I am mistaken then in my line of thinking, and sincerely thank you for the clarification.
-Tim
Diver fights off 12-foot shark
- Thread starter ScubaSarus
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I am mistaken then in my line of thinking, and sincerely thank you for the clarification.
-Tim
Well if you're gonna' be all nice about it, I'm not going to talk to you anymore!
No problem.
By the way, I sent an E-mail to the Barcroft Media, which seems to be handling the rights to this video --and asked them to get in touch with the three divers involved so we could hear their side of the story.
Jeff
Sadly, we live in a world of "hero worship", and when these guys saw an opportunity to become the heros du jour, right or wrong, they took it!
Anyone here remember Aron Ralston..? He was the idiot that routinely broke every rule of safety when on wilderness treks, then ended up sawing his arm off after being pinned for a week in a slot canyon and near death... He sold books, movie rights, was on every damn talk show and news feature between here and and our outer planetary system, and was touted as being a hero for cutting off his arm...
WRONG!
A hero is a guy that would cut off his arm to save you. What Ralston did was one of the most basic tenets of life which is called self preservation, and he didn't even do that well... If a several hundred pound boulder shifted and caught my arm and I knew it couldn't be moved, I would make the breaks and cuts while I had every ounce of strength still in my body, rather than waiting until a week after it happened.
The media never wants to report reality because it doesn't provide quite the heightened level of sensationalism that half truths do. Nobody was ever given rebuttal time to talk about every elementary mistake that Ralston made, nor to talk about the ones preceding that particular incident. He was a hero, and by God that was good enough for America! As I recall it was just 3 months prior while traversing just below a ridge line with a couple of other guys, that Ralston was to high into the snow line and his buddies who were down lower told him so. He didn't listen, continued on, and caused an avalanche which nearly claimed the lives of his companions. -- THEY WERE PISSED!
This is/was all very common knowledge in the climbing and trekking community, and we sat at our keyboards for months banging our heads against our monitors every time we heard some new "Aron Ralston is a Hero!" BS.
The parallels are quite remarkable!
-Tim
Anyone here remember Aron Ralston..? He was the idiot that routinely broke every rule of safety when on wilderness treks, then ended up sawing his arm off after being pinned for a week in a slot canyon and near death... He sold books, movie rights, was on every damn talk show and news feature between here and and our outer planetary system, and was touted as being a hero for cutting off his arm...
WRONG!
A hero is a guy that would cut off his arm to save you. What Ralston did was one of the most basic tenets of life which is called self preservation, and he didn't even do that well... If a several hundred pound boulder shifted and caught my arm and I knew it couldn't be moved, I would make the breaks and cuts while I had every ounce of strength still in my body, rather than waiting until a week after it happened.
The media never wants to report reality because it doesn't provide quite the heightened level of sensationalism that half truths do. Nobody was ever given rebuttal time to talk about every elementary mistake that Ralston made, nor to talk about the ones preceding that particular incident. He was a hero, and by God that was good enough for America! As I recall it was just 3 months prior while traversing just below a ridge line with a couple of other guys, that Ralston was to high into the snow line and his buddies who were down lower told him so. He didn't listen, continued on, and caused an avalanche which nearly claimed the lives of his companions. -- THEY WERE PISSED!
This is/was all very common knowledge in the climbing and trekking community, and we sat at our keyboards for months banging our heads against our monitors every time we heard some new "Aron Ralston is a Hero!" BS.
The parallels are quite remarkable!
-Tim
OP
ScubaSarus
Guest
Jeff if you could get a digital petition goind. you'll have lots of support. I hope it can be done and get some divers with shark experience to tell another story; one without ego.
I will sign it. I am not opposed to ethical sportsman hunting legal game but frankly the more I think about this the more PO I become at what appears to be a senseless and without purpose killing. I think I have been drinking to much tonight, but, I think I can take them on, see how they fare.
