Surfer punches shark during attack at Bells Beach
A French surfer has escaped with only four stitches after punching a shark during an attack at Bells Beach.
Dylan Nacass was surfing at Bells on Friday when he felt his right leg being bitten by the shark.
"I punch him one time, two time," Mr Nacass said.
The shark let go, but Mr Nacass said he could see it circling and knew his leg was bleeding.
"I see when he turn around me, I'm really scared because I know when I see his face I know he want to kill me," he said.
The aftermath was captured on camera by Graham Blade, who started filming after the shark first went for Mr Nacass's leg.
It shows local surfer Matthew, who Mr Nacass called "a legend", helping him into shore with the shark just centimetres behind them.
"I really would like to surf with him another day," he said.
It is not known what species of shark was in the water.
Mr Nacass was taken to hospital and after getting four stitches on his wound, said he was now "all good".
Mr Nacass after being released from hospital (ABC News)
Despite the close call, Mr Nacass said, "it's normal, it's natural" for sharks to be in the water and would not be deterred from heading back to surf.
As soon as his leg is healed, which could be as soon as next week, he said he wanted to go right back to Bells.
© Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved.
Comments
Watch from 1.07 on a big screen to see the shark on the toes of the third guy for a while. Disappears and then makes another appearance @ 2.40 through a wave while the same guy paddles back into frame from bottom left. Clearly not a hungry shark. The guy is a local who can often be found dangling from very high ladders in the region...not real fazed about the shark. Not sure I'd be reacting in the same way.
The one around 1:07 hangs around that guys toes for ages!!!
But the one at 2:40 on the right hand side of the frame in that wave looks smaller than the original shark IMO.
Hows the blonde guy paddling out not giving a flying fck!!!
I agree the second sighting of the shark looks like a smaller one compared to the first..
obviously a small white .Boys are pretty casual about it,seemed to follow the bearded guy very very closely and then he stops and slides of his board...mr lucky
Is he getting a $1600 fine for coming to Torquay from Melbourne? Surely thats not allowed?
VL...another chance to vent?
Most of Torquays population is from Melbourne these days.
It's a Bronze Whaler yeah?
In the still it looks like a small White. In the clip, the shark swimming around has a long tail like a grey nurse or something like that?
Dos tiburons?!
little white i thought?
Thresher perhaps, tail seemed to be pretty long.Did it have an effect on the crowds today?
It was Southside, not Bells.
Lets not label the shark fellas.
That's just the sort of speech Vic will pounce on.
best comment in this thread !
Super rare for a juvenile white to attack something that size and at a guess i'm thinking its another species. Do you have Bull sharks down there?
Nope
Noticed a big flock of big sea birds diving for fish off the back of Bells for a while today. Must be a bit more sealife around at the moment.
Yep. That other bloke is a legend. Good on him shepherding him back to shore.
about time we had a happy ending shark story.
so true bipolar, everyone likes a happy ending.
certainly paddles like a french backpacker, I guess with so many of them still here they are statistically up there with a good chance of getting bit. Screaming and carrying on while the other guys just cruise too, sums up cultural stereotypes to a degree
Looks like a seven gill
Localism aside - why shouldn't he be fined $1600 for travelling to the Surfcoast to surf? It is completely illegal to do so right now. I have sympathy for the victim but he's paddling style is indicative of someone who shouldn't be in the water at present, but is in abundance. The police have done fuck all to enforce this during Covid19 on the Surfcoast. I am happy to share waves with nice people because I also like to travel - but right now it is illegal and SELFISH to do so.
No restrictions on travelling to exercise
Selfish yes, illegal no. Read the rules carefully
Nope its not illegal and why is one persons desire to have a surf "selfish" and anothers not ? Everyone has the choice to not surf during this period. You are just pissed that others chosen to surf like you. If you chose not to surf it simply wouldnt be a issue for you ?
Lost - I am not pissed at others surfing as much as I am pissed at others bringing city germs to a regional community, hanging out in the carparks, leaving your grimmy fingers at the petrol pump, bakery etc. That was the purpose of discouraging travel for exercise. Not my fault if people choose to live in a shitty suburb with nothing to do. Enjoy the mall.
Regional community LOL - have you had a look around at the development of the surf coast shire lately ? Looks like any suburb to me. Mac houses for miles and miles. As to petrol pumps - surely you are walking to your local for a surf and not needing a car ? Hanging out in carparks - only risk to you if you are also hanging out in the same car park ? Bakery - follow the protocols and you will be fine.
