by The Editors on April 25, 2008
As southern California surfers we’ve all been able to rationalize our safety in the water by the fact that no surfer has ever been killed by a shark south of Santa Barbara (click here for a list of California attacks for the last five years). But today’s news about swimmer Dave Martin, 66, of Solana Beach, California being killed by a 12 to 17 foot great white shark while training with a group of triathletes 150 yards off shore in Fletcher’s Cove sent a chill through the entire beach community.
Sadly, this isn’t the first white shark spotted in San Diego County lately. Scott Bass, the host of surf talk radio show Down The Line spoke about finding a baby Great White at Cardiff Reef on April 11 during his April 13, 2008 podcast.
Two days ago in the morning I was surfing Cardiff Reef,” Bass said. “Not only did I see a great white shark, but I picked it up by the tail. It was a baby great white. It was probably three feet long. It swam right up to my board and at first I was obviously freaked out. Tough guy me had my arms and legs in the air screaming for my mom. And I pushed it away and it was just such a facinating creature that I found myself paddling up to it. . . . It went way into the shallows where the river was running out and it looked like it was trying to beach itself. So I literally got off my board picked the shark up by its tail and held it up. There were people walking by taking pictures.”
Down The Line co-host Marty Thomas joked at the time about where the baby shark’s Mom and Dad were. Guess we all know now.
So far no Carlsbadistan beaches have been closed, however, recommendations (like the one shown above) have been posted at South Carlsbad State Beach. State beach patrolman we spoke to in the Tamarack Beach parking lot said they had no plans to issue any more closures.
While there were three surfers out at Tamarack, talk in the parking lot was obviously all about the shark, the attack, and how people feel about it. One Carlsbad local seemed to think that the shark was no longer in the vicinity. “That thing is all the way to Guadalupe Island by now,” he said. Another surfer agreed. “Those things can swim 8 miles like nothing.”
Hopefully, that is the case because as well all know, those offshore winds are going to blow this weekend and a lot of people are going to want to be in the water.
[Links: San Diego Union-Tribune, Associated Press, LA Times, and Surfer Magazine]
by The Editors on April 25, 2008
By 5:15 PM yesterday the line for tickets to see popular fiction writer and Carlsbad Reads author Alexander McCall Smith snaked across the front of Carlsbad’s Dove Library, around the corner, and all the way into the back of the parking lot.
“This is like a rock concert or something,” one woman said as she and her friends searched for the end of the line.
And she would have been right if rock concerts were attended almost exclusively by women in their late 50s to early 60s. Something about McCall Smith’s easy reading novels captures a demographic that Tolstoy might have described as “women who are not yet old.”
By 7 PM everyone with a ticket had filed into the the Ruby G. Schulman Auditorium and the George and Patricia Gowland Meeting room where the overflow audience could watch the lecture on closed circuit TV. When the stage curtains parted there was the jolly Scot Alexander McCall Smith in his suit jacket, tie, and kilt. Exactly as most everyone expected.
[click to continue…]
by The Editors on April 25, 2008
Longtime Carlsbadistan residents (and especially business owners) just can’t seem to get a break with it comes to area codes. We’ve already had a 619 phone number and a 760 number and now it looks like we’re going to get a new one: 442.
The new 442 code will go live six months from Thursday’s vote. Starting next year, all callers will have to dial the 442 prefix instead of 760 to reach people in heavily populated suburbs like Carlsbad, Escondido and Vista. . . . The vote splits those communities from rural areas stretching from the Mexican border north to Mono county along the Nevada border, which will still be covered by the 760 area code.
Well, the good news is that we’ll finally have a Primus song about us: “. . . with a Bocephus sticker on his 442 he’d light ’em up just for fun.”
[Link: Mercury News]
by The Editors on April 25, 2008
The Carlsbad bank robbery spree continued on Thursday April 24, 2008 at 9:10 AM as a “6-foot-3 thin white male wearing a white tank top” knocked off the Washington Mutual at 6985 El Camino Real. He “demanded money but did not display a weapon, police said.”
And, as usual, he got away.
[Link: San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on April 24, 2008
Fans of the The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Precious Ramotswe will be standing on line at the Carlsbad Library on Dove Lane this afternoon waiting for free tickets to hear Scottish law professor/best-selling author Alexander McCall Smith speak as part of Carlsbad Read Together.
