Tag: surfers

Watch: Shark sends top surfers to shore at legendary contest site

A drone pilot has captured footage showing what appears to be a large great white shark cruising through lineup at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa.

A drone pilot has captured footage showing what appears to be a large great white shark cruising the lineup at Jeffreys Bay in South Africa.

Jeffreys Bay is the site of the Corona Open J-Bay, featuring the world’s top surfers and scheduled through July 22.

In 2015, former world champion Mick Fanning was caught on camera fighting off a shark during a contest heat at J-Bay.

Last May, as Surfer reported, a 50-year-old recreational surfer suffered serious leg injuries during a shark attack at the legendary surf break.

In footage shared Saturday by pro surfer Nathan Florence, captured by Zoard, the shark swims lazily through an uncrowded lineup on what appears to be a practice day.

Florence writes: “Some groms came in down the point and said they had seen a big great white close enough to see its eyes!

“[I] had @zoard throw the drone up to see if we could spot it sure enough shark was cruising up the point! Tried to alert @riowaida_ with the drone it was nearing him and call people on beach to let the surfers know it was swimming right through lineup!

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A post shared by Zoard (@zoard)

“All turned out well everyone went in and and the shark just cruised its way up the point and went on its way! What a crazy thing to watch we know we playing in their home but to see how easily and mellow they can approach undetected is wild!”

In the footage, the surfers appear on edge after they realize the shark is close but the highlight is when Ian Gentil carves a top-turn and sends a cascade of spray over the shark.

The World Surf League competition, with one round in the books, will resume when the surf is suitable for top-level competition.

–Image is a video screen shot

‘Massive’ great white shark visits popular Santa Barbara surf spot

A researcher on Friday cautioned that a 17-foot great white shark was cruising just beyond the shore of El Capitan State Beach near Santa Barbara.

A researcher on Friday cautioned that a 17-foot great white shark was cruising just beyond the shore of El Capitan State Beach near Santa Barbara.

“She is not your everyday Southern California juvenile; she’s a massive adult that you should avoid,” Michael Domeier, Executive Director of the Marine Conservation Science Institute, stated via Instagram.

The white shark’s name is Poe Girl, named by Keith Poe, who tagged the shark in 2017 as part of an ongoing MCSI tagging and monitoring project.

Domeier’s Instagram post piqued the interest of his many followers, including surfers who had been riding waves at El Capitan on Friday.

“No way! I was just out there in the water and came in and told my friend I thought I saw a shark and he sent me this post,” one follower wrote. “I am about 99% sure I just saw her dorsal fin surface about 50 yards past the lineup.”

Another surfer claimed to have spotted a shark “with a dorsal fin the size of a traffic cone” and added, “The lonely other thing I thought it could be was an orca because no dolphin could be that big.”

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Another follower chimed in, “I’m more scared of the juvenile curious taste test than the adult who knows that we don’t have much meat on us.”

Answered Domeier: “Juvenile white sharks eat fish, stingrays and other sharks. Adult white sharks eat seals, sea lions and porpoise. Adults are more likely to bite a person than a juvenile.”

It seems, however, that any threat posed by Poe Girl has been somewhat alleviated. As of Saturday morning, according to the app, Poe Girl had moved considerably farther offshore.

But, of course, that does not mean that she won’t turn around for another visit.

–Note: The public can follow the movements of Poe Girl and dozens of other tagged sharks via the MCSI’s Expedition White Shark app.

 

Momma, baby whale join surfers in lineup; a ‘surreal’ encounter

Surfers near Sydney, Australia, were greeted by an endangered southern right whale and her calf recently as they rode waves and sat on their boards.

Surfers near Sydney, Australia, were greeted by an endangered southern right whale and her calf recently as they rode waves and sat on their boards.

“They were there for about two days,” Tabitha Blake, one of the Shelly Beach surfers, told FTW Outdoors. “I was surfing with them for two hours. It was amazing and it felt so surreal to be able to be up that close and personal.”

The accompanying Instagram footage, captured by researcher Megan Smythe, shows both whales interacting just beyond the surf as two surfers enjoy a front-row view from the lineup.

In a second video clip, shared by Smythe to the Whale Reports Central Coast group Facebook page, four surfers, including Blake (wearing a ponytail), are shown smiling in appreciation after the right whale calf spyhops next to mom. (Click here to view the video.)