LOST - I do drive to the surf, all over the place, and show respect when I arrive. But for the Covid period, I've stayed local, even when conditions were more favourable further afield. Why? Because I'm not a selfish asshole who only thinks for me. Because I can surf local and should. Because I remember what it was like to recognise everyone in town. Because I contribute my community, not only take. The region has grown stupidly I agree, but it obviously still has some appeal if you feel the need to visit at your own desire and disregard of others. The recent lockdown influx of kooks and attitudes like yours only reinforces my belief that city living is mundane.
You sound exactly like a right royal selfish asshole to me. You want to surf - but don't want anyone else to surf. You think you have some sort of right to a wave over others. You are quick to label others. You assume I have visited lately (I haven't, don't even live in Vic). You assume I live in a city (I don't). You put up stupid arguments about petrol stations and bakeries. So sick of small minded dicks who think they own waves. PS have you stopped to think that a good proportion of any covid crowd could be just as local as you except working from home or out of work with more time on their hand.
Whaddayareckon fellas, could that paddling style also just be the result of an unbalanced posture from trying to keep a bleeding leg out of the water?
No. I have a bigger cut on my leg from pruning trees last week. And if you've ever had a genuine "scare" out of the water, you're practically flying.
Thanks for clearing that up for me.
I’d count teeth holes in the leg and being followed all the way in to the beach as a genuine scare. That shark is way to curious.
Unfortunately it had no affect on the amount of people in the water this morning. Next fucking level.
The surf coast shire population is fast approaching forty thousand people and that is before you even start counting neighbors. "Locals" might want to think about who they vote in locally.
Um........you might want to check out a map of the Surfcoast Shire.
It extends 55ks S/W to Lorne and about 30 odd ks inland. 40k people spread around that....not Torquay/JJ.
I picked the Surf Cost Shire as many of the comments in these threads had be blasting people who lived outside of the Shire surfing during Covid. What distance do you think gives people a right to surf - Should it be only those that live within 500m of a wave or is it only those with 5km of a wave and if 5km why not 50km or 500km. I just find the amount of whinging going on about crowds boring. If you want to surf you are part of the problem. I just don’t understand how people believe they have a right to a wave above and beyond others.
Young one checking out the local food supply and animal behaviour, a training session, "hmm... if I bite this thing how does it react?" Sharky did well to pick the least confident surfer in the water. Smart.
You get a pretty good sighter of the shark in the bottom right corner of the screen around the 2:54 mark in the vid. Tail shape looks like a juvenile white pointer to me? Or possibly a grey nurse with the top part of the tail longer than the bottom?
a bunch of kooks - the lot of them.
Where was the 'good enough' communication?
Surely it’s just another seven gill shark ?
Aren’t they forever nipping at the feet of Bell’s surfers ?
The snout looks a bit blunt to be a bronzey and the colour is too brown to be a pointer. The dorsal of a pointer would be clear out of the water in that photo.
Edit....note that The-B came to the same conclusion. Seems like one of these buggers comes in for a little taste every other year or so.
Victoria.....life your game.
As if it’s not bad enough that you’re already the red-headed stepchild of Australia’s surfable states , now you’re letting down our globally acclaimed image as home to the most ferocious wildlife on Earth.
How are travelling Australians meant to impress potential mates in foreign countries, with our propaganda of nonchalant bravado in the face of imminent death , whilst you continue to undermine this perception with your meek sharks and your otherwise lack of aggressive wildlife ?
You know Victoria is letting the nation down when they mention the terrifying platypus as one of the states most dangerous animals.
You reckon a single travelling Aussie would have scored an overseas root off the back of Crocodile Dundee if it’d been filmed in Victoria ? Like fuck. ....” That’s not a fur-lined boot ....this is a fur-lined boot ! “
To paraphrase Warnie ( sorry , the channel 9 cameraman ) .......” Doesn’t barrel , doesn’t bite .....what can Victoria do *? “
* Jokes. You know I love me a bit of Vicco. They make Tassie look good. That’s something.
How does a shark bite only leave 1 hole needing 4 stitches?
So much uninformed speculation on the shark species. Has anyone claiming that it's a seven gill actually seen one? They are rough skinned, light grey, and look like a zombie shark from hell (and smell like a boat ramp fish cleaning table on a hot day).
