"Unlikely to be any miraculous recovery."
The popular Sunshine Coast surfer Joe Hoffman, who was attacked by a ten-foot Great White at Crescent Head on July 5, ain’t one to complain.
In between thirty hours of surgeries, Joe told his ol boy Bill that he was “glad it was me and not one of the young kids out there.”
Surgeons expect Joe, who is twenty-five and whose arm was mauled from the wrist to his bicep, will, at best, only regain a limited use of his right arm, if at all.
“Everything was destroyed,” Bill told the Murdoch press in his only interview. “His body as he knew it won’t return.”
Leg nerves have been transplanted to his arm, a vein taken from a foot, a piece of artery replaced.
“Rehab is going to be lengthy and it’s going to ask a lot of questions of him. He’s got a big challenge in front of him. They’ve borrowed bits from all over his body (to repair his arm),” said Bill, adding his kid isn’t one for killing Whites,
“There is absolutely no shark hate in our family, Joe accepts that surfers enter their environment. We’re always aware of their presence and the risk of injury is slight. He was brought up in the surf 400m from our family home. People who don’t want to surf with sharks should go to a wave pool.”
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Can you set up a go fund me 30 years after the attack?
excuse me, incident
Lost a good mate, and great surfer/waterman to another horror July shark attack in West Oz 2014. RIP Brad Smith, you certainly raised the bar at Asu champ 🙏
The “go to wave pool” comment is bullshit – Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 needs to be reviewed
Good luck to him and well done to the community for getting behind him with costs etc. Love the shade Billy (unintentionally?) threw on Wave pools lol!
Think he was shading DR…
In other Australian surf news…
…Beer O’clock|A Short Film About Surfing & Beer…
…has been released on YouTube by Australian surfer/shaper/craftsman Stu Campbell.
(I tried to do the link but couldn’t work out how)
Watch its entire 5mins now on YouTube.
It’s top quality, just likes Stu’s board building (and now movie narration) skills…
Thats awesome. I thought it was going to be a digital edits like this one.
https://www.youtube.com/wat…
Groovier than Fisher’s “Wanking and Surfing”
Stu was a cheeky Grom from my home beach, Bronte, in Sydney. His nickname was “Chunky” after a Campbells soup variety! I haven’t seen him for yonks, but he was an excellent surfer & an excellent guy!
Easy to see how we forgave the germs and the japs so quickly.
If only other types could do the same
Shit, what they can do on an operating table these days – all the best Champ!
Fuck what a champ