Shark Stories

yorkessurfer's picture
yorkessurfer started the topic in Monday, 29 Oct 2012 at 12:11am

A few interesting stories on shark attacks and near misses on the Shark Shield report so I thought I would start this thread. Don't want to trivialize the subject as people have had their lives taken or changed forever by what can happen. I thought it might serve as an educational purpose by hearing others experiences so we may all learn from them and hopefully avoid it happening to us.

One of them was a mate of mine named Hazey.
He had been surfing at Castles, a notoriously sharky wave in the bay at Cactus.
Several hundred metres offshore the wave breaks before reforming into Inside Castles making a long left with several sections. The wave has been the scene of several attacks and near misses over the years including the local known as "Sharkbait" who had been attacked more than once.
Gerry Lopez is another who came very close to being attacked out there and vowed to never surf Cactus again after his near miss.
Well Hazey was surfing out the back with another bloke named Steve when out of the blue he was launched into the air still on his board by a huge force from below.
A shark had rammed him with a direct hit straight up into the air! In a moment it was gone but soon returned to the stunned Hazey and started biting him and his board. Hazey instinctively put his arms out to protect himself but both his arms ended up in its mouth. As the jaws closed down his arms could have easily been severed, but several teeth on the sharks lower jaw had become dislodged and imbedded in the board leaving his upper arms with massive injuries, but the vital inner arms where major arteries run were not majorly damaged. This probably saved his life.
By this time Steve had reacted and in a rush of adrenalin and pure ballsy courage he threw himself onto the sharks back and started gouging at the sharks eyeballs, eventually feeling one pop and the shark departed.
Steve got the two surfboards together and got himself and Hazey on and started the long paddle to shore.
Then they were both thrown into the air as the shark rammed them a third time before disappearing again. They continued to make their way closer to shore and the shark nudged them again. Steve told me he thought he really must of pissed it off when he popped its eye.
Finally they we're just a metre from shore when the shark made its fifth and final appearance. It beelined towards them and the shore while they stood in waist deep water with their boards. The sharks mouth was just rapidly opening and closing like one of those wind up sets of false teeth. The boys separated and put their hands on either side of it's body and held it on a 90 degree angle to the beach as they made the final steps to the safety of the sand.
Hazey was rushed to Ceduna hospital and then flown to Adelaide for micro surgery on his shredded arms.
Steve ended up receiving a bravery award and they both sold their story to 60 minutes and made $50,000 each out of it!
It was quite a story!

Rabbits68's picture
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Rabbits68 Wednesday, 16 Feb 2022 at 11:51pm

Brutal alright. 4.5m GWS in full attack mode v’s human. Similar to the recent one at Port Beach in WA by the sounds. RIP to both men & condolences to their family & friends. Horrific thing to witness also. 60 years since the last fatal shark attack at a Sydney beach. I was surprised to learn that. When your times up, your times up. Make the most of every day, as simplistic & as obvious as that sounds.

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goofyfoot Thursday, 17 Feb 2022 at 5:25am

Fuck that’s full on

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thermalben Thursday, 17 Feb 2022 at 6:54am

Not gonna watch that video.

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freeride76 Thursday, 17 Feb 2022 at 7:46am

Not going anywhere near it either.
Can't unsee it.

Still getting over seeing Craig Ison's injuries after he was attacked at Evans.

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Robwilliams Thursday, 17 Feb 2022 at 8:35am
san Guine wrote:
Craig wrote:

Excellent Craig.
Keeping it simple and such an obvious solution to a traumatic AKA or BKA.

Can also apply great pressure by standing with the heal of your foot to area.. Etrips knee pressure.

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burleigh Thursday, 17 Feb 2022 at 10:12am

I’m ok with watching it. I think we should know the risky.

Can’t remember who said this but we should be celebrating sharks not fearing them.

They are there every single day and 99.9999 times they know we are not food.

Sometimes they get it wrong and we need to understand those risks and be ok with it

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frog Thursday, 17 Feb 2022 at 1:24pm

Everything is okay till it is not Not much defence against that sort of hit.

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Johknee Thursday, 17 Feb 2022 at 1:58pm
burleigh wrote:

I’m ok with watching it. I think we should know the risky.

Can’t remember who said this but we should be celebrating sharks not fearing them.

They are there every single day and 99.9999 times they know we are not food.

Sometimes they get it wrong and we need to understand those risks and be ok with it

I'd like to know how you know what they know

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frog Thursday, 17 Feb 2022 at 3:26pm

The local interviewed on the rocks said that a bunch of Whites hang off the deeper drop off off the reef all the time there - seen almost daily by people out in boats fishing and divers.

