“It was like there was an oil slick next to me, it was so big. It came up so slowly, and I literally shit myself and kicked it as hard as I could with my right leg."

A teenage surfer has been choppered to Gold Coast University hozzy after being bitten on the hand, arm and leg by a suspected Great White at Cabarita Beach, the one-time home of Chippa Wilson, a short-ish drive north of Byron Bay.

Nearby surfers helped the kid in and staunched the free-flowing claret with legrope tourniquets.

The attack, on a gloomy and wet mid-winter afternoon, was first reported by the on-the-spot Nicka35, a freelance reporter who covers on all things surf on the Gold Coast.

“People in the lineup did mention they saw a massive fin swimming and hanging out for quite a long time after the attack,” he posted.

 

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Back in January, Jed Smith, the darkly sexy half of the Ain’t That Swell team, listed dire warnings from Cabarita locals about increased Great White activity.

Cabarita: Big White at Caba yesterday. Went under the lads at South Beach. 2.5 m White right under the lads and then basked around the corner of the headland.

In 2020, and just after the Tweed Heads Pro at Cabarita, foilboarder and noted local surfer Christian Bungate was hit by a Great White at the site of last weekend’s Tweed Heads Pro, the animal, which was described as a “tank”, leaving behind a tooth in the foil’s carbon fibres.

That hit came two weeks after Nick Slater was killed by a Great White at the Superbank, forty-five minutes drive north, four months after Rob Pedretti was killed by a  Great White at Kingscliff, ten minutes drive north, one month after longboarder Chantelle Doyle was pulled out of a Great White’s mouth by her husband at Port Macquarie, a few hours south, and two months after teenager Mani Hart-Deville was killed by a Great White at Wooli, a couple of hours south. 

Bungate knew it was a close call. 

“It was like there was an oil slick next to me, it was so big. It came up so slowly, and I literally shit myself and kicked it as hard as I could with my right leg. I’m 100 per cent sure if I was on a normal surfboard it would’ve given the shark clear access to get straight back at me and it probably would’ve taken out my stomach. Instead it caught the wing of my foil board, hence why there’s a bloody tooth in it. I left my board and I crawled up the beach and I lay on my stomach bawling my eyes out.”

More details on the latest attack as they come.