I followed Mike across the razor sharp reef. Stepping carefully between cracks and sharp edges. My two legs. His one. Plus the shiny, evolved prosthetic supporting the right half of his body. And it became abundantly apparent that telling his story is an absolute privilege. Projects like this are a gift. As it’s always fascinating and humbling to sit down with a person I respect and have an earnest conversation about traumatic, life-changing events that profoundly influence the course of our short time on this planet. Mike Coots and his story reside in that sacred territory.
For those unaware, Mike lost his right leg to a Tiger Shark while surfing near his hometown in Kauai in 1997. Mike still surfs nearly every day with a prosthetic leg, and it took a while to develop his ultimate surf leg. In order to do so, Coots became somewhat of a self-taught engineer. He used to buy feet off E-bay because, well, prosthetic feet are expensive. And he’s resourceful. When we wipeout on a reef, we might lose some skin. Mike risks losing $20,0000.
Beyond that, Mike has invested serious time in lobbying for the protection of sharks. Yes, sharks. The villainous animals who turned him into an engineer. And an amputee. And an icon.
Turns out, we kill a lot of sharks. We kill roughly 100 million sharks a year. That’s about 200,000 times more sharks than sharks kill us. (According to the International Shark Attack file there have been 495 reported fatal attacks since the year 1580.) And for nothing. Sometimes for their dorsal fins. In abstract, that’s an injustice worth rectifying. But for a man who made such an intimate and personal sacrifice of his own body to champion that cause… Well, that’s something.
So when I had the opportunity sit down eye to eye with Mike Coots at our house on the North Shore this winter and hear his story, in his own words – then go surf together at Rocky Point – walking out together across the shallow, sharp reef (…I followed carefully in his steps) in waves of consequence, it made for one of those moments that The Inertia is absolutely honored to share.