Jellyfish, currents, cold water, sea snakes, lightning, large waves…nothing strikes more fear in the hearts of open water swimmers than sharks.

A fin in the water is a scene that open water swimmers dread. A dark body cruising stealthily under the water is even a worse nightmare come true. But a streamlined silhouette screaming up from the depths is the ultimate scare.

But decades ago, Ron Chamberlain, also known as Chambo, coined the well-used American English phrase The Man in the Gray Suit. The phrase puts a different face on the magnificent marine creature that has finally met its match vis-a–vis homo sapiens as the apex predator of the oceans.

Chamberlain is a surfer who has been surfing at San Onofre State Beach since the 1950’s and who provides a daily surf report on Facebook called San Onofre Live, No Jive.

Photo shows a shark swimming in the proximity of Canadian professional marathon swimmer George Park in a race off Rhode Island in 1968.

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