The very best triathlons, in my opinion, include surf swims. The waves and currents in the ocean add a dynamic that not only makes the race more interesting, it adds a kind of historic authenticity.

While the Hawaiian Ironman is the best known and the earliest source of triathlon notoriety, the sport was an instant hit on the West Coast of California, with athletes flocking from all over the world to San Diego for training and racing.

But the surf has always meant a special set of dangers, both from the power of waves and currents and from what lives in the water.

A pair of surfers outfitted with a GoPro camera caught on video a great white shark breaching the surface, entirely clear and mid-air. They published their video yesterday.

They were surfing at Sunset Beach, California, in between the historic SoCal Seal Beach and Huntington Beach triathlons staged during the 1980s and 1990s and produced today by the TriTheBeach folks.




While the idea of shark attacks provoke fear, they are nevertheless rare. On average there are 16 shark attacks in the U.S. every year, and 1 fatality every 2 years.

There has never been a case of a triathlete dying from a shark attack during a race, though in 2008 a triathlete lost his life from a shark attack while open water swimming with a group of eight other triathletes in the San Diego community of Solana Beach, California.

Sharks like this one generally move south, out of California's waters and into Mexico, when the water gets cold, returning to feed when the water warms in the summer. The current El Nino conditions keep a some of these sharks in California all year round.

There are theories, but no one knows for sure why they breach.