George Probst
The world's coolest great white shark
I was digging through my archives yesterday and found this shot of the legendary Cal Ripfin (aka Shredder) that I've never shared on Flickr before.
Cal was an adult male measuring around 14' (4.2m) in length. He was a regular at Guadalupe, since at 2001 (when the white shark photo identification project began there). He was one of the most inquisitive sharks I've ever been in the water with and was easily my favorite individual to photograph at Guadalupe. It seemed like he was hamming it up for the camera at times, which made him a great subject.
Unfortunately, he vanished after the 2011 season and hasn't been seen since. Each fall when I'm out at Guadalupe I keep hoping that he's going to magically reappear, but after six missed seasons, the likelihood seems pretty low, especially considering how consistent he was up through 2011.
The world's coolest great white shark
I was digging through my archives yesterday and found this shot of the legendary Cal Ripfin (aka Shredder) that I've never shared on Flickr before.
Cal was an adult male measuring around 14' (4.2m) in length. He was a regular at Guadalupe, since at 2001 (when the white shark photo identification project began there). He was one of the most inquisitive sharks I've ever been in the water with and was easily my favorite individual to photograph at Guadalupe. It seemed like he was hamming it up for the camera at times, which made him a great subject.
Unfortunately, he vanished after the 2011 season and hasn't been seen since. Each fall when I'm out at Guadalupe I keep hoping that he's going to magically reappear, but after six missed seasons, the likelihood seems pretty low, especially considering how consistent he was up through 2011.