Re: 06/06/2010 Michael Bedford ( Australia )
Posted: Tue Jun 08, 2010 8:26 pm
Australian surfer survives shark attack
A man surfing off the coast of West Australia has survived after being attacked twice by a "bloody big" shark.
Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Jun 2010
Fewer great white sharks are left in the oceans than there are tigers surviving on Earth Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY
Michael Bedford, 40, was in a stable condition in hospital after he was rescued from the surf by a friend and some fishermen.
He was knocked off his board by the shark, believed to be a great white, which then circled him before attacking again and biting him on the right leg.
The attack took place in the middle of the day at Conspicuous Cliff beach near the town of Walpole.
Lee Cummuskey, a local tourism operator, had been surfing with Mr Bedford just minutes before the attack.
"We had both been out surfing, I had only just come in, I had broken my leg rope and had to swim in," Mr Cummuskey told the West Australian newspaper.
"I just sort of got to the beach and was only on the beach for a minute and I was keeping my eye on Mick, because he was a long way out and on his own.
"And bang I saw the hit, I didn't really see the fish ... I could just see this explosion of water and I knew straight away what had happened."
Mr Cummuskey said Mr Bedford spotted the shark when it was 20m away and racing "straight for him".
"He thought it was just going to go under him but it suddenly came up and hit him ... and I think that is when it bit him. It hit him once and then came back a second time. He thought it was a white pointer, he is not totally sure but he said it had a bloody big head on it."
Mr Bedford is believed to have punched the shark before riding a wave into the shallows.
He was suffering from shock and had a deep gash in his right knee, which witnesses described as a "pretty horrendous wound".
Once he was back on the beach a make-shift rescue operation swung into action. Using his surfboard as a stretcher, it took eight people to carry Mr Bedford along the beach and 300m up a steep hill to the carpark. While the group waited 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, they used a shirt and towel to apply pressure to the leg and fashioned a surfing leg-rope into a tourniquet. A fishing tackle box was used as a pillow and they elevated Mr Bedford's leg on a cooler box.
When the paramedics arrived, Mr Bedford was given pain-killing medication before being transferred to hospital.
Police were last night waiting to talk to him about his experience in the hope of identifying the species which attacked him but the area is a known hot-spot for white pointers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ttack.html
A man surfing off the coast of West Australia has survived after being attacked twice by a "bloody big" shark.
Published: 7:00AM BST 07 Jun 2010
Fewer great white sharks are left in the oceans than there are tigers surviving on Earth Photo: PHOTOLIBRARY
Michael Bedford, 40, was in a stable condition in hospital after he was rescued from the surf by a friend and some fishermen.
He was knocked off his board by the shark, believed to be a great white, which then circled him before attacking again and biting him on the right leg.
The attack took place in the middle of the day at Conspicuous Cliff beach near the town of Walpole.
Lee Cummuskey, a local tourism operator, had been surfing with Mr Bedford just minutes before the attack.
"We had both been out surfing, I had only just come in, I had broken my leg rope and had to swim in," Mr Cummuskey told the West Australian newspaper.
"I just sort of got to the beach and was only on the beach for a minute and I was keeping my eye on Mick, because he was a long way out and on his own.
"And bang I saw the hit, I didn't really see the fish ... I could just see this explosion of water and I knew straight away what had happened."
Mr Cummuskey said Mr Bedford spotted the shark when it was 20m away and racing "straight for him".
"He thought it was just going to go under him but it suddenly came up and hit him ... and I think that is when it bit him. It hit him once and then came back a second time. He thought it was a white pointer, he is not totally sure but he said it had a bloody big head on it."
Mr Bedford is believed to have punched the shark before riding a wave into the shallows.
He was suffering from shock and had a deep gash in his right knee, which witnesses described as a "pretty horrendous wound".
Once he was back on the beach a make-shift rescue operation swung into action. Using his surfboard as a stretcher, it took eight people to carry Mr Bedford along the beach and 300m up a steep hill to the carpark. While the group waited 30 minutes for an ambulance to arrive, they used a shirt and towel to apply pressure to the leg and fashioned a surfing leg-rope into a tourniquet. A fishing tackle box was used as a pillow and they elevated Mr Bedford's leg on a cooler box.
When the paramedics arrived, Mr Bedford was given pain-killing medication before being transferred to hospital.
Police were last night waiting to talk to him about his experience in the hope of identifying the species which attacked him but the area is a known hot-spot for white pointers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ttack.html