Paddle Surfing with White Sharks

Some interesting footage from Chuck Patterson of white sharks while paddle surfing...

Video description:
"the day before I shot this video, i was SUP surfing with a couple friends and 2 sharks circled us for about 15 minutes. the next day, i decided to go back out at around the same time and take my GO PRO HD camera mounted on a 10 ft pole and do some exploring.

Sure enough within 5 minutes a 9 ft shark came out of no where and circled twice and slapped his tail on my board before disappearing. then a minute later a 7 ft young juvenile Great White swam circles around me for 12 minutes."
 

Me my Shark and I from Chuck Patterson on Vimeo.

Out of South Africa.

So far so good.

Diving has not been that great - so far.

On the other hand meeting old friends, and having made some memorable new acquaintances, has been so good for the soul:

First and foremost "Jifa", also known as Jean-Francois Avenier, who invited me to be his guest during my first week in South Africa; his 15-month old fabulous husky, "Machin", with whom I immediately fell in love; Andre Hartman, the legendary Great White Sharkman, a towering man with huge hands and a huge heart; the Addisons of Blue Wilderness; Fred Buyle and William Winram, world-class freedivers with impressive achievements; and others.

Two old shark-nut farts: Andre Hartman and Wolf.
Photo: Jean-Francois Avenier

Jifa, who is a good friend of Andre, arranged for a one day marine excursion in the larger Gaansbai area to observe great whites. Andre managed to attract four beauties close to the boat; their sizes ranged between 1,60 and 3 meters, the largest being a self-confident and dominant male. Too bad we could not swim with them.

"Better than nothing..."
Photo: Jean-Francois Avenier

There are severe restrictions on diving with great whites in South Africa; not only that - we were in an area where abalones are protected, and no one can dive there for any purpose whatsoever.

As anywhere else in the world, South African government officials only complicate the lives of others, not theirs. Thus, they simply established that merely carrying basic diving equipment in your boat proves you automatically guilty of suspected poaching with heavy fines and even jail terms.

We had two sub-standard days at Aliwal Shoal with 3 to 5 m visibility and just one tiger shark. However, this female tiger was "Sabine", an Aliwal Shoal resident shark during the past eight years except for the last two years she spent elsewhere. To see her back "home" filled us with joy.

While "Sabine" fared well, many others did not. Far too many tiger sharks have either been killed by local fishermen who fear and hate sharks, or met their untimely deaths in the infamous shark nets placed along the beaches of Kwa Zulu Natal.

Tomorrow, March 25, we are planning a trip to the Protea Banks, famous for its bull sharks. I have never dived with bull sharks, and am quite excited about the prospect of seeing them. As you can imagine, we all cross our fingers and hope for the best: Best visibility, best bull interaction, best everything!!

Last, but definitely not least................................ "Machin"!!!!

Photo: Jean-Francois Avenier

Watermen freediving with White Sharks

William Winram with White Shark - Photo by Fred Buyle

Over a year ago I met freedivers Fred Buyle, William Winram, and Pierre Frolla - all very different personalities but sharing one passion - in South Africa while freediving with tiger sharks.  We have remained in touch on and off and know that together they have been working on some fabulous things.


Most recently I came across Ocean Encounters and a post by William about freediving with Great White Sharks - somewhere in the Pacific, three watermen broke a myth:


Says William: "After reviewing the footage filmed during the expedition, the Ocean Encounters team is hopeful that these images will impact the world to change its perception of the great white sharks. Commonly thought as the most voracious man-eating creatures of the seas, these creatures are IN FACT shy and fragile." - read the complete post here


Sounds very much like what my dad has been saying without having the long and intense experience the three watermen had...cannot wait to see the footage for their ongoing documentary.

Unfortunate

Another unfortunate incident: http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/04/25/ca.shark.attack/index.html. Wonder if the media will have a field day with this. Thankfully White Sharks are protected in California.

Old but new to me

I was going through my blog feeds today and came across the photo above. First thought was "this is a fake" - but that was before I saw the copyright: Thomas Peschak. My dad had met and dove with him in South Africa. I emailed him the photo and he told me that it is in fact "untouched" - part of a whole series actually. Thomas wrote a post on his kayaking with white sharks experience and mentioned the amount of inquiries he received because of the photo.

On a side note, my boss kayaks - I sent her this photo and she was gun-ho to do it - MAN UP!

Playing with Whites

Amazing video of a free diver interacting with white sharks. Notice his body languages when the sharks approach a bit more aggressively. I think this is Mike Rutzen.

Nage avec le grand blanc
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