"I could feel my life slipping away, and I just kept going deeper and deeper away, everything was leaving my body and I was going somewhere."
One of the newer trends online is drone photographers posting videos of Great Whites swimming perilously close to surfers but always veering away at the last second, proof many claim that the fish is benign and misunderstood.
(Read, Happy Great White “Stalks” Surfers at Dreamy Beachbreak here.)
Attacks, however, when they’re filmed are heavily pixelated or removed from the public eye, deemed too gruesome for the average eye. Think: Nick Slater at Greenmount, Kai Mckenzie at Port and, a couple of months back, mammy of one, Leah Stewart, who was swimming thirty yards off a Sydney beach when she was hit by a fifteen-foot Great White.
But what Leah Stewart does have is…words.
She is one of the few humans in Australia to’ve found ’emselves been torn apart by a Great White and lived, as they say, to tell the tale unlike, and this is the list since 2012, Peter Kurmann, Ben Linden, Chris Boyd, Sam Kellett, Jay Muscat, the unnamed Tasmanian diver, Ben Gerring, Doreen Collyer, Laeticia Brouwer, Andrew Sharpe, Paul Millachip, Mark Sanguinetti, Simon Nellist, Simon Baccanello, Tod Gendle, Khai Cowley, Lance Appleby, Steven Payne, Mercury Psillakis, Steven Mattaboni and Daniel Turpin.
Leah describes the event thus:
Realizing the shark was there
“I was finishing up my swim and I was very close to getting back to the sand, and then all of a sudden I heard a girl behind me go a scream, kind of like a shrill shriek, and I turned and there was a huge, huge fin behind her. It’s massive. And at first I thought, oh, it’s a dolphin. But I looked at the size of it and I realized that’s not a dolphin. And so we just start screaming at the top of our lungs, shark, shark, shark. I’ve never screamed that loud and that crazy in my life. Shark. And we could just watch the fin sort of going back and forth between the two girls behind us. And I’m just thinking, surely the lifeguards will hear us screaming, a jet ski is going to come out any second and scare it away. But a minute went by and it was still there and no one had come to save me, which I was like, surely this can’t happen. This isn’t real.”
Face to face
“I did about four strokes and something told me stop. I stopped and I could feel movement in the water and I turned around and it was right there. I saw it from two metres away, and it just was getting closer and closer and closer. Slowly. Its mouth was as big as my thigh. Its face was horrific. I’ll never forget its face. It was huge, and its teeth, and its mouth was massive, and its eyes, just its black little beady eyes. We were looking face to face, and it got to the point where it was about 30 centimetres from my face, and it started opening its mouth, and I’m like, it’s going to get my face. It’s going to bite my face. I’ve got to try and punch it. I’ve got to try and push it away or else it’s going to bite my head off. And in that moment I thought, well, which limb am I willing to lose? I’m right-handed. So I decided, let’s do a left hook.”
The bite
“So it’s about here, it’s opening its mouth, and I just throw my left arm and it grabs onto my forearm and rips away my skin, my muscle, everything. And I can just see my hand with the skin there, and then there’s a big gap between my forearm and the hand. There was a lot of thrashing. And that was around the time I actually saw the shark come out of the water, and that was when I saw the size of it. It wasn’t that it was really a long shark, I’ve seen bigger sharks which have definitely given me a fright, but what was so shocking about this one was just the size, the volume of it. I was on a board out of the water and when it surfaced it felt like I was looking up at its dorsal fin and its tail. And that was the moment I realized this thing’s actually just not going to be scared of me. After that I turned to the lifeguards, started doing signals to get the shark alarm to go off, to clear the water, and just make sure they knew what was happening, because I felt pretty helpless at that point. It’s a big cross, which is basically the one you use when everything’s going wrong, which I think was actually technically the wrong signal, but I think because of how dire the situation was, it was definitely effective in that moment. Absolutely, yeah, I was terrified. It was a pretty full-on situation.”