An occasional short surf or dive near such a spot is one thing but the swimmer apparently swam there every day.

Ups the odds more than a bit.

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joesydney Thursday, 17 Feb 2022 at 4:16pm
frog wrote:

The local interviewed on the rocks said that a bunch of Whites hang off the deeper drop off off the reef all the time there - seen almost daily by people out in boats fishing and divers.

An occasional short surf or dive near such a spot is one thing but the swimmer apparently swam there every day.

Ups the odds more than a bit.

Nah that’s BS - I live here and fish and surf and the whole area is pretty popular with amateur spearos and swimmers and yak fisherman and there is minimal GWS sightings. For sure there might be an occasional one passing through but no resident population. For start the food source is pretty low with no seals and a low density of fish.

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Trisso4 Saturday, 19 Feb 2022 at 12:14am

I watched the 2 videos of it raw footage, I regret watching it, truly disturbing. More so the footage of the poor fellow being mauled the second time, really horrific. I can’t even believe the person filming with their phone could do such a thing, I would be too distraught.

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joesydney Tuesday, 8 Mar 2022 at 9:19am

Someone was given a pretty good bump this morning at Maroubra - a couple of teeth marks in the board and crushed rail.

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Craig Tuesday, 8 Mar 2022 at 9:32am

Shit, stoked they're OK.

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joesydney Tuesday, 8 Mar 2022 at 9:34am

From the bloke that got hit...
“ I’m fine. Just a bit rattled now. It was like a solid rugby tackle. It smashed me off, but I’m just glad it didn’t connect with my legs and that I got a wave in pretty easily.”

udo's picture
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udo Tuesday, 8 Mar 2022 at 10:06am
batfink's picture
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batfink Tuesday, 8 Mar 2022 at 10:06am

Sheeeettt! Thanks for the heads up Joe. Haven’t been tempted to go in the dirty water, won’t be tempted for a while I’d say. That’s pretty hairy, and way too close to home.

Was only 3 weeks ago I was swimming and snorkelling through crystal clear water down there. Seems such a distant memory.

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batfink Tuesday, 8 Mar 2022 at 10:12am

Picked up a coconut off Maroubra the other day. A coconut! Thought I would remove it from getting picked up and taken back out to scone an unsuspecting surfer. A guy came up just after I picked it up and said ‘I was just coming down for that. Wanted to see if he could propagate it.’

I gave it to him, I had no use for it. How far away did that come from? Lots of small pieces of pumice too, some volcanic activity happening out in the Tasman somewhere, or maybe detritus from the Tonga explosion of a month or more ago.

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udo Tuesday, 8 Mar 2022 at 11:50am
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bluediamond Wednesday, 9 Mar 2022 at 3:38pm
batfink wrote:

Picked up a coconut off Maroubra the other day. A coconut! Thought I would remove it from getting picked up and taken back out to scone an unsuspecting surfer. A guy came up just after I picked it up and said ‘I was just coming down for that. Wanted to see if he could propagate it.’

I gave it to him, I had no use for it. How far away did that come from? Lots of small pieces of pumice too, some volcanic activity happening out in the Tasman somewhere, or maybe detritus from the Tonga explosion of a month or more ago.

Had a coconut take a fin out once in Fiji @batfink so you probably saved someones fin setup at the very least, let along their noggin. Huey will smile favourably on your actions!

groundswell's picture
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groundswell Thursday, 10 Mar 2022 at 12:50pm

Plenty of sharks hanging around jakes point at the moment, right outside the takeoff zone.
For some reason there has never been a shark attack here.
(Besides a windsurfer who was my friend who fell off his board and drowned before being eaten by bullsharks)

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Cockee Thursday, 10 Mar 2022 at 1:22pm

Be a good time to cull Bull sharks as they would be easy to catch at rivermouths ATM. Bastards are not 'endangered' surely?

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Supafreak Thursday, 10 Mar 2022 at 1:23pm
groundswell wrote:

Plenty of sharks hanging around jakes point at the moment, right outside the takeoff zone.
For some reason there has never been a shark attack here.
(Besides a windsurfer who was my friend who fell off his board and drowned before being eaten by bullsharks)

Are the “ sharks “ from Gold Coast or Sydney ?

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groundswell Thursday, 10 Mar 2022 at 3:05pm

haha nah, they're from the local rivermouth and a local small wave spot that handles NE winds unlike the rest of kalbarri spots.

udo's picture
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udo Thursday, 10 Mar 2022 at 10:45pm

# full screen

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joesydney Saturday, 12 Mar 2022 at 8:00pm

Maroubra cleared again today at midday. Seems we have a small problem?

