Surfer and Shark Face Off

Thur 18 Feb 2010

East London,  South Africa: Under water after a shark hit him at Yellowsands on Tuesday, a teen surfer has described how he look straight into its face.

According to local newspaper The Daily Dispatch, the shark bit Michal du Plessis, 19, on the right leg, causing multiple lacerations.

Interviewed at his bed in Life St Dominic’s Hospital bed, Du Plessis said his first thought was to get his mates out of the water before it came back.

"We had been in the water for about an hour-and-a-half and I was paddling into a wave when something hit me on the side and knocked me off my (surf) board,” he said. Underwater, he turned to see what had knocked him off, and looked into the face of the shark. He screamed "shark, shark" in a bid to warn other surfers.

The Dispatch report said that although he had felt no pain, he had thought his leg might have been bitten off, but looked and "there it was".

“My friends helped me across the rocks, tied a board leash on my leg to stop the bleeding and rushed me to the Crossways Pharmacy,” he said, where he was stabilised and given an anti-shock injection.

Staff also cleaned his wound up and bandaged it before an Aldersons ambulance arrived to take him to hospital.

A friend, Oscar Miller, who was surfing with him, said he saw the shark coming - “I saw a fin moving, flapping, I saw it but it didn’t sink in".

“Next thing Michal was under water, then he came out shouting ‘shark shark’, so we all got onto our boards and rode the same wave out,” Miller said.

“I will probably go back to surfing once I am healed, but not at the same spot at Yellows.”