sharks

"sharks are worse than terrorists!"

this is what justin grumbles to me after his morning surf is cut short by the appearance of a great white.  what's more disturbing is that this is his second close encounter with a great white in the past month.  he swears that they are out and attacking people more than ever, and for no good reason.  the more recent run-in was not as traumatic as the previous one.  Earlier, he had been surfing one of his favorite (top secret) Oregon locations with some friends when Stumpy (nickamed by the Coast Guard) literally breached in an attack on his friend dave.  justin was only about 20 feet away.  and he swam for his life.  and then called me to tell me all about it.  and though i was of course ecstatic that he (and dave) were unhurt, i still had the heebie jeebies.

this time, i was watching him go out at a completely different location.  i got some great shots of him paddling out.

followed all too soon by him paddling in.

i think the worst part was that he didn't get to catch a wave before the shark decided to show up.  and he says sharks just always give him such a yucky feeling.  yes, i said always.  as in, this isn't the first time and it won't be the last.  *sigh*