Celebrating the Majesty of Sharks.
How did this guy get christened 'Shredder'?
Anyone have any ideas?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Linda Reese on -
I know Shredder as Cal Rip Fin. I first met him out at Guadalupe in October of 2003. It was my very first cage diving experience. I went with Lawrence Groth of Great White Adventures on The Searcher. My remembered feeling of the trip was "Overwhelmingly awed!" (if that's even a word) I have it written in my log book that he showed up on the second and third day, and he stayed all day. I've seen Cal every year since then. He's a favorite at Guadalupe as you can tell by his fan club! And he's got such a cute smile with his distinguished "soul patch" on his chin!
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Permalink Reply by Shark Diver on -
How Shredder Got His Name
Known by a few names, Shredder has lived up to the name the crew of SharkDiver.com him at the start of the 2003 shark diving season back in the day when we chummed with real beef blood and divers fished for, but rarely landed whole tuna.
Our very first white shark encounter in 2003 was with a 12 foot male white shark complete with “shredded” dorsal fin and several deep bite marks on his head. He came in fast from the left, our first sight was of his mangled dorsal fin slicing through the surface toward our hang baits (tuna), he hit the first one with an unexpected fury, then turned and zeroed in on the second hang bait missing it and disappearing into the blue distance. This was clearly a unique animal and at the end of the day we named him "Shredder," little did we know he would more than own that new name.
Shredder Takes a Bite
I was up in the wheelhouse with our boats captain (Scotty) during the last dive of our last day at Isla Guadalupe. It had been an amazing expedition thus far and our shark cages were loaded for the last time with die hard shark divers. At the time three new sharks in the 10-13 foot class were entertaining them. Two divers not in cage rotation, Kevin and Matt, were fishing for “last chance” tuna on the bow of our 88-foot dive boat the Ocean Odyssey when our crew in the wheelhouse heard a large splash. Seconds later a startled voice called up to us, “Umm, hey, a shark just blasted up and severed the anchor cable from our boat,” that was Matt, one look into his face I knew he was speaking the truth.
Our ships captain was not so sure, saying “that’s a rated 20,000 pound poly-pro anchor cable, there’s no way a shark just bit through it.”. One of the ships crew was summoned forward to have a look and sure enough came up with the last 5 feet of cable ending in one very messy shredded fray. A 12 foot great white shark had just leapt up almost 10 feet clear out of the water and bit through our anchor cable, about the size of a mans wrist and designed to hold an 88 foot dive boat in place in even the roughest weather conditions!
We were now adrift with shark cages fully deployed, sharks in the water and one shark the (newly named Shredder) with a new taste for anchor cables. In the history of shark diving I doubt this has ever happened to another dive boat. Crew raced forward and aft, we had our shark divers calmly exit the cages (30 minutes early) pulling them from the water in record time. In exactly 20 minutes we had the ship squared away and ready to get under power. Once we had settled down our divers were thrilled. After all you cannot call it a "shark expedition” until a shark chews through your anchor cable!
That's how Shredder got his name. He's now much bigger in the 14-15 foot class and still an icon of Isla Guadalupe, Mexico. His sat tags have revealed he is a regular visitor to Hawaii's North Shore when he is not thrilling divers at I
sla Guadalupe each year.
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Permalink Reply by iDive Sharks on -
Fascinating story there Shark Diver. Looks like this guys is starting to get quite a following.
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Permalink Reply by Catherine Herre on -
Thanks for the Story again Shark Diver!! That's exacty what I was told when I was on one of your trips this last August... We were waiting for him, but he never showed on our dives. Going back again this year...I hope to get a glimpse of this amazing shark.
Thanks Again!!
Cat Shark
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Permalink Reply by Jim Abernethy on
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I know Shredder as both Cal Rip Fin and Shredder. I have spent time with this shark with Lawrence Growth's operation, Doc Anes operation as well as Steve Drogin's private vessel, "Destiny". This is one shark that puts on a great photographic opportunity! I have seen this shark every time I have visited the area. Shredder seems to be very comfortable close to the divers which means great imagery! I hope Shredder is alive and doing well. Has anyone seen Shredder this year? I unfortunately didn't make it this year!
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Permalink Reply by Shark Diver on
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Hi Jim,
Shredder was a "no show" at the early start if the season (Aug 2) which was strange for him. His arrival to the island has been as regular as a swiss watch for many years prompting my dive master to fear the worst for him. He did make a later than usual arrival which was great news and looks to be healthy and bigger again this year.
He was there on our last expedition in the middle of November and we all wish him a safe journey to Hawaii again this year. This is an image from Christy Fisher we made into a X-Mas card a few years back.
Happy Holidays!
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Permalink Reply by Linda Reese on
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That is so cute! Love the card.
Cal/Shredder was there on Oct 9, 10, 11th. He spent all threee days with us. He was hangin' with Chica.
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Permalink Reply by Shark Diver on
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Huge fan of Chica as well she's come a long way over the years and you can thank Christy Fisher for that shot. Trying to keep her inside the cages is a full time job;)
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Permalink Reply by Dawn Lindow on -
I was completely mesmerized by Chica. She is so beautiful and graceful, I could not take my eyes off her when she was with us. And that was pretty much everyday we were down....
You have such a great story about Cal, also one of my faves, could you share something about Chica as well???
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Permalink Reply by Dawn Lindow on
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Are you kiddn' me?! I LOVE it!
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Permalink Reply by Dean Burnside-Machado on -
What a great story...I have so many pictures of him from my October trip. It would be interesting to know if anyone has ever seen him in Hawaii as well, someone must have a picture or a story about a sighting? maybe as this site continues to grow, someone will surface with one.
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Permalink Reply by Shark Diver on
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Dean,
The sat tags showed a number of Farallones sharks off the North Shore of Oahu in 60 feet of water last year. Interesting they tend to stay hidden and not play where anyone can see them. Jimmy Hall met one a few years back other than that they are rare,
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