of death. Point is, you’re still more likely to die of a collapsing sand-hole incident than from a shark attack, even if you are a surfer! Here’s a link to wikipedia’s entry that lists all fatal, unprovoked shark attacks.

$5/gallon gas has everyone bummed especially surfers. The AP published an article talking about how the price of gas and oil is having an effect on surfers and the industry. In truth, how many of us live walking or biking distance from our local break. More often most of us pack up a car or truck every week or so and motor off to the best wave within driving distance. Driving distance to surfers is a liberal term, but now that a tankful is between $75-100 we might start to see fewer trips to the distant breaks. Rising gas prices are also likely to cut into liberal expenditures, like surfboards. The surfboard industry grew rapidly in 2002-2007, but they’re likely to be hit by the recession that the rest of the country has been feeling. The resin used to gas surfboards is made from oil, so shapers’ costs are rising while consumer spending is dropping. Interestingly, the AP article reported that Surftech reported a 15% increase in sales while most other surfboard shapers and manufacturers reported flat or declining sales. I wonder if it because surfers want whatever board their going to buy to be durable so they won’t have to buy another soon. Surfline.com, in the meantime, has seen an increase in views of their webcams and on their subscription services. How is gas and the economy effecting your surf habits?

(photo credit zinkwazi)

Kelly Slater at Rifles. Rifles is hands down one of the best waves in the world. It’s sister wave Kandui’s (or Nokan as in “no-can”) as a reputation as one of the fastest, heaviest, longest left barrels in the world. Though often considered not makable. There are two land camps in the Ments (although I’ve read about construction of a third at Lance’s). Kandui Resort and WavePark Mentawai. Here are a couple of clips of what you wake up to at Kandui Resort from the Donkey Patrol surf blog. These guys will be waking up to these waves in a couple of weeks.

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Insane! At Ours, Sydney, Australia.

Destination: Florianopolis, Brazil
Time of Year: March - September
Breaks: Campeche, Praia Joaquina, Praia Mole, Barra da Logoa, Praia Riozinho
Level: All levels
Cost: Inexpensive - Moderate

Intro: Ah Brazil, a country with seemingly more similarities to the U.S than differences and home to surf culture second only to the United States. The beach is a way of life in Brazil, and they’re blessed with thousands of beautiful miles of it. They’re also blessed with thousands of other things.

Florianopolis is a peninsula in the Southern Brazil with excellent exposure to Southern Swell and dozens of beaconing beach breaks (42 beaches in all). The beaches of Florianopolis are some of most beautiful in Brazil. Brazilians have a reputation for being aggressive in the water but with miles and miles of beach breaks, you’ll see their welcoming and friendly side. And with dozens of clubs, you see the other side of Brazilian beach culture.

Through the summer months, you won’t need anything more than a shortie and trunks will be fine for most of the time. After March though the water and air cools off and you’ll want a 3/2 fullsuit. Surf is small for the summer months, but picks up after March. Though it rarely gets big, standard short board will suffice for most days.

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Shark Shield, the once touted solution to our shark fears, leaves us further in doubt about our shark-resistant future. I posted a while back about a test of theirs that went as wrong as it could go when a female white shark swallowed the device whole! (post) In principle the Shark Shield is simple. Sharks use a very sensitive organ in their snout to detect minute electrical fields generated by their prey’s muscle movements conducted through the water (or in our case, the surfer’s muscle movements). Shark Shield emits an electrical field (conducted through the salt water) that would in theory startle and repel sharks. Reasonable thinking. [more after jump and a video on the device]

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