Dragged under
“I just looked down, my hand appeared to be floating and I was kind of in shock, and the next moment I feel it grab onto my left thigh and it rips me under water. I was above water at this point when it took my arm, so I had my breath, and then I just feel it pull me down, and as it’s pulling me down I take a huge breath. I don’t know how, but survival kicked in, and it was like it was in slow motion when it pulled me under and it was grabbing onto my leg. I had the thought, this is it, this is how I die. That’s this, right now. It was holding on to my leg and I thought, this is my moment. Then I just thought of August, and I thought, she’s not going to have a mom. She’s going to grow up without a mom. I couldn’t handle that. I didn’t want her not to have a mom. So I just thought, I’ve got to fight it. I’m going to do everything I can to be here.”
Fighting back
“I could feel it shaking me, and somehow I managed to twist my body around, and I knew I had to punch its snout as hard as I could. I twisted my body kind of awkwardly and I’m trying to see where its snout is. And I don’t know if I’m allowed to swear, but I just thought, you’re allowed to swear. In my head I was like, you ugly, you are not taking me away from my daughter. And I twisted myself around and I just started punching it over and over and over again. Just punch, punch, punch. It was like fighting a dinosaur. It was so big. It was like punching a brick wall. And I think I must have got a really good one in, and so they let me go and I just popped back up. And in the distance, about, I don’t know, 20 metres away, I can see Charlie. I can see Charlie.”
Trying to reach the board
“By that point, obviously my left arm has been taken, the muscles and everything ripped off. And as I was punching the shark, I’ve caused really severe tendon damage, ruptured my tendons, sliced open all of my right hand. So I’m trying to hold on to the board, but as I’m holding on to it, my hand just keeps slipping. It’s not working. My hand thinking, why can’t I hold on to this board? It just keeps slipping off, slipping off. Not something else. No, please. Just get me out of here. Like, please.”
Slipping away
“I could feel my life slipping away, and I just kept going deeper and deeper away, and it just felt like everything was leaving my body and I was going somewhere. And I just, as I was about to reach the end of the tunnel, I just got a vision of August. And I just knew I couldn’t leave her. I couldn’t leave her. So I just willed myself, and I said, I can’t die right now. I can’t. I know it sounds strange, but I sort of pulled myself back, and I opened my eyes and I could see everyone around me at that point.”
Who among us has been close to this sorta action?
And, how do y’think you’ll react if, when, the day comes?
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Screaming and thrashing around was a bad start .
I’ll take that onboard
She power mum…underwater she calls the beast an ugly focker and slams her fist to nose…she credits Mick Fanning for showing so many🤨
Tower 9 it is.
I got the shivers looking at the fiberglas one hanging from the ceiling of a museum in Auckland. The volume of them, seen in 3d, is unreal.
Hey CB, few peeps on here been asking about you wanting to know if you’re all good.
Sorry, just busy! All fine!
Thanks for asking. Love y’all.
Are you the real CB or has someone catfished all your accounts and stolen your identity?
Seems suss
I’ll post the film later.
yours doesn’t ,LOL!
Witnessed two non fatal attacks!
Yeah, understandably cunts don’t believe me – I get it.
J’Bay 1998: FUCKIN’ TERRIFYING!!!
More recently, watnessed mate hit by a ‘small bull’ (DPI confirmed 1.6 – 1.8m), take a bite, out of his beautiful Hot Buttered ‘drifta’ .
(Note: the online hate my mate’s girlfriend endured, simply reporting this incident, was both cowardly and astonishing).
Couldn’t imagine the horror this brave lady, witnesses, and first responders, encountered.
Faaaarkin hell I’m not going for a surf with you then cunt. Bad luck comes in threes and all that jazz
Ha!
Suspect we have unknowingly shared a lineup, or four, over the years… YEW!
Very probably mate. Hope that wasn’t you I burned when I was having a shit one hahaha
An old mate was at Cactus yeeeears ago and saw the right pumping with a solo kneelo out, so paddled over.
After catching a few he noticed a group of locals up on the cliff watching, then came in for a break and asked them why they weren’t surfing.
To which they said, “not while fuckin’ sharkbait’s out there, we were just checkin’ to see what would happen to ya”.
It was soon explained that the kneelo was nicknamed ‘sharkbait’ as he’d been nibbled on twice over the years and no one ever surfed with him anymore.
Fast forward to the 24th of September 2000, and a younger mate of ours was there on his honeymoon on the way out west.
First one in the water for a dawny while his new wife slept in the caravan.
