“It’s a miracle” Western Australian surfer survives attack by suspected 10-foot Great White.

“I fell off the board, and as I was climbing back up on the board, the shark came flying in.”

It’s been a few months since a Great White had a swing at a surfer in those shark-plentiful waters of Western Australia, so long between drinks as they say, that you start to wonder, is there anything wrong? 

(The last Great White incident was in November when a diver down in Margaret River was stalked by a Great White thirty metres off the beach just eight days after a White dragged a wing-foiler into the depths. The foiler, Andy McDonald, “was suddenly sucked under the water, followed by fierce whipping and splashing on the surface.”)

Are these precious fish really as endangered as we’re led to believe? 

What’s it been, like, twelve weeks?

Anyway, proof West Oz’s ecosystems are still in robust health after a foil-boarder was hit by a suspected 10-foot Great White at Exmouth, the closest town to Gnaraloo and to fabulous Ningaloo Reef in WA’s north-west. 

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Dave Daniell was doin’ the fifteen-click run tween Graveyards and Hunters beaches, real popular with turtle-watchers if that tells y’something, when he was hit on Tuesday afternoon. 

“I fell off the board, and as I was climbing back up on the board, the shark came flying in,” Davey told local press. “I didn’t even see where the shark came from, but I just caught the nose as it bit down, and it pulled the whole back of the board.

“I managed to get my leg out of the way as it bit down… I clung to the board as it took a bite and then I managed to try get back up to my feet again.

“It all happened pretty quick, and as I was getting to my feet again, it nudged the actual foil, the mast itself, and it actually knocked me back in, on top of the shark.

“I wasn’t right on top, but it was just underneath the water, and it was very dirty water — I could only just see bits of the shark’s silhouette.

“I was praying because I thought it was all done. After the bump came along I managed to paddle the board up and get up on the foil, and I rode it all the way back to Hunters Beach from out the back.

“It was a bit of a miracle, getting the bump and getting back up again on the foil. I did that 9km without falling off again, I just didn’t want to do any more turning, or fall off from doing turns and like breaching your wings in that, because you kind of actually ride the lumps, surfing the lumps in the waves,.

“I just straight lined it and didn’t really try and do anything crazy.”

Regarding whether it was a White or whatever he said,

 “It could be just a large whaler or a possible Great White, but just the way that it was hidden, and attacked quite aggressively and hard, they’re thinking more towards a white shark.

“They usually come flying in to have a chomp, and that’s why lots of people die from them.”

Ain’t that the truth.