INJURED – 16 April 2011 – Snapper Point, Wellington, New Zealand – surfer bumped

Then the shark nudged me off my board and leapt on top of it and was thrashing about.

Laine Hobson had a close encounter with a shark while surfing Snapper Point, New Zealand

Laine Hobson had a tussle with a bronze whaler shark while surfing at Snapper Point, Wellington, New Zealand on Saturday 16 April 2011. He’d been in the water for about two hours when the shark nudged him. The incident left him shaken and he escaped with only a small wound to his left hand.

He told media that he knew straight away what had nudged him in the right thigh as he waited in the waves. He said the shark hung around long enough for him to make out that it was a bronze whaler.

“It wasn’t like Jaws coming at me viciously. It came up and nudged me on the thigh while I was sitting on my board. It gave me a shock but I pushed it away with my hand then it cruised around in front of me and gave me another nudge on the other leg.

“I was then trying to keep the board between me and the shark – I was probably screaming by then – there was another guy close to me. Then the shark nudged me off my board and leapt on top of it and was thrashing about.”

He said he wasn’t sure how his hand got injured, but he was left with a deep puncture wound in it, which bled profusely in the water.

As fate would have it – it was his first time back surfing in a year after breaking his leg badly while playing soccer with students.

“I don’t know if the shark followed me in. I was concentrating on the shore and going as fast as I could, while trying to keep my toes out of the water.”

Source:
Stuff.co.nz

PIC source:
MARTIN DE RUYTER/The Nelson Mail