SCARED – 6 March 2012 (report) – Red Sea – kite boarder fends off sharks

UPDATE

By Polish Press Agency. PAP.

5 March 2012

An interview with Jan Lisewski

Jan Lisewski with Saudi coast guard

You’ve left El Gouna on Friday morning with intention of covering a distance of 200 km and reaching Duba in Saudi Arabia. What had happened, that you send a SOS signal on 5 pm?
I’ve waited for a week in El Gouna near Hurghada for good conditions, for good wind. Such a forecast, for all day, was for 2nd of March. I started in wind of 4 in Bft scale, which has later reach 5 Bft. When there was around 60 km till destination, the wind has suddenly died, just like fire blown from a match. There was no wind, the kite collapsed. After 1,5 hours nothing indicated that the wind will come back. Waves have, however, started to build up. Sun was setting down, so I called SOS. After about 3 hours I called it again.

How did you spend the first night?
In comparison to the second night, this one was peaceful, even though I didn’t think I would it in extreme conditions on the Red Sea. I’ve run out of beverage and I’ve had two liters of energy drink and water with glucose. I’ve earlier eaten two high caloric snack bars, so I had to keep a fast. I’ve drained a little air from tubes and made a raft with my board. During the night, the wind was back. I’ve drifted in the coast direction, but when the wind direction shifter, I was pushed back to the sea. It was like this all over again – one step forward, two steps back. In one moment I was about 30-40 km from shore. When I’ve seen fisherman’s boats I’ve fired a rocket, but they must’ve not seen it, as they didn’t react.

Then the second night…
At first I’ll say that I owe surviving it to my brother Piotr, who forced me to take a knife. Maybe he had some kind of premonition. I was pushed by the wind to the worst place, a reef, where sharks have been preying. They were about 2,5 to 6 meters. They attacked me through my kite, which must’ve also attracted them because of its colour. I stabbed them in the eyes, nose and gills. The fight, which I’ve miraculously survived, took whole night. By the morning, they were gone. There were eleven of them. On Sunday another species have been looking for me. These sharks have circled near my already frayed raft, but they didn’t attack.

Did you have any hope after the second night, that you’ll be found before getting eaten by sharks?
Of course, because hope dies last. It built up in me on Saturday afternoon, when a helicopter flew above me. I was sure that the crew had seen me, because they were waving. I responded, but that was all of our contact. It was similar with a boat. I thought, that it would nearly ram me. Not even close though. Maybe when the sun was shining, in big waves, I couldn’t be seen. In the end I’ve been collected by a military boat, with I think 6 people crew.

You are after tests in hospital in Duba. What are the results?
To doctors’ surprise very good and there has been a lot of tests. My arrival has caused a lot of confusion, but personnel is great. I would like to thank our consul Igor Kaczmarczyk, who has organized everything here, from the morning when he had arrived, and all the people who have been involved in the rescue action. I’ve already drunk several liters of water and juice for their health.

http://kitemovement.com

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In a brief report by Reuters and in The Guardian (6 March 2012), Polish kiteboarder – Jan Lisewski – was attempting to kiteboard across the Red Sea from El Gouna in Egypt to Duba in Saudi Arabia (not clear when).

He told Polish state news agency PAP that the wind dropped forcing him to stop as nightfall approached. He set off an SOS beacon, but it took 40 hours for the Saudi Coast guard to find him.

He said he fought off attacking sharks with a knife.

“I was stabbing them in the eyes, the nose and gills,” he said.

This is all that is reported in the English media. If anyone has more info on this – please comment.

Sources:

The Guardian

Reuters

FATAL – 5 December 2010 – Sharm El Sheik, Egypt – snorkeler attacked

A 70-year-old German woman was killed by a shark – suspected to be an Oceanic White Tip – while snorkeling off Sharm El Sheik, the famous Red Sea diving destination on Egypt’s Sinai coast. The incident happened on 5 December 2010 and follows a spate of shark attacks in the same place the week earlier.

A mako shark caught in Sharm El Sheik, Egypt, following a spate of shark attacks there.

The shark reportedly tore a piece out of her thigh and severed her forearm.

Significantly, this fatal attack follows a spate of shark attacks in Sharm El Sheik the week before in which three Russians and a Ukrainian suffered severe injuries.

The attacks sent the resort area, frequented by thousands of diving enthusiasts, into a chaotic frenzy as the 30 miles of beaches were closed and a shark hunt initiated. Speculation was rife that is was a single shark responsible for the attacks. Rumours were flying that various tour operators were chumming the water to attract sharks so tourists could photograph them.

Experts were astounded, saying it is extremely rare for an Oceanic White Tip to come this close to shore and to attack swimmers and snorkelers in this way.

An Oceanic White Tip seen minutes before the first attacks on two of the Russians has been identified as the shark photographed when the German woman was attacked five days later, according to media reports.

Two of the Russians were attacked within minutes of each other in the afternoon of 30 November. The man’s legs were torn by the shark and the woman sustained injuries to her legs and back and had to be resuscitated after rescue.

The following day – 1  December – a woman snorkeler was attacked by a shark at a reef north of the city’s Na’ama Bay. Her arms were bitten off, and she was flown to Cairo for emergency treatment.

And then on 5 December came the fatal attack on the elderly German snorkeler.

Sources:
MSNBC
The Guardian