Shark derails KI man’s Backstairs Passage swim attempt, painfully close from the finish

A Kangaroo Island man’s dream to swim the Backstairs Passage has been derailed after a close encounter with a four-metre great white shark just 1.5km from the finish line.

• Shane Sanigar to swim unaided from mainland to Kangaroo Island

A Kangaroo Island man’s dream to swim the Backstairs Passage has been derailed after a close encounter with a four-metre great white shark just 1.5km from the finish line.

British-born long-distance swimmer Shane Sanigar, 36, left Cape Jervis at 7.30am this morning with support swimmer Jakob Zeman, 18, and a boat crew in an attempt to conquer the notorious stretch of water.

Sanigar was making great time and looked set for a five-hour crossing when he heard Zeman shouting.

“When you haven’t heard anything for hours except water rushing past your ears, you certainly hear it when someone shouts ‘shark!’,” he said.

“Jakob and I swim at each other’s hips to reduce drag. When I heard him shout I looked over to my left and there it was, just cruising past almost within touching distance.
“I’ve never seen the young fella move so fast - he was straight back in the boat.”

Kangaroo Island backstairs passage swim.

Sanigar said he swam towards the electronic shark shield being towed at the back of the vessel before he too was picked up.

The upbeat swimmer said he was trying to look on the bright side of the heartbreaking marathon effort.

“I mean, I got to see a great white up close and I’ve never seen one before now,” he said.

“Not too many people can say that.”

Before the shark scare Sanigar was on track to reach Snapper Point, a few kilometres east of the proposed landing point of Penneshaw, in around five hours.

The swim, which had been cancelled twice before due to inclement ocean conditions, was hastily called on at lunchtime on Monday after Sanigar and his support crew determined that conditions today (Tuesday) would be perfect for the 17.4km swim.

He said the more than $4000 he’d raised for the Australian Cancer Research Foundation would still be donated given how close he’d come to achieving his goal.

“There was no way that we wouldn’t have made it,” Sanigar said.

“The land was within spitting distance. It’s just one of those things. We’d said from the start that if a big shark came close then we would call it off.”

As for future attempts, Sanigar is unsure.

“Maybe we’ll attempt another swim in the future, we’ll just wait and see at this point.”