Aussie surfer airlifted to hospital after attack by 10-foot Great White; all surrounding beaches closed

Off-duty cops finds catastrophically injured surfer on beach as Port Macquarie confirms its reputation as a Great White hotspot.

To call the stretch of coast from Forster in the south to Byron Bay five hours north a Great White Superhighway is to employ the most fantastic powers of understatement. 

Pull up to any beach on the six-hundred clicks stretch, whether it’s Tuncurry, Crescent Head, Crowdy Head, Wooli, Port Macquarie, Coffs Harbour, Byron Bay, Ballina or Kingscliff, and you’ll be in waters bloodied by known killer Great White sharks. 

And, earlier today, while our own Surfads was tearing hell out of a little stretch of coast in Port Macquarie, a twenty-three-year-old surfer was being airlifted to hospital after a suspected Great White attac at nearby North Shore beach, a remote joint only accessible by ferry.

An off-duty cop found the catastrophically injured surfer and used a dog lead as a tourniquet on the man’s leg wound. 

“Same thing as always, too,” says Surfads. “Mid-morning, crystal clear water. Certainly hits close to home. Hope the young fella is ok.”

In 2020, surfer Chantelle Doyle was dragged out of a Great White’s mouth by her husband, who belted the fish until it let go. 

And, last year, Toby Begg was hit by a Great White at Lighthouse Beach in Port Macquarie. 

Beggs became one of the few human beings on earth who can say they survived multiple bites from a Great White shark.

He was dragged so far underwater it went dark and he thought he was going to drown. He was only able to swim for the surface after his foot ripped off at the ankle.

Back on the surface, the Great White hit him again, Toby Begg scrunching into a ball, which would save his life, but causing his leg to take most of the impact.

“Then he was on the surface punching it in the head for ages,” a BeachGrit source close to Beggs said. “Both his hands were balloons from hitting it. After 30 seconds it let go and he started paddling in. It’d severed the femoral artery in his leg and the only thing that saved him was there was a doctor and emergency room nurse walking on the beach (separately who didn’t know each other). His foot is gone and they’re saying his other leg might come off at the hip but they’re trying to save it. He’s a mad keen surfer and wants to get back in the water.”

After Mick Fanning called him in hospital and gave him a pep talk about how he’d bounce back Toby Begg reportedly said, ‘That was nice of him, but the shark snapped his fucking leg rope… I’ve lost my foot and maybe my leg, so I dunno what he was going on about.’”

More as it comes re: today’s hit.