It’s not often that localism will be taken so far at a break that a contest is actually forced to shut down. However, when the locals happen to be two Great White Sharks cruising through the line-up, there’s really just not much of a choice. The two Whities seen cruising the shallows of Gunnamatta Beach forced contest officials to shut down Volcom Stone’s VQS Surf Series event before the finals had even hit the water this past weekend.

The sharks were initially spotted by a Coast Patrol airplane and a chopper was called in to escort the pair back out to sea. After about 20 minutes, the onsite lifeguards gave the all clear to re-enter the water. In order to not a chance on having any of the competitors be eaten, the format was changed, the quarterfinals were completed and the winners decided from combined highest heat scores on count back.

We would never support localism interrupting a competition, but when the locals can swallow you whole there’s really just no other choice. And just for good measure and in case you have yet to see this clip, we thought we would throw in a little reminder of what can happen when a pair of White-sharks come cruising through*.

*Meant for entertainment and not to have you peeking over the edge of your board the next tide you paddle out for a sesh’.

The University of Florida just recently released a study and fatal shark attacks worldwide dipped to their lowest levels in two decades in 2007 with the sole casualty involving a swimmer vacationing in the South Pacific.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

Tags: Sharks

Posted by Shaun on Thursday, February 14th, 2008 in Surfing.

• -The 808… Action Sports Reality At Its Finest