"The last thing Tim said to me before he walked out that door for the last time was 'I love you two'. He kissed me and my tummy goodbye."
The surfer killed by a Great White shark on the NSW mid north coast yesterday, Father’s Day, has been revealed as Timothy Thompson, a newly married thirty one year old who was about to become a father for the first time.
Thompson was surfing Shelly Beach, at the northern end of Coffs Harbour’s Look At Me Headland there, when was hit by the White.
A witness described the scene,
“I was out in the surf and I heard screaming, I paddled further out to the water and saw a man without an arm, there was lots of blood. He was shouting ‘help me’ — people were trying to get him out to the shore.”
Surfers helped Thompson to the beach, used a makeshift tourniquet and performed CPR while they waited for a critical care doctor to be winched to the beach from a helicopter.
Head paramedic attending the scene Chris Wilson wept as he spoke to media.
“A male in his approximate late 20s, sustained significant injuries to his upper body, which has resulted in major bl — I can’t even say that… “
Thompson’s wife, Kate, wrote on Facebook.
Timothy Thompson, My Husband, My Best Friend and Baby Daddy has been taken from this world. To say I’m heart broken would be an understatement. I’m just waiting for someone to tell me this isn’t real.
All I know right now is that I have no choice but to keep going, because I have a little piece of you growing in me. My heart aches for our baby who will never get to meet you. You would of been the best daddy. I promise to tell our baby everyday how amazing their daddy was, how you never spoke a bad word about anybody, how kind and caring you were and most importantly how much you loved that little bubba growing in my tummy. The last thing Tim said to me before he walked out that door for the last time was “I love you two”. He kissed me and my tummy goodbye.
Never in a million years did I think I would be doing life without you. Life can be tragic and unfair, but I take some comfort knowing how loved Tim was by everyone, the time we did have together was amazing and full of adventures. I am incredibly blessed that we met and our love story gets to live on with our baby 💕
To the people who have reached out or even just had us in their thoughts I can’t thank you enough for your support.
To the crew of surfers down at the beach, thank you for being brave, getting him to shore and for doing whatever you could to try and save him. Thank you to the first responders, paramedics and lastly the westpac rescue helicopter thank you. You were Tim’s favourite charity. He would always donate whatever cash we had and say “I hope I never need you”. Well, turns out he did need you and you were there. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to express how grateful I am that you all tried your best for him.
I hope Timmy is up there doing what he loves surfing the best barrels and watching over us.
May he Rest In Peace.
Cuddle your loved ones that little bit tighter and tell them you love them. It’s what Timmy would tell us to do in times like these.
Thompson was the sixth surfer to be killed by a Great White shark since June, 2020, a little over a year.
Nothing to worry about, nothing to see, more likely to be killed by a bee, lightning, car etc.
Click here to throw a few shekels at the funeral costs and to help Katie with the baby.
RIP:
Timothy Thompson, 31, hit by Great White, killed, September 5, 2021,
Mark Sanguinetti, 59, hit by Great White, killed, Tuncurry, NSW, May 18, 2021.
Andrew Sharpe, 52, hit by a Great White at Kelpies in Esperance, October 9, 2020. Never seen again.
Nick Slater, 46, hit, killed by a Great White at the Supabank, Queensland, September 8, 2020.
Mani Hart-Deville, 15, hit, killed by a Great White, Wooli Beach, NSW, July 11, 2020.
Rob Pedretti, 60, hit, killed, by a Great white, Salt Beach, NSW, June 7, 2020.
“High-powered” and “surf executive” are mutually exclusive terms.
Derek, thank you for sharing the reality.
What real human wouldn’t want to prevent such a tragedy? Human’s are not beasts. If we can prevent or make a difference, why shouldn’t we? Don’t be complicit and watch your mate be slaughtered. Speak your mind.
I hope none of you fucking hippies have ever eaten fish and chips! Because that’s what your protecting.
I think the thing that makes it so sad is how totally relatable the situation is. It feels like it could be any of us who surf on the east coast of Australia.
Want what you might call a sobering statistic? Until 2008, in NSW there’d been one fatal shark attack on a surfer, Marty Ford, Tallows, 1982. One. Then, in real quick order, Pete Edmonds, Zac Young, Tadashi Nakahara, Rob Pedretti, Mani Hart-Deville, Mark Sanguinetti and, now, Tim Thompson. Add Nick Slater if you step over the Queensland border. And that don’t include swimmers or the raft of fatalities in WA. All killed by Great Whites. A story worthy of pursuing, yes?
Crazy. And the tree hugging continues. What will it take for the politicians to start doing something about it? A mass attack on 5 year olds?
We’re fringe extreme-sports people, and it’s our own fault if we’re bitten in half, apparently?? If a swimmer in the flags gets hit, that may move the needle. But we’re on our own, prevented by law from an obvious solution. Don’t hear a word about the millions of tonne of other types of fish that get eaten for enjoyment? But because these specific types of sharks are lethal, they must be reverted. It’s perverse.
bitten by shark while dodging whale, cruel nature…
Ah wow that’s just horrible.
What happens after its been reported, is the nothing to see part.
Exactly.
This is the one that got me, the one too many. The poor bloke, really feeling for the first responders, his Wife and a family that will never be. xx
Cull.
Yeah, man, hit me in the guts, too. In the meantime, the kangaroo is slaughtered en masse and ain’t a word spoken.
I shed a little tear.
The Go fundme is over the 120k mark.
He’ll be the poster boy no one needed.
Damn man that’s hard to read. Sound’s like a top guy.
These lame-ass shark attacks on our fellow bretheren are completely interrupting the cycle of surf satire…on our fellow bretheren. RIP all of them. Could’ve been any one of us and it still could.