Outrageous acts of bravery fail to save surfer hit by shark…
A sixty-year-old Queensland surfer has died after being attacked by a ten-foot shark at Salt Beach, in front of popular holiday resorts Peppers Salt Resort and Spa and Mantra on Salt, and forty miles north of shark-attack hotspot Byron Bay.
NSW police confirmed the death after it was reported a 10-foot shark had hit the surfer on the leg.
Great Whites and a Bull shark had recently been spotted in the area.
The surfer died on the beach at 10:40am.
Witnesses report two other surfers fought off the shark before dragging the injured man to the beach where paramedics fought, unsuccessfully, to save his life.
“Those two males had to fight off the shark and we’ll certainly be recognising their actions at a later stage for their heroic nature,” said Tweed-Byron police inspector Matt Kehoe. “It was a catastrophic injury and was deceased when he was brought to shore, despite the efforts of those two gentlemen. They did everything they could to save him.
All beaches between Kingscliff and Cabarita have been cleared of swimmers and surfers and will remain closed for 24 hours.
Given shark attacks on surfers are the new normal, it makes a helluva lot of sense, particularly in areas where hits have become common, Byron Bay, WA, Santa Cruz, South Africa, to carry purpose-built tourniquets.
As reported six months ago, a shark attack, even by a monster White, doesn’t necessarily mean a death sentence.
Once you’ve stopped the blood flow using a tourniquet you’ve got four hours before the leg, or arm, is choked off and dies. It means if you’re at a remote beach with no phone redemption, you can tourniquet the wound and take off for an ambulance or chopper without your buddy dying.
Surf Doc Jon Cohen runs classes on how to treat shark attack wounds and sells repurposed military tourniquets on his site bettersurf.com.au for thirty bucks apiece or sixty if you want a version built into a legrope.
“All it takes is one person to squeeze the leg in the right spot,” says Cohen. “You only die from bleeding to death. Stop the bleeding, you stop the death. It’s the same as what soldiers in Iraq do. Their buddy gets shot in the leg, they put a tourniquet above the bleeding point, and they live.”
It ain’t complicated.
“You just have to step up and act,” he says.
I suspect these sharks are being put in these places by the Wavepool Industry.
The shark will smell the blood anyway and will kill you
Down in the South they resurrected the Gator population to the point they can hunt them again. The larger ones being culled actually helps the overall population.
I know killing sharks is untrendy but are they not finding enough natural food that human attacks are increasing? Or is it not aggressively fishing or culling them allowing a population boom? Crowds have driven the surfers into wilder breaks and more encounters.
We fish for and eat the sharks’ food, maybe we need to fish and cull the sharks as well. We’ve already messed up the balance.
When I first paddled out in 68 no such thing as leashes, we used surgical tubing. Take one on your head the board would go nearly to the beach and recoil like a cruise missile. It cost about a buck and you could get half a dozen pieces to cut off blood loss
Surely the writer is not suggesting that if a tourniquet was available the surfer would have lived??
Legropes, t-shirts, towels, even hands to apply direct pressure… all were available on scene…
Sorry poor choice of words on my behalf… More just whining white noise about nothing of importance. Much like our “conversation” here and in hindsight not the thread to be doing it on.
Negs think he who should not be named istrolling again.
Nah, it’s no one of note.
We were a couple of km’s south when the alarms went off. Pretty scary. First time I have experienced it first hand. I watched about 60 people disappear in a minute. This was the scene a few minutes later. RIP to the poor fella and his family.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
How you feeling? Surfing round there tomoz?
Happy to be working from the home office tomorrow. Sharks scare the hell out of me.
Album Assyms, CI mid lengths and now tourniquets, this embedded marketing model is genius.
RIP to the Old boy and fair play to those who tried to help.
It kinda strips away some of the existential dread when you consider an exit via the food chain.
A compelling case for ol Doc Cohen’s tourneys, I think.
I don’t disagree. They are small and relatively cheap. The newer designs are very easy to use. Every vehicle/boat should have one.
Headed over to the Docs page now to check out the tourney/leash combo.
i got the leggie combo – not totally functional to surf with but worth just carrying to beach as backup – I use it to mark my spots!!
I’ve invented some dental floss for sharks too by the way
Made of old legropes
Green equality, brother.
You are actually a deadset proven fuckwit and you’re ruining this place. A guy died. Pull your head in.
Yeah it came to me when that shark tried to clean his teef on micks leggy.
Several seaworlds have shown interest.
Fingers crossed ay!!
you’re losing it.
Tony Abbott, recognized today for services to the indigenous,
Top bloke
You, not so much
hahaha. anyone who likes abbott is a straight up simpleton. enjoy your day on the end of the shovel.
Says the Andrew Bolt of the left
don’t get the reference….
Being a tradie in Sydney is like having a license to print money.
yeah…the rest of aus has em too.
Ease up tiger … bex has feelings too mate
Very few
Which helps hangin round here.
Nasty haters hiding behind a I’m such a cool surfer facade.
And she loves money, dicks and cunts.
Haha, you’re right.
Yeah na 👎🏿
Cmon bexy you better than that mate!!!!
Well we are starting with this but hope to have other animal friendly products online as soon as China starts smoking the peace pipe once again
Hey Bex,
comedy = tragedy + time.
You forgot the time bit.
and the comedy bit.
His mates are probably on here.
