Fatal shark attack

[robertovillate]

This is a terrible tragedy. My heart goes out to his family and friends. God rest his soul.

And bravo to the lifeguard who risked his life to save a fellow kiter/waterman. That takes some real character and courage.


the following is not a "should-a, could-a, would-a" comment, but for whatever it's worth....
Exactly one week ago I was kiting a few miles from the spot that the shark attack occurred. I started out with a 9.5m, and then the wind dropped, so I came in for my 13.5m. The waves were nice so I did not want to miss it. I knew the wind was trending down and I knew there was a chance of my 13.5m kite coming down...and it did just that, about 1000' offshore. I was unable to keep my surfboard with me as I tried in vain to relaunch a few times. I then very quickly decided to stay very calm and just float - no kicking or swimming motions -and pull myself to the kite slowly. I was worried about sharks. I got to my kite, and started a wingtip sail self-rescue and got to the beach pretty quickly. I kept my eye on the board, which surfed it's way in about 5 minutes after I got to the beach. I just mention this because I feel that, knowing there are a lot of sharks in the area, I wanted to attract as little attention as possible. I may be fooling myself, but I felt this was a good approach, and maybe people want to think about that under these kind of circumstances.