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Remarkably, the surfers remained calm and resisted whatever temptation there might have been to paddle closer to the 40-ton whale and her calf.

“All surfers kept a safe distance as the two whales kept coming in closer,” Smythe told FTW Outdoors. “I spent five hours watching them and it was unreal.”

Smythe captured her footage July 13 at Shelly Beach in Manly, a suburb of Sydney in New South Wales.

She said the whales remained for two days and seemed to be curious about the surfers. The same whales were spotted inside Sydney Harbor a few days later.

Southern right whales, which can measure 50-plus feet, are found throughout the Southern Hemisphere. They were hunted extensively until about the 1960s and are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act.

–Video and images are courtesy of Megan Smythe

Surfing whale rides into baitball in ‘unbelievable’ sight

Caught on video: A minke whale joined a group of surfers in Australia and pulled off an amazing stunt–surfing into a baitball.

A minke whale joined a group of surfers in Australia last week and pulled off an amazing stunt: surfing into a baitball.

Daniel Cook was flying his drone over surfers at Lennox Head, just south of Byron Bay in New South Wales, where he captured footage of dolphins and two minke whales feeding on baitballs.

He also caught video of the surfing whale, sharing it with 9News.

“You never think of seeing something like that, so yeah, unbelievable,” Cook told 9News. “It’s pretty special, pretty blessed to capture something like that.”

Even an expert was amazed.

“Although it’s not rare for minkes to be feeding on baitballs of small fish like that, to surf into that baitball is just amazing,” Wayne Phillips, Seaworld’s head of marine science, told 9News.

“I was amazed. The footage was spectacular and I wish I was one of those guys out on a surfboard.”

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Whale swipes tail at surfers, hits three boards and nudges swimmer

Video shows no less than 40 surfers and swimmers in a cluster watching a whale and its calf swim in close proximity to them. Too close, as it turned out.

About 40 surfers and swimmers gathered in a cluster last week to watch a southern right whale and its calf swim in close proximity to them off Manly Beach in Sydney, Australia.

At one point, the mother whale seemed to go into protection mode and did a sweeping turn in front of the crowd. With its tail, the whale took a swipe at the surfers, hitting three surfboards and nudging one swimmer who appeared to attempt to swim atop of the whale.

Josh, one of the surfers, explained to The Guardian, “There was a bit of pointing going on and I looked round and the little one was just there. Then mum came in pretty quick smart, I think, when she realized how close people were.

“You often see [whales] farther out the back, but this one just came right up to where people were hanging on their boards.”

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At first, some thought one of the whales had been caught in a shark net but that wasn’t the case.

“I think everyone was just paddling up to get a good look,” Josh told The Guardian. “It’s a sort of thing you won’t forget seeing.”

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Surfers ‘calmly’ encounter 20 giant basking sharks

A group of surfers paddled beyond Ireland’s western shore Saturday to search for giant basking sharks, and hit the jackpot.

A group of surfers paddled beyond Ireland’s western shore Saturday to search for giant basking sharks, and hit the jackpot.

Tom Gillespie, a former surf instructor turned environmental scientist, captured the accompanying footage showing the close encounter with several large sharks that were feeding on plankton.

Basking sharks, the second-largest shark species, after whale sharks, are harmless filter feeders and popular among divers because of their docile nature.

Gillespie, who was off Clare with three surfing buddies, told the Irish Examiner that they had heard of recent sightings so they woke up early and paddled more than 200 yards offshore.

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“And there they were,” Gillespie said. “We reckon there could have been up to 20 or more of them over the space of about a kilometer.”

The sharks measured between 16 and 26 feet and swam with their mouths agape, ingesting plankton.

“We just tried to make sure we didn’t look like plankton,” Gillespie joked. “They were quite slow and peaceful, and they just came towards us and cruised past. We acted calmly and were very careful not to touch them.”

Gillespie added: “I’ve been surfing since I was 15 and occasionally you’ll see one or two, but I’ve never seen that many.”

The Irish Examiner quoted Padraig Whooley of the Irish Whale and Dolphin Group as saying conditions lately have been prime for basking shark feeding activity.

“We have had high pressure and lots of sunlight, and these bright, calm conditions draw phytoplankton to the upper layers of the ocean and create viewing conditions that enable people to see the sharks,” Whooley explained.

