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Shredded shorts spur new search for surfer


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POSTED: Friday, March 12, 2010

Lifeguards lifted the shark warning and resumed the search yesterday for a California surfer who disappeared in waters off Chun's Reef and Laniakea on Oahu's North Shore.

Barring new developments, the search will not continue today, Fire Department spokesman Capt. Terry Seelig said.

Black shorts worn by the missing 35-year-old man were found at 8 a.m. yesterday by a resident walking on Papailoa Point beach, about a mile west of where the visitor was surfing on Tuesday.

“;I was told they were shredded,”; said Seelig.

On Wednesday at about 7:30 a.m., a helicopter rescue crew saw a body floating about 400 yards off Papailoa Point but was unable to retrieve it because three large tiger sharks were displaying aggressive behavior nearby, ocean safety officials said.

The man, 35, a resident of Sunnyvale, Calif., who was originally from Beijing, was visiting Oahu with his wife.

His wife, who was on the beach when she noticed her husband missing, was in seclusion yesterday, receiving assistance from the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii.

Society President Jessica Lani Rich said the man was working on his master's degree in business administration and that his wife worked in a computer-related field.

A couple of the man's friends visited Laniakea Beach yesterday but declined to talk about him, pending the arrival of family members Saturday from China.

The man, who has yet to be identified, was surfing about 50 yards from shore at Laniakea Tuesday afternoon when he was swept out by a current into high surf, where he was battered and separated from his surfboard, ocean safety officials said.

A lifeguard paddled out to assist the man but was unable to locate him.