Ballina teacher survives shark attack

His students call him “shark boy” but this Ballina teacher has learnt some serious lessons since tangling with a great white and living to tell the tale. Here is his story.

Shark attack survivor Lee Jonsson figures he is right to go back in the water having had his turn in the jaws of a great white.

“Lightning can’t strike twice,” Mr Jonsson said while reflecting three years on from a terrifying encounter at Ballina’s Shelly Beach.

The lifetime surfer was in the water with two friends early on Boxing Day in 2018.

“I caught a couple of waves and was paddling back in and had a chat with a couple of mates out there, they went in and I … half thought, is there a shark? I did think it,” he said.

Mr Jonsson watched his friends head up to the carpark.

“I stayed out there for a bit longer, caught another wave and then out of nowhere it hit me with a heap of power,” he said.

“I thought I actually got hit by a boat.”

He said the impact from the juvenile great white spun him around.

“I saw it coming back, its head was under the water, the tail was thrashing,” he said.

“So I was trying to hit it, trying to do something to get it away from me because I knew I’d been bitten on the leg and I didn’t know how bad it was.”

He luckily managed to catch a wave to shore.

“When I got to the beach I was pretty relieved,” he said.

“I looked down at the leg... there’s a bit of a wound.”

He warned a couple of surfers who were heading into the water.

“It was an open gash – it had a bit of a flap to it,” he said.

“I’m lucky it bit me on the calf, I reckon if it had gone up on the thigh it could have been a different story.”

Shark attack survivor Lee Jonsson said he was lucky he got bitten on the calf. Picture: Matt Roberts

Mr Jonsson was back in the water within three and a half weeks.

“I didn’t think anything at the time, and then you’re laying in the hospital and you think back minute by minute thinking about what happened.

“But there was a lot of attacks around at that time.”

It was the same beach where 41-year-old Tadashi Nakahara was fatally mauled in February 2015.

“Then there was another mate of mine, Matty Lee.

“Sam Morgan, and then another young bloke Cooper.

“You think about it when you’re out there, what would I do if I got bit … would I try and punch it, would I try and poke it in the eye you know, you always think about what would I do if that happened but it’s whatever you do at the time, it’s instinct.”

Looking forward

Mr Jonsson said he had rarely seen sharks despite having spent a lifetime in the water.

“You do think about it, but we always have a joke that I’ve been done now and lightning can’t strike twice in the same spot … you’d have to be pretty unlucky of it happening again.”

Shark attack survivor Lee Jonsson said says shark detection drones are definitely a good thing. Picture: Matt Roberts

He said he tended to head out in early in the mornings if the surf was good.

“I definitely think about it, more now in the last year or so but before that it didn’t really worry me,” he said.

“Now I go out there and think yeah it could happen again.

“You take each day as it comes.”

He said he supported the launch of drone monitoring on beaches.

Surf Life Saving NSW will have at least one unmanned aerial vehicle patrol location in every local government area along the coast during the summer season.

Surf Life Saving NSW spokeswoman Donna Wishart said the drone program had been expanded from 34 to 50 locations.

“Whites, tigers and bull sharks – if they’re in the vicinity of the swimmers the drone pilot will fly down to swimmers or surfers and alert them over their on-board PA,” she said.