From the stills it is quite clearly a thresher - big eye, round nose, shiny dark grey/bronze. Head shape is slightly different to a bronze whaler but there are enough similarities for it to be plausible. Then if you look at 2.55 of the video you can clearly see the elongated tail fin unique to a thresher.
Add to that minor bite marks (threshers have a small mouth for eating fish), and heaps of aerial photos of threshers at Bells / Jarosite (see @bluegums insta for example) - it's quite clear what gave old mate a curious nibble.
I think you and myself are the only one with glasses on. I'm no expert but was clear as daylight it was a thresher shark. And the best clearest footage you could possibly ask for to see that. Tail is the giveaway.
I'm not sure - I don't think the tail is long enough for a thresher, their tail is much longer. There was a seven gill buzzing people at Winky later that arvo from what I've been told (as has happened a lot over the years). They also have a history of going people in pairs, which might explain why the shark early in the vid seems larger than the smaller shark towards 2:40. Hard to tell, the heads seems too elongated for a seven-gill, though. If it was a juvenile white, you'd think the damage would have been worse. Snowy sees all sorts of sharks from the birds eye view, too.
Whatever it was, the one that spy-hopped and followed them in was pretty interested - they were farkin lucky to get away with a nip with it sniffing at their toes. Especially the bloke who hops off his board - must have been taking the Donald approach to it.
Sorry , gents.
It’s a sevengill.
The tail of the thresher is as long as the rest of the shark combined. The seven gill has the elongated upper caudal fin just like in the screen shot at 2:55. You can even see the backset dorsal of the 7 gill in the screen shot.
“Of the 170 species of sharks found in Australia, only four are considered dangerous to humans. These are the tiger shark, the bull shark, the great whites, and the dusky sharks. Fortunately, bull sharks and tiger sharks, permanent fixtures in shark attack news stories, are uncommon in Victoria. The number of dusky sharks in Victoria is also negligible. However, the state does host three species of dangerous sharks: the great whites, the bronze whalers and to a lesser extent, sevengill sharks, says Dallas D'Silva of Fisheries Victoria.“
Yep.
Nailed it.
Good detective work blowin. :)
Obviously social distancing doesn't apply to our finned friends.
Looks like territorial behaviour to me. Trying to move on ,what it sees as some potential competition, with an attitude that would make a blue heeler proud.
yep a thresher/7gill , get em all the time here , the one at Winki in the Arvo actually came out of the water and flopped onto the nose of womans board, this happens quite a lot down here...lots of Threshers , they bump us all the time.....quite playful.......and we think there were 3 sharks , 1 x 5' baby thresher....then 1 x 8 ' mama thresher, and poppa was at Soutside , maybe 10' plus...as the tails are so bloody long...
as for the frenchman from Melb...and his 2 mates.....should have all been fined
apparently no internal state travel restrictions "DA: "We've never had limits on how far a person can travel. We've not closed our borders, not had internal borders and we're not changing that. The fact that people cannot stay overnight, I think, will limit how far they travel.".....as they say at the races to punters "hold all tickets"
Tail looks pretty unique...not very big either!! At 1:54 it inspects the surfer then quickly runs away.
yep on the money Blowin
I'm just waiting for a vegan or greenie to chime on with a "It's a shark, in the ocean. That's what they do!" but nothing yet...
Dissapointed!
Can't wait until that french guy has to deal with a magpie in nesting season ,
My neighbours shitzu is more threatening than that shark.
Turning your back isn't the best option with any shark that wants to harass , no matter what it's size is. Given the lack of sets , the visibility etc I believe you could have literally paddled at that shark and it wouldn't have wanted a bar of it. Better still , try filming the bastard underwater while trying to pat it when it swims past ,with your go pro, they fucking hate that, and will usually bail quicker than a scared man with a bucket on a sinking boat.
On the menu today we have some frog
Why the French come to our country and assault our wildlife is beyond me
It’s quite clearly a Great bronze gilled thresher shark.
OK so we've got the 7 gill at 2:55 - so is the brown one earlier the thresher? You can see a lighter tummy on its underside. Looks like it was a shark party there on Friday.
And - if it was a thresher, wouldn't it attack with tail-whip (like Pokemon) to stun them first, then come up for a bite?
someone ought to tell the french that screaming like a bitch isnt the same as punching
I would definitely be buying a lottery ticket Dylan.You are one lucky dude!