Yesterday, on Australia’s Gold Coast Jonathon Beard, 31, was surfing with three friends at Fingal “when a shark inflicted a bite about 40cm long and 5cm deep to the top of his leg.”
Apparently there was a group of dolphins nearby and then the next thing he realised was he received a large bite to the top of his leg,” he said. “The blokes he was with then saw some violent thrashing in the water and called out ‘Shark!’. . . . “They showed a lot of initiative — they used his leg rope as a tourniquet and got him into shore quickly and got help.”
Meanwhile at Binalong Bay 13-year-old surfer Hannah Mighall was surfing with her 20-year-old cousin when she was chomped by a 5 meter white pointer.
The shark twice dragged the girl under the water before her cousin reached the scene on his surfboard and hit the animal, causing it to let go of the girl’s leg. . . . The cousin managed to pull the teenager on to his surfboard and began to paddle towards the shore. But the shark followed and circled the frightened pair as they frantically paddled.
Luckily, both surfers escaped major permanent damage though as the story points out they will have some great scars to talk about.
[Link: The Australian and Time Magazine]
