Ballina teacher Lee Jonsson recounts battle to beat off great white shark
The survivor of a traumatic great white shark attack in Ballina described the ordeal as “full on”. Fighting back tears, local schoolteacher Lee Jonsson said he was paddling out at Shelly Beach when a 2.6m great white savaged his leg.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
THE survivor of a traumatic great white shark attack in Ballina described the ordeal as “full on”.
Fighting back tears, 43-year-old local schoolteacher Lee Jonsson said he was paddling out at Shelly Beach when the 2.6m great white savaged his leg.
MORE NEWS:
Luke Foley quits but will launch legal action
Man sent sex pics to ex’s former boyfriend
“Paddling back out, just about to sit in the spot where I thought there was going to be waves breaking,” the traumatised schoolteacher told Channel 9 on Thursday night.
Jonnson received a 20cm bite wound in his left calf while surfing at Shelly Beach and had to pause multiple times before continuing his efforts to get to the shore.
“Then wooshka. It just hit me from the side and I did like a 180.”
“Then I just looked around and saw it coming back at me, got my board and just started spearing it. That was pretty full on.”
“Then I caught a wave and got to the beach. I was so stoked to be on the beach,” the teary-eyed Jonsson said.
All beaches from South Ballina to Lennox Head were closed for 24 hours after the attack.
The attack has renewed calls for shark nets to be used on beaches around Ballina, after the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) ceased trialling shark nets in August.
There are currently no nets along beaches in the region.
A DPI spokeswoman did not comment on whether shark nets would be trialled again or installed permanently throughout the region.
EXCLUSIVE: The emotional interview with the surfer who fought off a great white shark. His incredible story TONIGHT at 6. #9News pic.twitter.com/MOXk9XOOIk
— Nine News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) November 8, 2018
From 2014 to 2016 there were 11 attacks on the NSW north coast.
Jonsson was attacked at the same beach where Japanese surfer Tadashi Nakahara was killed by a great white shark in 2015.
That same year, bodyboarder Mat Lee had both his legs mauled by a great white shark on Lighthouse Beach, next to Shelly Beach.
Pro-Palestine rally speaker’s visa under review after ‘celebration’ remark
There’s a massive police presence across Sydney as evening gatherings on the grim anniversary of Hamas attacks get under way. At Lakemba Mosque, hundreds have massed as a police chopper flies overhead.
‘So, so devastating’: Mainstay deli shuts after 70 years
The closure of an iconic southwest Sydney deli has prompted its legion of customers to express how the institution – treasured like the Opera House – meant more than prosciutto and panini.