This is not a photo of the 3.4m tiger shark caught yesterday morning on drum lines off of Rainbow Bay, situated right next to Snapper Rocks and forming part of the fabled Superbank. But it is a photo of a tiger shark, which was the best we could do. The actual tiger shark in question was pulled from the beach by contractors around 8am, though what happened to it afterwards — whether it was killed, already dead, or kept alive and moved — we don’t yet know. Lifeguards closed the beach until 1.30pm.

You may recall a strikingly similar incident from last year, when a 3.5m great white shark was caught and killed during the contest period off of Greenmount, just down from Rainbow Bay. It was the largest shark caught on the Gold Coast for 7 years. Who knows, maybe they just want to watch the comp?

In other lay day news, Dane Reynolds has enlisted the help of Jake Paterson to help him overcome his nerves, which he said were bothering him in his Round 1 heat against Gabes and Wiggly. “A lot of the time I can turn those nerves into positive psyche up energy,” Dane told Stab Mag. “But I just couldn’t snap out of it. I had a meeting with Quiksilver afterwards and they suggested talking to Snake. So I texted him: can you help with my heat? He was super amped, and texted back: fuck yeah, lets smash ‘em! or something like that. All we did though was paddle out at D-Bah and he said which board looked better. I’ve never been coached before. I really have no idea what he’s going to say before my next heat.” Former CT competitor and one time regular in the commentary booth, Paterson is now the coach of Leo Fioravanti, who just released this wee edit of a trip to the Indonesian island of Sumbawa.

Also: shit’s been going down at D-Bah, which has been the go-to spot over the last few days for the world tour surfers on standby, and indeed for every other surfer on the Gold Coast. And by shit, we mean sessions like this one featuring Dane and Dusty, and this one featuring Kelly Slater, Mick Fanning and Kolohe Andino. Shit as in real good shit.