Witnesses on the cliff said the thing that took him was as fat as a VW Combi with a massive head and looong tail attached.
It threw him in the air and chomped him in half with the first hit.
Then ate both halves and disappeared.
His wife got up for breakfast, and was never the same again.
A piece of his board was found washed up around the corner the next day.
And that day another bloke was killed 100km down the coast…
Fucking hell Beefy I may never enter the water again after reading that bruz haha
fuck, I remember that.
Aussie of the year.
Really ?
Oh well
No future for you in the shark hunting game then, if it wasn’t the front of your trousers getting tight.
Sorry, I take that back.
The tightening of your chest and throat could mean you’re actually gay for the sharks.
Will have to ask Dezz n Sasha about it…
Tell SC to get off your chest.
One of the toughest humans god ever poured guts into right there. Same with the incredible Kai Mackensie, made of very, very tough stuff these two
You should borrow some of that hide cuz yours is softer than a jellyfish.
Faaaaaaark me mate, you wanted to see the shot so Crayfish showed ya. Rather than just saying cheers mate you somehow turn it into some sort of gay carry on that no cunt wants to hear about, what are ya a 12 yea old girl? This is a really touching article about a very fucking brave lady and you’re still harping on about it. Move on man
I didn’t say anything about your photo and I did give you a nod already. Does this remind you of anything?
For real?
If you need a good cry, watch the full interview. She’s a badass and so very lucky to have had quick response from highly qualified professionals on the beach that day and later in the hospital. Holy cow.
I just got a bit of a tear in my eye watching the last episode of HBO’s The Dark Wizard.
A 4-part series about a legendary mountain climber that lived in Yosemite. I had seen the first two episodes a couple of months ago and just caught the last episode on my semi-legal, Amazon fire stick app.
Definitely worth a watch to anyone who likes those climbing documentaries as much as I do. A very interesting life.
Good on her for telling her experience so well, a shame if people skim over it and don’t take full note of every word of what happened to her.
Took a lot of effort, and deserves to be fully read, and listened to.
Personally I think everyone should also watch footage of attacks where it exists.
Not for voyeurism, but for education, to show what actually happens, and to shock everyone with the seriousness of the situation.
Especially politicians and decision makers…
Time for a cull (with a decent bounty) on all shark breeds with a history of killing or maiming beachgoers, like Bulls, Tigers and Whites.
What an absolute badass! Forgive me for not reading her entire description of the attack
where’s Jonah? last heard he was in the belly of the beast~
I had an experience that was no where near this woman’s experience…. except
Acceptance. I was not in control. There was no reason to hurry my swim, I could not out swim the fish. No reason to yell. Just breathe and take mellow strokes. I was not in control.
Had plans to meet a friend for lunch and wondered what she would think when I don’t show up. Not a soul on the beach, will they find my car and call my wife? Will my friend still go to Mex next week without me? Really common thoughts for the situation.
I could not read the woman’s statement above. I tried. Remember being warm when I lost my board that day and becoming freezing cold by the time I reached the inside bank and shore. Got cold reading this.
A week later, my friend and I drank beers watching TV news from our hotel room and it was announced that the two Uni kids had been eaten at the same beach. I got cold again.
When a great white with a back as wide as a sheet of plywood and a 3-ft fin was smoking straight at me warp speed and dove under 20 yd away, I had the same feeling: okay, I guess this is what’s happening. Not necessarily inevitability, but witnessing overwhelming speed size and power heading straight for me I knew in my bones I was completely helpless, and so freaking out wasn’t going to help. This wasn’t a conscious calculation, just reality being real.
There’s almost no great white sharks in western Washington State, too cold except for in early fall when it’s barely warm enough for the absolute biggest whites to just be able to regulate their body temperature enough to eat the sea lions that follow our salmon runs. Three or four have been caught over the past 50 years. Look at the size of the man at Westport harbor to get an idea of the size of the sharks that do show up here on occasion – that’s what was coming at me.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c…
“There’s almost no great white sharks in western Washington State”.
Maybe they’re all in the eastern part…
One can only hope 🙂
Landshark
None in Lake “America” either
thought you were in SD
Grew up there, WA State for a long time now though
https://uploads.disquscdn.c… Come to Oz ……………..
