Who here is old-enough to remember Battle Cat?
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One of the guys in my division went to armed sentry school and the first thing he did afterward was nearly blow-off a finger playing around with his Beretta in the berthing. Another of my sailors got caught doing a port watch sitting in the captain’s chair looking at his phone with his rifle on the deck. This made me think that the only thing more-dangerous than a shark is a junior enlisted man with a rifle trying to protect you from one.
Deck division!!! 
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We had people on the .50 watching out! Thankfully only senior bosuns who knew their shit 
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On Tall Sailing Ships we had a shark watch without a rifle in an elevated position to warn people. It was very ineffective. I got in with a mask and could see a dozen Galapagos Sharks circling 15 swimmers from 15-20’ below. The “Shark Watch” couldn’t see anything and didn’t believe me when I told everyone to get out. I had to scream at everyone because they thought I was joking. After everyone suddenly panicked and got out. Just after all the sharks rose to the surface and circled off the side for 10 minutes. The “Shark Watch” would have seen the sharks at the first attack and not much before if at all
.
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Very informative, thanks for sharing. I’ve seen Short Fin footage of them hitting lures at speeds that seem fake. I can imagine your experience was pretty terrifying
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I’m trying to find the silver lining here. I think we’re all relieved it wasn’t a GWS haha.
New data. One of you guys was using the tow boogie in Malibu and the GWS seems pretty disinterested. This is somewhat relieving to me b/c I’m often sitting alone on my FD board out the back, dangling my legs over the side and trying not to think about what’s underneath.
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this…a killer in itself
That is pretty terrifying.
This video is interesting. Makes a pretty direct claim to a causal link between foils and all the shark attacks in New Caledonia
Other things noted:
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Water temp increase → metabolism increase → hungrier shark
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Deer population exploded on land attracting sharks in river runoff
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Sounds like a marketing chance for a foil brand to adjust the foil frequency up above that 120 hz range. The two sharks I’ve ever come across were headed perpendicular to my path and were just as surprised as I was. I ollied up and bonked off a dorsal of a small (4’) black tip in SC and saw a small (2’) shark in the Chesapeake bay.
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That reminds me of a story, for those who like gallows humor. My friend’s son was a fishing guide in Alaska. One time, his son was dirt biking down a path and ran smack into a brown bear. Both his son and the bear ran in opposite directions screaming.
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What’s stopping us from eating more deer ourselves? Seems like we’re letting a good resource go to waste here. Why should the sharks get to eat them amiright?
That’s largely how deer carcases are ending up in the sea. People butchering deer and throwing the parts they aren’t using into the water.
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There could usefully be a parawing safety thread, but I suppose this is close is enough.
Tangles:
Great video of what I’d describe as “the single best argument for carrying a knife”
I had this happen on my first PWDW and I almost thought I was going to have to paddle miles back in with the wing still attached to the board as the lines were so tangled, a downwind board and so I couldn’t get enough slack to get it over the nose or tail. At least 25min hassle, all the time in the water with the board flopping around in the bumps.
Wind dying:
Equally a problem is just getting stuck with no wind:
I think that parawinging has made downwind so much more accessible, and coax people out into the ocean that have much less tempering by the repeated humbling of SUP (which I say only because there the default mode is failure, so you learn to consider your failure viscerally as a preparation).
In both these cases people pretty experienced (or in Olivia case, absolute pioneer legend of the sport) and had issues
With the parawing (or assist to a degree) able to get much further out to sea. If the parawing tangles, or the wind dies, or worst of all tangles around the board and the wind dies, you are in a problem where you need a knife and then a long paddle on a potentially ambitious volume board.
Some safety ideas
- knife
- leash, and a good one. Higher speed because smaller foils means more strain on leash
- keep an estimate of distance to shore (4km, 2hours paddle…!)
- Olivia wears a radar reflector in above which is a first! very unusual idea
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We don’t hear enough of these stories.
4K offshore is just stupid and an unnecessary risk no matter who you are. Lots of hubris going on in sup dw.
The number one thing for safety is your health. If you get hurt or exhausted you are relying on others at best. Easy to do your shoulder while crashing holding a paddle. Easy to hurt your brain crashing at speed and lastly fitness. 2 hours is a long time to be paddling age and fitness should be deeply considered.
Number two is a deep understanding of the weather and how it might play out with the wind accross distance and take into account currents. With reliance on models people have no clue.
Gear is number three. Spare Pw for light wind. Check your gear and only use high quality stuff. Check your paddle health before leaving. PFD with knife, communication etc.
I have had some big paddles on sup dw fails but the most surprising one for me so far was putting my foil through the pw lines like Dimitri did. It took more than 100 sessions before this happened. I only had a wetsuit and no PFD about 1.5 k offshore. With the board on its side and me trying to hold the foil up at water level, to see the next step in untangling, was constantly putting my mouth and nose underwater. 15 minutes of doing this with my heart pumping really hard was concerning for someone who is very very fit and in the water everyday. If I had a knife I would have cut it but because I had no choice I eventually sorted it. Imagine paddling with the wing dragging on your foil after expending energy to untangle.
In hindsight something for all parawingers to practice in rough water is sitting on your board with it upside down so you can clearly get to the foil without expending so much energy.
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This happened to me too. About 1 mile offshore. Strong winds, big tradeswell, overcast, 5pm in the evening. My riding buddy already bombed downwind. The weird thing was I was outside a reef pass and the current was against the wind. So I was actually slowly going upwind because of the drag from the wing all tangled up around the mast. There is this shallow offshore reef that is about 1’ deep and waves breaking over it that I’m getting pushed towards. Getting winded trying to untangle, swallowing water.
I consider myself a fit person and can swim long distances but I was getting concerned. To top it off, coincidentally a US Coast Guard plane flies overhead (we never see them here). I did have the Ozone harness with the knife. I was getting close to using it. Finally got it untangled just as my riding buddy made it back upwind after frantically looking for me. SKETCH!
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yes agree this happened on my first PW downwinder and I think this will surprise most people how hard it is to deal with stuff when not sitting on top of your board, and probably a situation you’d want to avoid