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joesydney Sunday, 13 Mar 2022 at 1:00pm

Another one today same time- are we looking harder or are there just a shitload of sharks ?

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groundswell Sunday, 13 Mar 2022 at 3:32pm

There are a lot more sharks at the moment even in WA

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SingleFin95 Sunday, 13 Mar 2022 at 5:00pm
groundswell wrote:

There are a lot more sharks at the moment even in WA

happens around this time every year with the salmon run, maybe less so where you are I guess.

Have spent the last 15 years surfing in WA before I took off an extended trip about the country early last year. I actually feel a lot less safe on the east coast.

Don't know if that's just because I don't know the place and am not as comfortable in the water, but with all the rivermouths and murky water and deep gutters on the beaches it feels to me there are more sharks lurking here.

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udo Tuesday, 15 Mar 2022 at 10:37am

I think Dorsalwatch is having problems atm ..
all Eastcoast pings are being recorded as Bull sharks ?

Distracted's picture
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Distracted Tuesday, 15 Mar 2022 at 12:58pm

Maybe all the whites have buggered off with the flood waters, fingers crossed.
Amazing how mobile the Bull Sharks are, there was one the other day that went from Old Bar to Port Macquarie in about 20hours. That’s about 4km/hr without being distracted by rivers /estuaries on the way…. might have heard about the dead cows up the North Coast.

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Craig Tuesday, 15 Mar 2022 at 2:43pm

Didn't know bulls travelled that far!

udo's picture
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udo Tuesday, 15 Mar 2022 at 2:59pm

500 kms Syd harbour to Clarence river- @27 min

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simba Tuesday, 15 Mar 2022 at 2:58pm

Bull sharks come back after the whites have gone thru summer ,probably depends on water temps maybe too hot for whites atm but rest assured they will be back and the bullies will probably go back up river .

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udo Tuesday, 15 Mar 2022 at 3:33pm

Simba are you up for another Drift Dive at the mouth of the Richmond when the water clears....

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simba Tuesday, 15 Mar 2022 at 4:42pm

haha udo those days are long gone and not sure if the coast guard would let you do it now anyway....but it would be interesting if the clear water was in .

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Supafreak Saturday, 19 Mar 2022 at 12:55pm

Not sure where or how old this clip is . https://m.youtube.com/shorts/jWeW7cdGqC0?feature=share

Distracted's picture
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Distracted Saturday, 19 Mar 2022 at 2:09pm

Looks like the hammer head is after that ray or fish behind the bloke.

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Supafreak Saturday, 19 Mar 2022 at 2:27pm
Distracted wrote:

Looks like the hammer head is after that ray or fish behind the bloke.

Think you’re right, I never picked that up , well spotted.

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wax24 Saturday, 19 Mar 2022 at 6:03pm

I think that was in Florida. It actually shows how wary they are of us. At least, that is what i HOPE it shows, lol.

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joesydney Tuesday, 22 Mar 2022 at 7:38pm

https://www.sharksmart.nsw.gov.au/current-program?fbclid=IwAR0m1V0a00AqY...

Rolled out in the eastern suburbs and northern beaches

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udo Wednesday, 23 Mar 2022 at 5:38pm

Great white sharks do something called Spyhopping
They have the ability to pop their massive heads out of the sea with mouth wide open and look around for seals and other prey while not breathing

Surfers who have been Spyhopped say that you can smell the Sharks Breath
Faark !

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evosurfer Thursday, 24 Mar 2022 at 5:12pm

I had a white do that to me at a place called Voodoo. Was the most magnificent
looking thing ive ever seen. So sleek and stream lined only thing that
still haunts me still is its big back eye.

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mike oxhard Thursday, 24 Mar 2022 at 8:47pm

I guess being spyhopped is a positive in that you're not getting mauled to death

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Cockee Thursday, 24 Mar 2022 at 9:32pm

This happened to me in Vic but it was about 30m away. I kept paddling out but hugged the reef big time. Safety in numbers once I got back out with the pack. PS Wasn't too keen to test udo's 'bad breath' theory.

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views from the ... Thursday, 24 Mar 2022 at 10:32pm

Daniel Craig tried to jump me on a train carriage through Spain once.

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wax24 Saturday, 26 Mar 2022 at 12:07am

But, did Daniel Craig spyhop you too? And, if so, could you smell Daniel Craig breath? (Prob smells like martinis.)

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bluediamond Friday, 8 Apr 2022 at 1:42pm

Just a headsup for WA S/SW crew, there's a shit tonne of sharks around at the moment. More than i can remember seeing at anytime at once. Seen both bronzies and pointers.
Pretty much seeing one every second surf at the moment.
Massive amount of salmon about too. Keep yer eyes peeled. Yew!