Re: 11/08/2007 Craig Evans (Australia) No Injury
Posted: Thu Dec 27, 2007 1:28 am
CRAIG Evans got the shock of his life when a shark bit his surfboard at Byron Bay, throwing him into the water and tearing his wetsuit.
b]These teeth marks are from a shark[/b]
Andrew MacDonald
12Nov07
CRAIG Evans got the shock of his life when a shark bit his surfboard at Byron Bay, throwing him into the water and tearing his wetsuit.
The 38-year-old father of two was surfing more than 100m off-shore at Wategoes Beach last Thursday when what he believes was a 1.8m bull shark struck his board about 1.30pm.
The experienced surfer, who has lived in the Byron Bay area for about 20 years, spent a harrowing few seconds in the water as the shark circled.
Keeping his composure, Mr Evan's pushed away from the creature before scrambling back on to his board and frantically paddling ashore.
The Mullumbimby banana plantation owner said the encounter with the shark was among the most terrifying experiences of his life.
"I surf on a daily basis. I've seen a few sharks over the years. I surfed over one once but I had not had physical contact before," he said.
"It's bitten on to the board. I didn't see it coming. It just nicked my leg as well and put holes in my wetsuit. It didn't break the skin.
Despite his confusion, he said he was amazed the shark hadn't attacked once he landed in the water.
"The initial impact knocked me from the board but after that it (the shark) has just sort of circled round inspecting things," he said.
"It really just seemed as though it needed pushing away. I didn't have to fight it off.
"Really the first sort of thing I thought was that this is out of my control. It was going to do what it wanted. If it wanted to eat me it would have."
While shaken by his ordeal, he was back surfing at Wategoes the next day.
It was initially thought he had been attacked by a bronze whaler but after talking to a local fisherman he thinks it was a bull shark.
"It was very black and it came in so close to me that I couldn't really see its head," he said.
"A local fisherman inspected the board and he was pointing out the bite marks, and that's what he seemed to think. Again based on the bite marks the fisherman seemed to think it was about 6ft (1.8m)."
b]These teeth marks are from a shark[/b]
Andrew MacDonald
12Nov07
- craig_evans.jpg (18.87 KiB) Viewed 21271 times
The 38-year-old father of two was surfing more than 100m off-shore at Wategoes Beach last Thursday when what he believes was a 1.8m bull shark struck his board about 1.30pm.
The experienced surfer, who has lived in the Byron Bay area for about 20 years, spent a harrowing few seconds in the water as the shark circled.
Keeping his composure, Mr Evan's pushed away from the creature before scrambling back on to his board and frantically paddling ashore.
The Mullumbimby banana plantation owner said the encounter with the shark was among the most terrifying experiences of his life.
"I surf on a daily basis. I've seen a few sharks over the years. I surfed over one once but I had not had physical contact before," he said.
"It's bitten on to the board. I didn't see it coming. It just nicked my leg as well and put holes in my wetsuit. It didn't break the skin.
Despite his confusion, he said he was amazed the shark hadn't attacked once he landed in the water.
"The initial impact knocked me from the board but after that it (the shark) has just sort of circled round inspecting things," he said.
"It really just seemed as though it needed pushing away. I didn't have to fight it off.
"Really the first sort of thing I thought was that this is out of my control. It was going to do what it wanted. If it wanted to eat me it would have."
While shaken by his ordeal, he was back surfing at Wategoes the next day.
It was initially thought he had been attacked by a bronze whaler but after talking to a local fisherman he thinks it was a bull shark.
"It was very black and it came in so close to me that I couldn't really see its head," he said.
"A local fisherman inspected the board and he was pointing out the bite marks, and that's what he seemed to think. Again based on the bite marks the fisherman seemed to think it was about 6ft (1.8m)."