Word: surf
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Splashing in the surf on a sunny afternoon last month, Danielle Shidemantle was 20 yds. from the shore of New Smyrna Beach when she felt piercing pains in her left thigh. She saw blood in the water--her blood. Then she saw the point of a dorsal fin circling back toward her. Not sure what to do--freeze or try to kick it away--she made a frantic run for the beach, screaming, "Shark, shark, shark...
Like other beach resorts, the ones in Volusia County have seen a sharp rise in visitors--to 8.1 million last year, up from 7.2 million in 1989--who come to walk the white beaches, bask in the sun and surf the foamy waves. The more people in the water, the more chance for attacks. "When we enter the ocean, we're not owed a right to be 100% safe," says George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File at the University of Florida, which collects data on shark attacks. "This is truly a wilderness experience. It's not like...
...kidding. Volusia is home to several species of reef sharks, including black tips and spinners, that are born in the spring and learn to hunt by summer. The sharks move close to shore, chasing baitfish as the water temperature warms up. "They get into the surf line and get disoriented, and they start biting whatever moves," says Joe Wooden, deputy chief of Volusia County's beach patrol...
...adolescents directly and with no condescension. She is a great believer in teen-grief support groups: if one doesn't exist, start one. Her advice is practical: "If it is more than you can bear to think about right now, that's O.K. Read a book. Take a walk. Surf the Internet. Play basketball. Go to the movies. Paint a picture. Write a poem." Or spend a few hours with Fitzgerald's fine book...
...truth is that Australians tend to be natural pagans. Everything favors this: the delicious climate of the coasts, where most of us live; the dramatic and seductive landscapes of pounding surf and golden sand; the tanned bodies strutting; the food (some of the finest and most inventive in the world); and the wines, which are superb...