A great white shark attacked a bodyboard June 11 at Bunbury beach, Western Australia.
Paul Goff was waiting for a wave around 9 p.m. at Casuarina Point when a 13-foot (4m) great white shark shot out of the water.
“I saw the grey and the white of the gills and at that point I realised it wasn’t a dolphin,” the 48-year-old told Perth Now.
“I had no warning at all that it was there,” he said. “The camouflage colour of the shark – that’s what it’s there for, it protects them. I didn’t see it coming.”
“It hit fairly hard, but didn’t wind me.
“Then it went towards the board.
“I yelled ‘shark, shark’, pulled the leash off my wrist to let go of my body-board, turned and started paddling towards the beach.”
The father-of-three began swimming towards the beach. That’s when he heard other bodyboarders cries to “swim, swim, swim”. He feared the shark was moving in behind him as he swam the 32 yards (30m) back to shore.
“I didn’t know how far the shark was behind me, whether it was coming up behind me or had stayed out,” he said.
“To be honest I wasn’t entirely sure what was going to happen.”
His fight or flight instinct had kicked in.
“I was 30 metres out, knowing that I was the only one still in the water and not knowing where the shark was,” he told ABC News
“I wasn’t sure I was going to make it through the white wash.”
Still in shock, and exhausted from the swim he tried to stand up, but his fins caught in the sand. Luckily two other bodyboarders were able to drag him into shore.
Goff and other beachgoers watched the shark swimm around the bodyboard that was now around 109 yards (100m) off the beach.
The beaches were cleared and a shark alarm was sounded.
“I heard the shark alarm, looked outside and just as the surfers were coming back in I saw a shark fin about 50 metres offshore,” Back Beach Cafe worker Renee Pitt told Perth Now.
“Nothing like this has ever been seen here before. One of the baristas who works here said in his 52 years he had never heard of the beach being closed.”
Volunteer marine rescuers were able to recover the damaged board which had multiple bite marks in it.
As for Mr. Goff, the incident won’t stop him from getting in the water.
“I’ve been out this afternoon” he told ABC.
“The chances of it happening twice to the same person, you’d have to say are zero. So I think I’m good.”
There have been a total of 52* shark attack bites in 2017, 5 of which were fatal*; 23 were reported in the US, with 17 occurring in Florida** and one in Hawaii. Nine occurred in Australia, one of which was fatal and one with no injury. Three unconfirmed worldwide and not included in the total count
All locations have been marked on the 2017 Shark Attack Bites Tracking Map.
*Two may be scavenge **One report may have been outside of Florida waters.