Some who have heard McCall Smith speak say he is one of the most entertaining, enlightening speakers they have heard and that his lecture should not be missed.
Tickets to the Ruby G. Schulman Auditorium event will be distributed first-come first-served starting at 6 PM, however, library staff claim “you’ll have to come much earlier than that if you expect to get in.”
Bring a chair and a couple McCall Smith books and join the lit line party.
by The Editors on April 24, 2008
Thanks to a planned public works center and police and fire training facility (that will be built on the land currently occupied by the Carlsbad Skateboard park) there is some worry that skateboarders will have no park at all until the new park at the Alga Norte is completed, according to a Barbara Henry story in the North County Times. But don’t expect the Carlsbad City Council to care.
The City Council unanimously decided Tuesday that it does not want to find an alternate location for the Orion Way skatepark, since Alga Norte is opening soon. The council will revisit whether the city needs two skateparks —- as some skateboarding enthusiasts have suggested —- after Alga Norte opens.
When a location in the Calavera Hills Park site was suggested for a possible interim or second skateboard park Council member Ann Kulchin threw this idiotic line into the discussion: “There’s a lot of residences there,” she said. “I’m not sure they would welcome a skatepark.”
Carlsbad was the home of the world’s first concrete skatepark, it is the birthplace of modern skateboarding (and the industry that surrounds it) and yet this is the kind of response we get from our City Council. It’s pathetic. Truly.
[Link: North County Times]
by The Editors on April 23, 2008
At approximately 3:05 PM today (April 23, 2008) a woman in her mid to late-20s was hit by a car while crossing the street in front of the Vons Supermarket in the parking lot of the Vons shopping center at the corner of Aviara Parkway and El Camino Real.
According to a witness, a woman driving a green Nissan Pathfinder turned the corner in the Vons parking lot and struck the pedestrian before even seeing her.
“She just came around the corner and hit her,” said the witness. “She didn’t even see her until after she had knocked her to the ground.
The woman was placed on a backboard and transported via Carlsbad Fire Department ambulance. The Carlsbad Police responded as well. We’ll have more as information becomes available.
by The Editors on April 23, 2008
A ski mask-wearing bandit wielding a “small sword” robbed a man at the ATM of the Washington Mutual Bank Branch at 699 Grand Ave. at 6:30 AM yesterday in the VIllage of Carlsbadistan.
The victim withdrew $100 from the Washington Mutual Bank branch at 699 Grand shortly before 6:30 a.m. and was accosted by the robber, said Carlsbad police Lt. Jay Eppel. . . .The man demanded the cash as he threatened the victim with the sword, and the victim complied, Eppel said.
The robber was described as white, about 30 to 40 years old, 5 feet 10 inches tall, wearing a dark-colored hooded sweat shirt and baggy jeans.
The robber ran away and the robbery victim was not injured.
[Link: 10news.com and The San Diego Union-Tribune]
by The Editors on April 22, 2008
Employees and teamriders from IPATH, a Torrance, California-based action sports footwear company, joined The Surfrider Foundation on Monday morning to help clean up Carlsbad State Beach on Earth Day.
“Going green isn’t a fad, it’s a movement IPATH has been a part of since our beginning and we’re thrilled others are joining us,” said Bruce Gordon, IPATH’s general manager.
We’re glad, too. We like clean beaches.
by The Editors on April 22, 2008
As an assistant director Carlsbad’s Jack Roe helped create some of Hollywood’s best loved films. Sadly, he died April 6, 2008 of heart failure, according to a story in Variety.
A celebration of life will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 27 at El Camino Country Club, 3202 Vista Way, Oceanside. Born in Omaha, Neb., Roe served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War. . . . After joining the Director’s Guild in 1963, he worked as a assistant director on films such as Funny Girl, Paint Your Wagon, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, The Sunshine Boys, The Bad News Bears, Silver Streak, The Goodbye Girl, and The In-Laws.
In all he worked on more than 50 feature films. Our thoughts are with Mr. Roe’s family and friends.
[Link: Variety]
So far no Carlsbadistan beaches have been closed, however, recommendations (like the one shown above) have been posted at South Carlsbad State Beach. State beach patrolman we spoke to in the Tamarack Beach parking lot said they had no plans to issue any more closures.
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