A little shark drama never hurt anyone. Oh, wait.

It’s Shark Week this week. Kinda crazy that this “TV event” has been running since 1988—that’s 37 whole years. And here I thought there was no beating Law and Order: SVU. Ok, let’s talk sharks!

In case you didn’t know, but you did care, this year we’re celebrating the 50th-year anniversary of the premiere of Jaws—the movie that put the fear of great white sharks in most of us. And for those eagle-eyed among you, you might’ve also noticed that The Wipeout Weekly’s mascot is a great white shark wearing a red paisley bandana. Her name is Jaws “JJ” Junior. Ok, so I’m into sharks—sue me.

‍☠️ Surfing in the UK? No sharks, no problem

When I learnt to surf in the UK—in Wales, North Devon, and Cornwall—I didn’t spare a single thought for sharks. Probably because most of the 40 species that we get there are totally benign. Either pretty small, 10–15 lbs like smooth hounds, or more focused on following fishing boats than hanging around the beach, like basking sharks (or Toothless Bruce—you gotta love these names). They call them “filter feeders,” meaning they strain tiny food particles out of the water—kind of like sipping soup through a colander.

Last year, around this time, there was a shark spotted in North Devon by a beachgoer and thought to be a thresher shark or a hammerhead, but these sightings are super rare. A surfer has never been bitten by a shark in the UK. Overall, unprovoked shark bites almost never happen there. According to the International Shark Attack File (ISAF), there have been only 10 recorded bite incidents in UK waters since 1580. Whaaaat, there’s a file on all the shark bites in the world? Oh yeah. The International Shark Attack File, maintained by the Florida Museum of Natural History, provides data on what are considered unprovoked bites—defined as incidents in which a person does not initiate contact with a shark.

If you’re planning to surf in Europe, you’ll be relieved to hear that there were only 52 unprovoked shark attacks in the last two centuries—27 of them fatal—and mostly occurring in the Mediterranean, because warmer waters.

Welcome to the Red Triangle

When I moved to the US—to San Francisco—my favorite spot to surf was Bolinas. It happens to be the sharkiest surf spot in NorCal, part of the Red Triangle, known for high great white shark activity. They like it there because of how many tasty seals are hanging around Tomales Point and Drake’s Bay. Needless to say, I have never seen a great white there—or that’s how we’d be starting this podcast.

But but but—in 2002, a 12–14 ft great white shark did bite into a surfer—Lee Fontan—at Stinson Beach, one beach over from Bolinas, and he needed 100 stitches to close a four-bite wound to his left leg, shoulder, and arm. It’s Shark Week, so allow me to be a bit sensationalist and share the eyewitness report by one of the surfers on that day:

“We were out there kidding around, talking, waiting for the next wave. Then all of a sudden we heard a scream. I looked over and this guy was about three or four feet out of the water in the shark’s mouth. You could see its teeth, its gums. Its eyes were shut. Its gills were wide open, like shutters. The whole dorsal fin on its back was out of the water.”

Then, the shark crashed back into the ocean, released the surfer, and disappeared—leaving the injured surfer clinging to his board. He was quickly picked up by the surfers in the lineup, tended to by paramedics on the beach, and transported by helicopter to Eden Hospital in Castro Valley for a 90-minute surgery.

I know you want to know: the surgeon didn’t find any whole teeth inside the wounds. According to Lee’s dad, it was a deep wound—all the way to the bone—that made him feel “sick.” Lee’s board suffered a similar fate: the shark left a 13-inch bite mark at the bottom of his yellow board. There was also a sticker—“Shark Sharks” decal from Live Water Surf Shop—depicting a slightly open-jawed shark in a red circle beneath a circle and a slash. Lee’s dad joked that obviously, the sticker didn’t work. Or maybe it made him mad.

I couldn’t find any interviews with Lee after the incident. You know what it’s like. No more shark, not much interest from the mainstream media. But I know someone from Surfer or Surfing spoke to him, as it’s referenced in another interview with yet another shark victim—this time from Monterey. According to this reference, someone dropped in on Lee, he got pissed, and he paddled out past everyone else—about 10 feet further out in the ocean. Which is probably why the shark mistook him for a solitary seal or sea lion snack.

After the incident, the beach got closed for five days, and as you can imagine, the locals weren’t thrilled. To quote one of the surfers who witnessed the Stinson shark attack: Denial is a very good thing. Sharks are always here, but the waves aren’t.

Author: The Wipeout Weekly team