The TriDoc Podcast, triathlon and health in one place · Dr. Jeff Sankoff

Ep 177: Shark Deterrents: The Science Behind the Hype or Just Another Marketing Gimmick? and From Photography to Shaving: How Adam Barker is Changing the Game

·1 hr 5 min·4 clips

The bait tests found that the deterrents “did nothing.”

Dr. Jeff Zankoff opens from Denver on the August 8th, 2025 edition of the TriDoc Podcast. He brings in Adam Barker, an accomplished and award-winning photographer whose X Games ski shot sets the stage, and an accomplished cyclist whose move into entrepreneurship gives the interview a practical edge. Barker's product story stays rooted in a real endurance problem: he developed a shaving system for men who cycle and want to shave their legs after finding there was little available on the market. Then the tone shifts. Zankoff turns to a shark-deterrent study and explains that researchers built a surfboard setup, lured sharks with tuna bait, and tested five different deterrents. Those included surf-specific waxes, olfactory products such as SharkBanz and Chill Wax, and magnetic devices, including SharkBanz's magnetic product. The devices do not impress the sharks. According to the discussion, the animals went after the bait and the deterrents alike, which leads the authors to a blunt, negative conclusion about the gap between marketing claims and actual protection. That skepticism gets the last word on the study. Zankoff also relays Nathan Garrison's Forbes response, in which Garrison argues that the experiment was flawed because it used tuna, which sharks are interested in, rather than surfers, which they are not. The episode lets the listener hear both the paper's criticism of the product claims and the founder's defense of his design. The structure stays familiar: a host-led opening, a practical guest story, then a skeptical evidence segment, ending with the usual reminder to train hard and train healthy.

As heard by us

A skeptical look at shark-deterrent claims alongside an Adam Barker profile with real-world texture.

TriDoc Podcast splits its time between a skeptical look at shark-deterrent claims and a profile of Adam Barker, an award-winning photographer who has turned to entrepreneurship around a shaving system for men who cycle and want to shave their legs. Dr.

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Why you'd press play

You get a shark-deterrent reality check and a cyclist-founder origin story.

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