I’ve been seeing more of those Sharkcamo stickers on the bottoms of surfboards lately. If you don’t know what Sharkcamo is, well – for one thing, you didn’t read my story a couple of years ago.
That’s okay, though. I won’t take it personally. In fact, you were probably sick that day. Or maybe the neighbor’s dog ate the paper.
Anyway, a local couple, Pam and Cash McConnell, came up with the idea while watching a cable show about sharks a few years back. Basically, they learned that sharks tend to avoid certain marine life, particularly the lion fish, the pilot fish and the poisonous sea snake. Each of these features a zebra-like pattern. So the McConnells figured they would simply apply that pattern to boards, like the photo here on the right.
Even though they’ve done some testing, there’s no way to know for sure if it works — unless someone with Sharkcamo gets attacked, in which case we’ll know it clearly doesn’t work. But so far so good for Sharkcamo.
Now, of course, sharks attacks are extremely rare. As I noted in the story I wrote, you’re far more likely to get killed by lightning. But still — it does happen. And even the pros get a little nervous sometimes, as when Taj Burrow freaked out at a contest a few years ago when he thought he saw a great white.
Considering the odds, I don’t feel too worried about not having Sharkcamo on my board. But I do get a little nervous when I see another surfer with it. Because if it does work and there is a shark around, who’s gonna look less like a lion fish?
In other surf stuff, a reader commented on yesterday’s blog entry about surf nooners, saying he prefers Dawn Patrol surf before work. Yet, it requires he get to the beach around 5:40 a.m., which is, well . . . EARLY.
Painfully early.
But I’m wondering how other people find the time to get the Stoke. Drop me a comment and let me know what you do.
Meanwhile, here’s a short video of Laird Hamilton talking to Eddie Vedder about music and surfing.
And, since we started with sharks, we might as well end with them. Remember that great white that got caught in a net off the coast of Morro Bay a few years ago? Check this out to see what happened to it.
Tribune file photo: Jayson Mellom
Posted on May 21st, 2008 by Pat
Filed under: Surf stuff
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