That’s not a shark. Now this is a shark
You’re right, that is nowhere near her experience Ke11y.
??
!!
Why are you on here? I came in to check emails and wait for replies. Every spot has been going off and you’re on the computer? This wind is laying down, put the mouse away and get in the car
I have a job that’s not all roses and carnations so I have to work still. Hobos had some this weekend though.
Yes indeed, your sentence (and experience) up to the “dot dot dot dot” is true and understandable, similar for all of us.
But then started slipping under, at the space in-between the last “dot” and the first ‘e’ of except.
Rapidly plummeting into the depths of completely unrelated from the capital A of acceptance onward.
Once the wondering about a random lady friend (always before the wife) came in it was hitting the Monterey Canyon floor and heading west across the Pacific to the Mariana Trench.
Admittedly it’s surprising that the fit of the random lady friends Lululemon gear wasn’t described, so I guess that brings some positive buoyancy which would eventually have you bobbing at the surface once more.
P.S.
Maybe see a Dr. as you may have circulation problems if you’re having issues with body temperature regulation.
All this getting hot and cold and hot and cold doesn’t sound good, ‘man’opause perhaps..
Random Lady friend and I had a date for lunch and to view her new venue that she was hoping to open soon with my help.
Fuck off
…”a date for lunch and to view her..that she was hoping to open..with my help”.
And just like that, the Hippy we all know (and love) is back.
Now if only we had a detailed description of any other random Lululemon wearing women, whether waitresses, barmaids or taco dealers, you came across during that horrific week we’d know you were back to full health…
Oh man, why are you guys so salty?
Waves have been best in years, why is Barrelled in feuds?
Back to work
Come on maaate
This isn’t salt, it’s sugar, with a squeeze of lemon, ginger and a dash of chili for taste.
At least on my behalf.
After 85,000 comments surely you’ve had worse than a gentle ribbing about your legendary ‘dating’ life and well-known self declared penchant for yoga mums, shopgirls and random Lululemon wearers in the street.
P.S.
Shit, now I’ve gone and wasted 2 more comments replying, aahhhh.
(And I’m trying to space them out more as am about to hit 7,500 comments and don’t want to challenge your impressive record…)
Place is getting soft and strange all at once.
Like those squishy toys….humans fucked in the head
I’m all ears about the yoga babes Hip.
I’m in no fueds. Just Strayan acting like a sooky Cunt.
Will say it again, fuck the fucking shark humper apologists. Yes, the ocean is their habitat, but human beings have been going in the ocean since deep prehistory. It’s our habitat too.
If tigers or grizzly bears were routinely brutally injuring and killing our mothers in the park and our children outside their schools and our fathers at the campground, there would be no question that they would be summarily eliminated. No one would say just don’t go to the park or the playground; no one would say its their habitat and your life matters less than that.
so yeah, the pro-shark virtue signaling horde of remorseless morons can fuck themselves sideways.
Thing is, you summarily eliminate white sharks and you have no idea what the ecological ramifications are. Prob wouldn’t matter a ton on the West Coast of the US, but in Australia, maybe bulls move in and they seem to be even worse. The world’s a complicated place, we barely understand most of it.
Sure, but I think that short of eliminating altogether, more near shore fishing and calling is going to flex big sharks out of habitat where we don’t want them. At least to some degree. Maybe the genie can’t be put back in the bottle, but maybe it can go back to like it was before things got really out of control
I’ve just seen little evidence that reshaping the environment to our liking doesn’t end up producing bigger problems we hadn’t anticipated. But I don’t wanna get eaten either.
All humans (and other species) have ever done is reshape the environment to our liking.
Thats the primary force and outcome of evolution via natural selection .
There is no harmonious state of nature and never has been.
Just species trying to survive according to their capacities.
We have the capacity to largely avoid, or minimise predation.
The larger bulls need to be seriously culled as well.
Their numbers will bounce right back to current levels within a few years, in a couple decades when humans are in WW3 and no longer surfing/swimming.
Other sharks that are not Bull/Tiger/White will replace them in the mean time.
It’s always surprising to me people have so much clarity of thought during a life and death trauma like that. I can’t even imagine.
hello, nightmares
It’s a therapists dream come true.
“tell me about your shark”
therapist: “Shake it off!”