N
N
Y'know, I am curious as to why this is such a mass media event now when this happened last June? After watching footage of the shark from all the media sources, I still have yet to see the shark do anything but swim around them, erradictly yes, but not in a threatening manner. No one was bumped. The shark was not posturing for an attack. She seemed to be seeking out the fish that she probably smelled in the water. She never was shown to be gaping, as in preparation to take a test bite out of anyone. Again, if she was a threat, then leave the water.
Today Show Video Player
The thing is, they killed the shark, after 2 hours of fighting with it, supposedly humanely. They have remorse, but now, after all this time, they need to show how brave they are? They trophied her jaws but said they were really sad what had gone down.
Cry me a river boys...whatever!
Carolyn:shark2:
Today Show Video Player
The thing is, they killed the shark, after 2 hours of fighting with it, supposedly humanely. They have remorse, but now, after all this time, they need to show how brave they are? They trophied her jaws but said they were really sad what had gone down.
Cry me a river boys...whatever!
Carolyn:shark2:
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Bratface
Contributor
Scubasaras, if the diver uses a spear gun for game, he/she can expect barracuda and sharks to show up. I do agree that it was totally unnecessary to kill this shark and the fact that they took two hour to do it is appalling. And they look quite proud in that picture don't they. The media should have let this one quietly die instead of making those guys out to be heros.
armchairexpert
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The Merlo spearguns website is the source of the photo of the two guys on land holding up the shark by its snout.
Googling Merlo spearguns will take you there.
On the website, the people in the photo are clearly labelled in a large font as Roberto Reyes and Eric Walker.
The people involved in the incident that this thread is about are Craig Clasen, Cameron Kirkconnell, Ryan McInnis, and D.J. Struntz. Craig and Cameron are also in photos on the Merlo website with tuna, also clearly labelled.
Summary for the lazy: the picture a few posts up, with the two guys on land holding up the snout of a shark has nothing to do with the incident in this thread.
Googling Merlo spearguns will take you there.
On the website, the people in the photo are clearly labelled in a large font as Roberto Reyes and Eric Walker.
The people involved in the incident that this thread is about are Craig Clasen, Cameron Kirkconnell, Ryan McInnis, and D.J. Struntz. Craig and Cameron are also in photos on the Merlo website with tuna, also clearly labelled.
Summary for the lazy: the picture a few posts up, with the two guys on land holding up the snout of a shark has nothing to do with the incident in this thread.
Ty for the clarification. It was posted in another thread relating to the event. This picture is wrong, but they admitted they kept the jaws and tail.
Carolyn:shark2:
Carolyn:shark2:
And they certainly didn't look too upset when posing with them either!
I'm still quite curious as to the rationale for the widespread media blitz. "armchairexpert" says the pics were somehow realeased and the media got wind of it and it all spiraled out of contraol yada yada yada, but they could have simply DECLINED to allow their pics to be released as well as DECLINED to take part in the media circus... They didn't however. What they have done is participate in squeezing every ounce of publicity out of this event and nobody seems to know exactly why, or if they do know they certainly aren't speaking up!
Back in '92 I was nearly killed in a climbing accident (75 footer to slab rocks below[/i) that required a LifeFlight to Pittsburgh, followed up by Shrinks and a Trauma Team all telling me I would likely never walk again. Within 2 days, I had reporters calling me in the hospital and even showing up unannounced to my room in Neuro-ICU. I told them all the same thing, which was that I absolutely had no interest in allowing them or anyone else to try to glamorize or make a media frenzy or mockery out of my experience. Climbers are already faced with far too many access issues and closures, so there was no way that I was going to take part in anything that would only make matters worse. I also began receiving phone calls from lawyers offering to file suits on my behalf, against the particular location where the accident took place, as well a very big name equipment manufacturer. Again, I declined any involvement because each and every time I tied on a harness, I fully accepted the associated risks and knew that it could potentially be the very last thing I ever did. 13 years later, I had a nearly identical accident that involved a 20 footer to a ledge! -- It's all part of the game!
-Tim
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