Under these conditions the sharks appear to bask in the warmer surface layer; hence their name.

–Images courtesy of Tom Gillespie

Stunning footage shows gray whale hanging out with surfers

The swell was fading, but for surfers at a SoCal beach on Sunday, the presence of a whale more than made up for any lack of waves.

The swell might have been fading, but for surfers at a popular Southern California beach on Sunday, the presence of a whale more than made up for any lack of waves.

The first video accompanying this post, captured by Daina Buchner at Black’s Beach in San Diego County, shows a juvenile gray whale lolling just yards from the shore, at times surfacing in the lineup as surfers paddled for waves.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4Q–29bM-Y]

“As for the surfers’ reactions, most of them looked curious and in disbelief,” Buchner told For The Win Outdoors. “Mostly they were trying to stay out of the whale’s way, but sometimes the whale was obscured by the water and that’s when the surfers were surfing next to it.”

At 53 seconds, a wave breaks over the whale, with surfers riding the wave on either side of the whale. The whale does not seem bothered by the wave or the presence of surfers.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV6RR7VnSoM]

About 25,000 gray whales are migrating down the coast, from feeding areas off Alaska to nursing and breeding areas off Mexico.

Juvenile whales, not in a great hurry, sometimes appear to be more curious and adventurous, and might linger in one spot for hours.

Trystan Snodgrass, who captured the drone footage in the second video accompanying this post, was first to locate the gray whale at Black’s Beach.

His morning footage shows the whale in remarkably clear water south of the surfing area, in almost nonexistent surf. The whale, measuring 20-plus feet, seems to be lounging in a turquoise sea of tranquility.

“Apparently they’re known to take a breather once they reach Southern California and the waters warm up,” Snodgrass said. “It was there for at least a few hours on Sunday, and the next morning it was spotted by a friend and I saw it finally leaving the area around noon on Monday.”

Alisa Schulman-Janiger, a Southern California-based whale researcher, told For The Win Outdoors that juvenile gray whales are more likely to travel closer to shore.

The whale in the footage, she said, might have been relaxing and enjoying the turbulence against its body. But it might also have been searching for food, opportunistically, in the sediment.

“This whale quite possibly swam all the way from Alaska, traveling by itself,” Schulman-Janiger said. “That’s not unusual, so maybe it just stopped to rest and enjoy some stimulation in the waves and mud, to roll in the sand and remove parasites, and possibly forage.”

Gray whale sightings are starting to increase off Southern California. The peak period, according to Schulman-Janiger, is often around the third week of January.

–Follow Daina Buchner and Trystan Snodgrass on Instagram

Whale swims beneath surfers, but do they even notice?

The video opportunity of a lifetime presented itself in the form of a whale spout, then another, as Payton Landaas watched from his patio.

The video opportunity of a lifetime presented itself Monday in the form of a whale spout, then another, as Payton Landaas watched from the patio of his parents’ home overlooking a famous Southern California surf spot.

“I knew how rare this moment could be so I ran to get my drone,” Landaas, 18, told For The Win Outdoors.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRP5B-bn25s]

Moments later he was capturing aerial footage of a 25-foot gray whale swimming toward and beneath unsuspecting surfers as they waited for waves at Doheny State Beach in Orange County.

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As viewers can see, the whale surfaces once inside the lineup, then approaches 20-plus surfers as they sit lazily on their boards. One young surfer turns around and spots the whale, then paddles away as the leviathan passes beneath him.

Some of the surfers did not seem to notice the whale. Photo: Payton Landaas

“The whale was inside the lineup, which wouldn’t have happened any other time of day due to the tide,” Landaas said, explaining that the morning high tide allowed the large mammal to swim close to shore.

Many of the surfers did not seem to see the whale, but Landaas’ footage affords a unique perspective revealing the graceful movements of such a large cetacean.

Landaas, a resident of Capistrano Beach and a senior at San Juan Hills High School, had just launched Stealth Photos and lists himself as owner and chief drone pilot.

The whale, likely a juvenile looking for food on the sandy bottom, is somewhat of a stray.

The southbound gray whale migration, from feeding grounds off Alaska to breeding areas off Mexico, does not peak off Southern California until January.

–Video and photos are courtesy of Payton Landaas/Stealth Photos