Category: Risks

Posted on

Looking into the Jaws of a Great White Shark – The Story of Shannon Ainslie

This story blew me right off my chair coughing up my coffee, and had me reconsider today's regular Sunday Surf Trip. Everybody knows there are no sharks around Lisbon,  but my next dip into the cold ocean was no doubt gonna be tense and edgy.

What you are about to read is one amazing testimonial in faith, and the most unbelievable true story of survival that side of the Vatican. It is the only clip in the world of two sharks  simoultaneously attacking a surfer. You don't even have to take my word for it - You can watch it.

The story was published on October 7th, 2013 in The Surf Channel.

At just 15 years of age, Shannon Ainslie was mauled by two 15 ft (4.5 meter) great white sharks while surfing Nahoon Reef in East London, South Africa.

About an hour into his surf, Shannon was riding a wave when two sharks attacked him. The shark on the left struck the surfboard underneath launching him into the air. Upon plunging  back into the sea under the surface - the shark bit Shannon's right hand dragging him deeper. During this time, the shark on the right went for his head and shoulders, but it missed him, because the shark on the left got in the way.

In his own words: "I remember staring the shark face-to-face underwater with its mouth wide open. I could see its one eye just staring into my face… It was super close. I could’ve reached to touch it or stick my hand in its mouth. Then, it swam past me, slowly turned around and then shoved me forward deeper under the water from behind"

Read the entire story published in Surf Channel on October 7th, 2013 here

Watch two great white sharks attack Shannon Ainslie in the below clip

 

Photo by Nathaniel Shuman

 

Posted on

Do What You Do Best – Don’t Jump at Every Opportunity

Why don't 99% of people have what they want in life?

Well, because 99% of people DON'T KNOW WHAT THEY WANT! Sounds incredible doesn't it!? But if the majority would know what they want right here and now, there would be nothing to discuss, right?

Accepting yourself has got to be one of the biggest secrets to happiness and discovering your true purpose in life. But coming to terms with the truth about yourself and what you want - may require difficult situations struggle, and sacrifices. See, not all people might like it because your strength highlights the weakness of insecure people in doubt. And many of these people might be very close. So there might be people and conditions not necessarily favouring your transition. Change is needed, and change almost always brings stress and a feeling of insecurity.

It could mean:
-Pursuing a new career based on what you really want to do
-Leaving behind a relationship or person - or a well paid but meaningless job

Bear in mind:

  1. Not all opportunities are to be taken.
  2. Be aware and know your limits, we all have them.
  3. Determine your natural environment? (For a bird it is the air; for a fish it's water). What happens when a dog in water tries to attack a shark :-)?
  4. Some opportunities are traps.
  5. Usually the best response to provocation is not to fight.
  6. Only focus on the battles you can win.
  7. You fight best in your natural element and environment.
  8. Don't procrastinate over things you can't control.
  9. Occasionally to accomplish something, you need team work - you will not always win alone.
  10. If you want to go fast, go alone - If you want to go far - go together.
  11. Stick to what you do best and FOCUS ON THAT.

Let me ask you: do you want to dedicate your life to pleasing and do you want to be universally popular? Then you should not find out about your talents nor take any risks. It could be comfy. But will it have meaning when you are 80 years old thinking back on your life?

But if you are ready to commit, and pay the price for you wishes becoming reality, I salute you and respect you – because your rewards will be much higher than for those who settle to live the life of others in safety, boredom and dissatisfaction. Blessed are you, because as your final moment approaches, and approach it will - you will know that you had the courage to follow the path that was you, despite the sacrifices and hardships endured along the way.

 

Photo by Lubo Minar
Posted on

Grabbing Lisbon with My Grubby Mitts

To call Lisbon a great place is to insult the beauty of this marvellous sunny city almost to an libellous degree. As soon as I arrived here, I knew that it was here that I was going to fulfill my God-given mission. Not only was it free from that punishing northern darkness that had been numbing my mind for so long-the city was close to the beaches where Europe's best waves for surfing splashed ashore.

I felt alive for the first time in along time. All my senses that had been numbed by the monotony of a grey city existence life burst violently into life.
I was blind, but now I could see. I felt reborn.

The next month was one the happiest of my life. Life was simple and life was great. Occasionally, I'd have another beer, and order some wonderful seafood with crabs, or have a surf in those cold wawes.

Why for God's sake was I and everyone else in Northern-Europe putting up with another hideous winter rabbiting about unimportant shit and getting stressed?

We spend our lives working in jobs that we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. No more of that.

Posted on

The Roman Character: Confidently Facing the Future, Conserving the Past

ROME NEVER FOUGHT TO IMPOSE a political idea or a religious creed. On the contrary, she left local institutions and manners of thought untouched.

In Rome's imperial expansion, self defence was accounted the first motive; but trade inevitably followed and the first motive was mingled with that of commercial exploitation. True, reasons of safety safety were sometimes alleged in order to hide greed and ambition.

Rome fought to 'impose the ways of peace' and by peace she meant the positive blessings of settled order and security of life and property.

We can't say that a religion such as the old Roman religion promoted greatly the religious development of man; it carried no intellectual appeal and was therefore unable to contribute a theology. But it is certain that with the associations and habits which clustered round its contribution to Roman character was great. Great men were almost canonized for their characters or for their achievements.

To the beliefs and manners of these days we must ascribe that sense of subordination  or obedience to exterior power, whether a god, or a standard, or an ideal, which in one form or another - marked the Roman to the end.

To the same source must be traced the feeling for continuity which preserves the constant, assimilates the new and refused to break with the past. For the future could be be faced with greater security if the values of the past were conserved.

 

Photo by Vek Labs

Posted on

The Roman Character: Let this determine what you do and say and think

NO ONE EVER SAID THAT life is fair.

As for you, do you gain strength from Nietzsche's adage ’that what does not kill you makes you stronger’ ? Or do you put your fists in the pocket and boil for the next hour, or days?

If you want to master this day, understand from those that have been and predict those to come.

Do external things distract you? Then make time for yourself to learn something worthwhile; stop letting yourself be pulled in all directions. Remember how long you’ve been putting this off, how many times you have given way to confusion. At some point you have to recognize what world you belong to; what powers rule it and from what source you are made of. There is a limit to the time assigned to you, and if you don’t use it to free yourself, it will be gone and will never return. Everyone gets ONE life. Let that determine what you do and say and think.

Ignoring what goes on in other people’s soul – did anybody ever come to grief that way? No. But if you won’t keep track of what goes on in your mind and what your own soul is doing – how can you not be unhappy.

Concentrate every minute – on doing what’s in front of you with precise and genuine conviction - tenderly, willingly, with justice. Yes you can – if you focus and do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life. Stop being aimless, stop letting your emotions override what your mind tells you – stop being hypocritical, self-centred and irritable.

Then you see how few things you have to do to live a satisfying and reverent life.

 

Photo by Cristina Gottardi