In comic strips set in Africa from many decades ago, a black boy was often seen bravely diving into a river full of crocodiles. He was holding a sturdy stick with sharp ends, perhaps 40 centimeters long and connected to a rope. As soon as he saw a crocodile rushing toward him already anticipating the tender prey, instead of running away the boy would wait for it with his arm outstretched and his hand gripping the vertical piece of wood, ready to shove it into the beast's wide-open mouth. The beast would suddenly close its jaws, causing the wood to sink deeply into them. The animal, shocked and angry, would remain open-mouthed while from the bank they would immediately pull the rope and drag it to the ground to make it meet a very bad end.
The comic was evidently successful and in 1982 the initial stick was transformed into a serious tool proposed by Swin-Bike-Run of Los Angeles. It was called
Havaiian Shark Stick and was practically the same as the one described above, with two differences: it wasn't tied to a rope and it was designed to defend against sharks or other large sea creatures. If a shark or a giant moray eel comes to attack, you have to insert the pointed stick between its jaws so that it cannot close them to bite you, while if you are bitten you have to stick it in one of its eyes.
Nice invention by some desk genius. Who knows if some unfortunate person has ever had the terrible idea of trying it.
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