Michael Rutzen : mad or not ?!

[portinfer]

Probably old news but I have only just read about this guy :Michael Rutzen

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2002/07/27/1027497434860.html?oneclick=true

Is he mad or what !

What a nutter ! But I guess he hasn't has any trouble yet, but I wonder if he is going to become a statistic or an entry for the Darwin Awards....

Cojones ? - I'd say so.....

Scared to take a bath even thinking about that.

Food for thought though (just hope the shark isn't thinking that too)

Miles might be able to get some tips - maybe you could persuade one to take you to a new area for spearing and save your legs from the hard work of finning ?!

http://www.sharkdivingunlimited.com/gallery/ralfkiefner.html

Ed

 

[miles]

Hiya

Check this out:
http://www.skin-diver.com/features/Feature1/may01_shark.asp
http://www.biganimals.com/gw_shark.html

Andre Hartman, a nationally selected spearo, started all this madness!!! He was actually in the water in the 80's at Seal Island when a Great White attacked Tommy Botha. He actually spearfished REGULARLY in the area known as shark alley in Gansbaai.

These are guys that have probably spent more time in the water than on dry land!!! LOADS of respect to them!!!!

Regards
miles

 

[bluecape]

Hi Ed

This happened a while ago. I spoke to Michael on the phone about this stuff a while ago, and the main criteria here is that conditions must be absolutely 120 percent perfect. ( Note the pics, ie, perfect Viz, no swell, no chop, just like a mirror) He says he needs eye contact from a long way off, just one shark, there is a team on a boat to keep him in touch always about what the shark is doing, and even if conditions are perfect, he needs to sense no hostility or agitation from the shark. ie, a one in a million day !

Even with all of the above, it does take some nerve for sure !!

Jeff

A[pparently, he has now been stopped from freediving with the GW.

 

[sinkweight]

Apparently, he has now been stopped from freediving with the GW.

Who stopped him? and why?

and how do you keep someone from swimming? ha ha.

 

[bluecape]

I think it falls under the marine and coastal management law that protects the GW, also banning freediving with them, but yeah, it may just cover a commercial operation of allowing 'swimming' with the GW. I'm not exactly sure of the details. Miles may have more ??

Jeff

 

[sinkweight]

I think it falls under the marine and coastal management law that protects the GW, also banning freediving with them, but yeah, it may just cover a commercial operation of allowing 'swimming' with the GW.

I can possibly see their point, but it seems silly with just one professional doing it. Of course, monkey see, monkey do.

Speaking of shark encounters...

I got rid of my T.V., due to the unrelenting barrage of crap that gets pumped out the screen. But while I was over at my parent's house eating a pizza watching a discovery channel show last night, my sister had flipped it over to the primetime channels for a bit...

And there it was; The ABC trailer to the first big, made-for-tv movie of Spring...

"Spring Break Shark Attack" in which multiple scenes are flashed on the screen, such as a boat full of screaming teenagers getting their pontoon boat flipped over as hordes of large dorsal fins make their way towards the beach, and a the tan, wincing face of a slightly distraught Aussie [Bryan] Brown.

(probably playing the role as a worried scientist who doesn't know why armies of sharks are joing forces against humans. I couldn't tell. Their weren't any sound bites to judge how cheesy the dialogue is, but I'm pretty good at predicting script formulas in just a couple of seconds)

I swear. It seemed like a special effects jerk, who had reaped his life savings making novelty dorsal fins, had incriminating photos of an ABC Network executive.

"I've got photos of you and a shaven goat wearing a blonde wig, and I've got a warehouse of silicone shark fins. Somebody's going to buy these, or else the photos get leaked!"

I'm not a huge shark guy, I've almost been tagged a number of times. When I snorkeled in Bermuda when I was young, I just kind of regarded them as stray dogs at a park. Keep your distance, and they usually keep theirs, except those damn tigers and bulls, especially ones that slip in the shallow waves.

I'd like to know what century people are going to retire sharks as the conniving, organized, vindictive, human-hungry supervillainthat they clearly are not.

They're not goldfish. Granted. But they certainly aren't Michael Chriton's velociraptors.

I'm all for any "nut" who can "read" a great white. Admittedly, I've not thought things through on every level, but it seems the more people like Rutzen there are, the better chance that ignorant people-sheep are going to learn to shed their morbid curiosities and macabre fantasies of sharks' fictional vendettas against the human race.

 

[Sharky]

Hey Sinkweight-the way T.V. is, it will be a long time before people start seeing sharks in a different light which is a pitty.

but the seeds have been sown and slowly people will start to see the bigger picture.