sharks

Eric Geiselman – Grindy Fun in New Smryna Beach

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What can you say about this? Eric Geiselman is one of the Right Coast’s premiere talents. If you want to see some truly phenomenal surfing- explosive, with near flawless style, just click right here and enjoy. The drone (UAV) videography also reveals what lurks below the surface here in Florida- plenty of sharks. New Smyrna Beach in particular has more than it’s share around the inlet, but Eric is clearly having too much fun to notice.

I think the growing use of the aerial videography is going to continue to reveal what we’ve all been surfing over and around for years, without fully knowing it. I think this will probably make many people more uncomfortable; and a lot of people, more comfortable. While I have had a couple of nerve-wracking run-ins with very large sharks over the years, neither I, nor anyone I know personally has ever been bitten, and I know a lot of people who have spent a ton of time in the ocean here, over many years. Like my own personal encounters and the evidence in this video, it leads me to believe that if sharks were really interested in us as a food source, we’d have figured that out upon stepping in the water on most days.

Great White Appetite

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On April 6th, I saved a screen grab from the Ocearch shark tracker mobile app showing a Great White shark, just off a local beach (see images, below). Ocearch is a research group that is catching, tagging and tracking the habits of sharks all over the world. The crew were the first ones to catch, tag and release an Atlantic Great White shark, including one that they caught right off the jetty at the Mayport Poles, perhaps northeast Florida’s most popular surfing spot. They almost caught a second, larger one in the same area. The shark they caught, which they nicknamed, “Lydia”, was 14′ 6″ long and weighed 2,000 lbs. Here’s a video of them catching it:

On April 6th of this year, another Great White that Ocearch had previously caught and tagged in Cape Cod, Massachusetts (which they named, “Katharine” (14′ 2″, 2,300 lbs.) pinged in near shore right at Mickler’s Beach, in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL, my own favorite spot and home break (I live just one block away). Exactly one week later, a huge Right Whale washed ashore at Mickler’s and it looked like it had been savaged by sharks, which likely explains one of the reasons why Katharine was in the area. I posted a couple of photos of the whale remains (seen here) on Instagram, and they caused quite a stir when they were picked up and reshared by #Igersjax, the local Instagrammers Club in Jax.

It is a shame to lose such a big, beautiful creature as a Right Whale (which are endangered), but the Great Whites are also pretty magnificent animals. It’s the circle of life. Hopefully, Katharine was full, before pushing on…

Katharine, a 14' 2" 2,300 lb. Great White shark pinged in near Mickler's Beach on April 6th, 2014
Katharine, a 14′ 2″ 2,300 lb. Great White shark pinged in near Mickler’s Beach on April 6th, 2014
Right Whale remains, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
These remains of large right whale washed ashore in Ponte Vedra Beach on April 13th, 2014
ight whale remains, Ponte Vedra Beach, FL
This remains of a Right Whale that washed ashore in Ponte Vedra on APril 13, 2014
Katharine, the Great White Shark
Katharine, the Great White Shark that was near shore at Mickler’s in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL