Well no great surprise there. Last week a 14 yr old kid had a bite taken out of him at Maroubra and then another one in Yamba yesterday. The good news is both will recover.
If the chunk out of his board is any indication, surfer Stephen King had a lucky escape after a close encounter with a shark on the north coast yesterday.
Mr King, 51 said he was thrown through the air by the impact of the attack as the shark took a large bite out of his board while surfing at Angourie, near Yamba. "I was lucky just to get a couple of grazes on my leg, "he said.
Mr King said he was about to stand up to catch a wave when he felt the shark brush against his leg before it took a mouthful of polyurethane and disappeared.
He suffered minor injuries but got back to the beach and called for help. He was taken to Maclean Hospital and given a tetanus injection.
Lifeguards closed the beach after the near miss, which happened about 6am. Local surfer Al Morrison said Mr King regularly surfed at the world-renowned point.
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Shark attacks in OZ
"We get the occasional shark sighting, but we've never had an attack before," he said.
"He felt it brush against his leg and that's when he saw it.
"He was just really lucky. The whole town is talking about it, but people are still out surfing."
its good to see the experts and correct and shark numbers are actually decreasing,....
yes I am taking the piss.
over to you subasurf.
Well after seeing 'shark week' on the Nat geo last week the sharks realize that an attack -fatal or not in WA and SA waters gets zero national media attention compared to attacks off Sydney beaches, after all we all want our ten seconds of fame - sharks included it seems and an attack of one Sydney's famous beaches is the way to go.
The amount of times I've cut my foot bleeding on my fins but still surfed for a couple hrs more... I'm starting to think it wasn't a good idea. So is it true then that sharks can 'smell' your blood from miles away?
Mythbusters did an experiment with human blood versus fish blood with sharks in a tank. Human blood got no reaction from the sharks but the same amount of fish blood sent them into a frenzy.
Didn't see last night. I only catch it every so often. Totally agree about a White's memory though. I don't think there can be much doubt that they have the ability to recall feeding grounds etc.
A friend of mine caught an interview with a guy that has dedicated the last 30 yrs to studying shark attacks and analysing common factors etc. Some were pretty standard such as dusk and dawn, but a couple that I hadn't heard were that you shouldn't surf/dive etc with jewellery on and sharks are attracted to the colour yellow so you shouldn't wear a yellow wetsuit for instance.
At the end of the day I work on the theory that if you're numbers up it's up, whether you're dressed like a banana and wearing a clock around you're neck or not.
Mmmm when your numbers up its up - very true mate. Better to have paddled out than to have regretted it later! But I'm starting to think I better be more cautious with what I do these days just in case haha.