A foilboard rider in Santa Barbara was stalked by a 10 to 11-foot juvenile great white shark between UC Santa Barbara and Carpinteria.
A Santa Barbara man lives to tell the tale after a shark stalked him miles away from the California coast.
Ron Takeda and a friend were traveling between UC Santa Barbara and Carpinteria on hydrofoil boards on Saturday when a shark approached Takeda and tailed him within inches of his feet, according to a video Takedaās friend posted to YouTube. Takedaās friend can be heard shouting, āDonāt fallā and āDonāt stop. Go, go, go!ā According to the caption in the YouTube video, the shark pursued Takeda for about 10 minutes.
Takeda eventually evaded the āspeedyā shark and later recounted the experience on Facebook, saying the shark was even under his board at times.
āI was getting a little concerned because it was working hard to chase me, it was relentless, and chased for a long time,ā Takeda wrote on social media. āI heard it thrashing behind me throughout this whole video plus many minutes past the video.ā
Hydrofoil boards are surfboard-like pieces of equipment that use hard wings placed underneath the board to allow it to generate lift and float above the water. Foilboarders can use paddles and the reduced drag of the device to travel for miles across the water.
On Saturday, Takeda shared on Facebook that he and a group of friends had headed out to sea with their boards for a planned 19-mile run. During his run, Takeda said, he noticed white water behind him and assumed it was seaweed dragging on the board. When he looked back again, Takeda said on Facebook, he saw āa big girthy dark torpedo shapeā close by, originally thinking it was a dolphin until his friend confirmed it was a shark.
Although itās unclear what kind of shark followed Takeda, Neil Nathan, a project scientist at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, told SFGATE that one of Southern Californiaās largest juvenile white shark populations is near Santa Barbara and Carpinteria. Young white sharks prefer to stay closer to the coast, where the water is warmer, allowing young sharks to regulate their body temperature, Nathan said.
The expected El NiƱo conditions will likely cause warmer water conditions in California, too. Nathan said in an email that the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory found that water temperatures were 5 degrees higher than usual for this time of year, which could lead to juvenile white sharks returning to California āearlier than normalā and bringing more of the sharks to Californiaās waters.
āWe may also see range expansion further north, which has been observed in previous years with marine heatwaves,ā Nathan said. āAreas such as Monterey Bay or Bodega Bay that historically did not have juvenile white sharks due to cold temperatures have since hosted juvenile aggregation sites.ā
Beachgoers in Southern California are already seeing more sharks in the water, with a Huntington Beach surf contest last week needing to be postponed after an aggressive shark was spotted in the water. Shark bites are still exceedingly rare in California.
Although the shark didnāt attack Takeda, the foilboarder described the Saturday ordeal as exciting but also treacherous as he focused on not making any mistakes in the choppy waters. When the shark finally swam off, Takeda and his friend continued to ride on their hydrofoils for 12 miles.
āA memorable run for sure but Iām bummed that it happened,ā Takeda said on Facebook. āItās not what we want to think about when weāre miles offshore.ā
A Santa Barbara man lives to tell the tale after a shark stalked him miles away from the California coast.
Ron Takeda and a friend were traveling between UC Santa Barbara and Carpinteria on hydrofoil boards on Saturday when a shark approached Takeda and tailed him within inches of his feet, according to a video Takedaās friend posted to YouTube. Takedaās friend can be heard shouting, āDonāt fallā and āDonāt stop. Go, go, go!ā According to the caption in the YouTube video, the shark pursued Takeda for about 10 minutes.
Takeda eventually evaded the āspeedyā shark and later recounted the experience on Facebook, saying the shark was even under his board at times.
āI was getting a little concerned because it was working hard to chase me, it was relentless, and chased for a long time,ā Takeda wrote on social media. āI heard it thrashing behind me throughout this whole video plus many minutes past the video.ā
Hydrofoil boards are surfboard-like pieces of equipment that use hard wings placed underneath the board to allow it to generate lift and float above the water. Foilboarders can use paddles and the reduced drag of the device to travel for miles across the water.
On Saturday, Takeda shared on Facebook that he and a group of friends had headed out to sea with their boards for a planned 19-mile run. During his run, Takeda said, he noticed white water behind him and assumed it was seaweed dragging on the board. When he looked back again, Takeda said on Facebook, he saw āa big girthy dark torpedo shapeā close by, originally thinking it was a dolphin until his friend confirmed it was a shark.
Although itās unclear what kind of shark followed Takeda, Neil Nathan, a project scientist at the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory, told SFGATE that one of Southern Californiaās largest juvenile white shark populations is near Santa Barbara and Carpinteria. Young white sharks prefer to stay closer to the coast, where the water is warmer, allowing young sharks to regulate their body temperature, Nathan said.
The expected El NiƱo conditions will likely cause warmer water conditions in California, too. Nathan said in an email that the Benioff Ocean Science Laboratory found that water temperatures were 5 degrees higher than usual for this time of year, which could lead to juvenile white sharks returning to California āearlier than normalā and bringing more of the sharks to Californiaās waters.
āWe may also see range expansion further north, which has been observed in previous years with marine heatwaves,ā Nathan said. āAreas such as Monterey Bay or Bodega Bay that historically did not have juvenile white sharks due to cold temperatures have since hosted juvenile aggregation sites.ā
Beachgoers in Southern California are already seeing more sharks in the water, with a Huntington Beach surf contest last week needing to be postponed after an aggressive shark was spotted in the water. Shark bites are still exceedingly rare in California.
Although the shark didnāt attack Takeda, the foilboarder described the Saturday ordeal as exciting but also treacherous as he focused on not making any mistakes in the choppy waters. When the shark finally swam off, Takeda and his friend continued to ride on their hydrofoils for 12 miles.
āA memorable run for sure but Iām bummed that it happened,ā Takeda said on Facebook. āItās not what we want to think about when weāre miles offshore.ā
