Ask Carroll

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[Nick Carroll]

As I understand it, they're trying to look like large scary fish.

[8]

I reckon boogers would look like a big tasty sea turtle from down below.

[PeepeelaPew]

Maybe, never looked into it. Just a passing interest as it occasionally appears in media.

[foamy]

Marine biologist Ralph Collier is one of the world's most prominent shark attack experts.
He says, don't wear bright-colored bathing suits or wetsuits, especially those that have contrasting colors.

"Sharks are attracted to bright, contrasting color,” said Collier , President of the Shark Research Committee, "White sharks can see color. We do not know what their spectrum shift is because they live in the water, but we know they have the ability. No matter what their spectrum shift might be, they’re going to see a pattern rather than just a solid image.
For a surfer or diver, wearing a black wetsuit doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to confuse a shark into thinking you are a seal. Not only do they have good visual acuity, they have a great ability to see objects against a contrasting background like a silhouette in the sense.
A diver doesn’t look anything like a pinniped, a seal or a sealion. Sharks know what they look like, from the tip of their little nose to their tail where the hind flippers are. Human beings aren’t solid, rather only solid from our head to our waist. From the waist down we have two legs, so our body – or in a sense our image - is split in half from the waist down. And seals have short flippers; we have long spindly arms. So moving through the water, we don’t even closely resemble a seal.
The thought that a white shark would mistake a 6 foot long skinny surfboard for a 1,400 pound elephant seal is highly unlikely.”

[Beerfan]

Proof sharks are just cnunts

[aaarating]

So what your suggesting is that the whole mistaken identity thing from those shark apologists is bullshit and that GW,s fancy a bit of human now and then?

[Over55yrs]

Nick, are you pretty satisfied with the ABC show Blood and Thunder ? I certainly enjoyed it and there were some good flashbacks to the music/bands of the 70s and 80s. Also heard a couple of good mentions on the radio about the program. What's next ?

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv- ... hp65e.html

http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/blood- ... 404H001S00

[foamy]

So what your suggesting is that the whole mistaken identity thing from those shark apologists is bullshit and that GW,s fancy a bit of human now and then?

I think the answer is nobody knows.
Here's the article that I got the above quote from.
http://www.thesurfchannel.com/news/2013 ... rk-attack/

[PeepeelaPew]

...

[aaarating]

Thanks for that interesting link. That photo in point 2 re not wearing shiny jewellery - forget the f****g GW being attracted Who wouldn't want to bite that!

[Nick Carroll]

Nick, are you pretty satisfied with the ABC show Blood and Thunder ? I certainly enjoyed it and there were some good flashbacks to the music/bands of the 70s and 80s. Also heard a couple of good mentions on the radio about the program. What's next ?

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/tv- ... hp65e.html

http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/blood- ... 404H001S00

Ah yeah pretty satisfied...there were a lot of people to satisfy behind the scenes with it and I'm glad we managed to get the story through all of the potential landmines. Coulda made a whole other show out of the interview material that ended up on the cutting room floor -- there's some amazing people in the Australian rock music milieu, a lot of 'em reminded me of the many older surfers I know, they've lived pretty radical lives and paid some prices but they've got some epic tales to tell.

Couple of things brewing, I'd best not mention 'em for the moment though.

[marauding mullet]

As I understand it, they're trying to look like large scary fish.

I think that's one aspect of it, natures "I'm toxic" colour scheme.
What I read somewhere about the stripey bottom board design with the "disc" in the centre, is that it's supposed to break up the image of the board to look like something less solid, or maybe harder to identify. If you look closely at the original design, as opposed to all the copiers, the edges of the black lines are not hard, but sort of raggedy. That was an important aspect of the design apparently.

[Karlos]

I watched the first episode on iview last night. Stevie Wright didn't get much of a look in & I'm guessing it's because of the state he's in these days. Looked very much the worse for wear & to be honest, I'm surprised the guy's still alive going by reports I've heard over the years. Were you there for his interview NC?

[bomboraa]

Marine biologist Ralph Collier is one of the world's most prominent shark attack experts.
He says, don't wear bright-colored bathing suits or wetsuits, especially those that have contrasting colors.

"Sharks are attracted to bright, contrasting color,” said Collier , President of the Shark Research Committee, "White sharks can see color. We do not know what their spectrum shift is because they live in the water, but we know they have the ability. No matter what their spectrum shift might be, they’re going to see a pattern rather than just a solid image.
For a surfer or diver, wearing a black wetsuit doesn’t necessarily mean you are going to confuse a shark into thinking you are a seal. Not only do they have good visual acuity, they have a great ability to see objects against a contrasting background like a silhouette in the sense.
A diver doesn’t look anything like a pinniped, a seal or a sealion. Sharks know what they look like, from the tip of their little nose to their tail where the hind flippers are. Human beings aren’t solid, rather only solid from our head to our waist. From the waist down we have two legs, so our body – or in a sense our image - is split in half from the waist down. And seals have short flippers; we have long spindly arms. So moving through the water, we don’t even closely resemble a seal.
The thought that a white shark would mistake a 6 foot long skinny surfboard for a 1,400 pound elephant seal is highly unlikely.”

Surely a surfer laying down on a board, particularly a shortboard, is an entirely different silhouette to the two legs, body split in half from waist down mentioned above? One much closer in profile to local Australian seals.

[steve shearer]

no seals in Ballina so throw that one out the window.

[MrMik]

Yea, I sort of figured there were no short cuts. Sometimes when out in the water you seem to have those aha moments relating to body positioning, paddling technique or some other thing that make an immediate improvement in your ability to surf/catch waves.

I was thinking of taking a few months of unpaid vacation and travelling around Australia to surf but maybe Sumatra is a better option. Seems like it would certainly be cheaper.

Get yourself a used McCoy board. Wave count goes up, wipe-out count goes down.

If you don't like it, you can sell it again for about as much as you paid for it.

[Nick Carroll]

I watched the first episode on iview last night. Stevie Wright didn't get much of a look in & I'm guessing it's because of the state he's in these days. Looked very much the worse for wear & to be honest, I'm surprised the guy's still alive going by reports I've heard over the years. Were you there for his interview NC?

Yeah I was, he was nearly impossible to interview, but really fun to talk to.