He seems like he liked a larf.
Has it been long enuff yet?
Anyway I’ve got one for ya
Did u hear about the 911 police heroes who ran toward the nightmare?
All cunts now.
That’s some aggressive passive aggressive. I like my cops too, just not the shit ones.
No, no no no
All cunts
I know quite a few great people who are cops.
Well good luck to them.
Don’t even get me started on those statues.
It’s probly the most highly evolved movement to date
I will give you the statue argument. Im sure David in Florence was some sort of cunt. Leave them up.
Better gear up come election time
Hey Ric
You seem like a reasonable Sorta guy
They say end systemic racism right
And theyre saying it too the state and fed govt, right?
So what do they actually want to happen, like actually what do they want govt to actually do?
Force people to think a certain way?
I’m serious, I don’t get what they can do.
It’s the same here
They say stop deaths in custody like they were all murdered, but they aren’t, they die of natural cause and suicide same as the other races in jail.
Its all a big fuken lie mate
If you watch the ABC right now they just repeat the mantra that the PM should do smthing but I swear mate, never once do they even suggest what the govt might actually do
Surely they should just tell the truth and say they want a violent revolution so we can get it over with
Help me out here buddy.
I totally agree with you on this Bex. Same goes for the war on terrorism and the war on drugs. People are gonna do those things. Having said that I think that offenders of brutality/terrorism should be punished severely. Drug offenders is another discussion.
Is that an opinion you’d openly share with your friends?
Of course. I’m somewhere in the middle of all this shit.
How the hell did slimebag abbot end up in this..a guy died while surfing is the story..stick to sky fox bud
The way beachgritsforsale is going I think it’s short odds to disappear before the WSL.
Even in death they can find something to sell a sucker/ surfer.
There is no better torniquet than a legrope tied tight.
U don’t need to buy anything. Put your coin towards a first responders course instead!
Longtoms thousand word blog on something Elo never said was a desperate cry for help.
The surf media is dying a slow and painful death right before our eyes.
What jobs will they end up getting?
Chas Will be ok. His a trophy husband.
Derek most likz start a kebab shop.( Popular in Bondi) put in all the hard work to get it off the ground. Sell it to his business partner cheap who in turn turns it into a billion dollar money maker ( history repeats) than ends up on a hot dog stand up the road on corner calling shit on the kebab store to any passer by ( history (repeats);;
Surfaids will work as security in a stripbar called ” little red bikini” that jensee manages.
Nick Carrol and longtom will finally hook up after decades of chasing each other around internet forums.
Share a night of homosexual passion than wake up in denial and return to being each other’s biggest love on surf blogs
Quite the crystal ball (pipe) ;; your gazing into mate (;;;;;)
Beachgritsforsale is on its last broken legs
Without the WSL it’s got Zero content and I’m told the WSL isn’t coming back any time soon.
Unless Chas wife chips in to pay for server space this site is another surfer business broke and out on its ass.
God help the pro surfers.
Wtf could they get a job doing?
Walt Disney already has twelve dwarfs
Oooeeee,
Harsh, but very fair.
Ashton this is unbecoming.
And yet, you’re still reading it…
Pulp fiction is very popular
Dude the overheads are practically zilch to run a web site and if you’re providing your own content then it’s not going to send you broke.
What a zinger!!
Great analysis!!!
I’m a medico (several years in ED) and have also helped a fella with an arterial bleeder in the water after being hit by a sting ray – a leg leash was less effective than local pressure. Wide band compression above the injury saves lives, the rubber wrap tourniquets are by far the best I’ve used in real life situations, even above clothes, and a leash has been the worst.
I use what I got.
I don’t actually go surfing too apply compression to that one in several hundred million chance’s I’m involved in a shark attack.
As your a medo I appreciate your opinion and understand your trying help a fellow medo sell second hand stuff.
That’s just how the health bunesnes rocks.
I guess you can refer me to your surfbuddy who’s a physiotherapist too for a reduclous cost?
If you actually do surf regularly your chances of getting hit at some time are far higher than one in sevral hundred million.
Doubt he selling shit. Try and stop your pulse in any region of either leg by using a leg rope; you might be surprised how much pressure is required to cut off a femoral artery. Your advice advice above could kill someone. Jackass.
You’re a bit grumpy today, Happy Feet. What’s up?
🤣
How have you been going mate?
Getting there! Done chemo (6 months of the shit – it’s ruined the nerves in my feet so not sure if I’ll get back to standup surfing, might become a kneeboarder!) now I need to rebuild the body ready for some big operations. I’m cleared to go surfing as soon as I’m strong enough to swim!!! So into the shallows I go for some body surfing – I can’t wait, hopefully next week!!!!!
Leg leash?
Very diplomatic!!
A legrope is a poor standin for a tourniquet but can work. I am a GWS attack survivor who’s life was saved by the application of 2 makeshift tourniquets. Initially an attempt at using the legrope failed to stop the bleeding. Some t shirts did the trick if I remember correctly
Leg ropes get super slippery around blood. Clothing, a belt or direct pressure is a better course of action.
I feel queasy even reading this.
At least there was little pain till I woke up in ICU 18 hrs later. Just adrenalin. Hope that helps easy the queasy.
Thanks Urchin, your opinion counts for a lot on this.
He survived a crazy attack!
Can’t even imagine the shock of looking down and seeing meat hanging off your leg.