Ex-Gold Coaster says he has secret to ending shark attacks
ONE former Gold Coaster says he has the perfect solution to avoiding shark attacks on local beaches and claims he will invest his life savings in an attempt to prove his theory.
Beaches & Fishing
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A FORMER Gold Coaster says he has the perfect solution to shark attacks on surfers and will invest his life savings in an attempt to prove his theory.
Neil Campbell is behind “Chillax Wax” – an organic surfboard wax made from “essential oils and spices” that he claims repel sharks.
The 53-year-old father-of-two grew up surfing the Gold Coast’s beaches before moving to England then Sydney and most recently Adelaide and says he experimented with concoctions as a child.
But it was not until last year, after an encounter with a shark in Sydney, that the former television cameraman decided to register The Common Sense Surf Company and start marketing his wax.
“The simplicity of the idea is to try to disguise that humans are a big piece of meat out there and the shark is a ... predator,” he said. “He smells 10,000 times better than humans can.
“When I was a child on the Gold Coast with my first board, I used to put Tiger Balm around the board and on myself and sometimes tea tree, when that came in, because I was convinced I wouldn’t smell like shark food. I didn’t tell too many people about that but it was a pretty good idea, had it lingered.”
Mr Campbell’s wax product joins a host of other alternative sharp repellent concepts.
They include the shark leash that is said to use “magnetic” technology to repel the beasts.
One long-held surfing myth says if you spray paint a board in a certain striped pattern you will look less appealing to sharks.
But in recent years, marketers of shark repellent devices have often boasted state-of-the-art technology.
Mr Campbell says he plans to work with Flinders University to test his theory and is crowd-funding to raise the $60,000 he says it will cost for the research.
“I got together a combination of essential oils that have, either by themselves or in combination, records of deterrent or repellent across a range of species,” he said.
“I’m actually trying to raise some money to pay for the testing because everybody’s first question is, ‘Do you have proof?’ ”
Sea World Director of Marine Sciences, Trevor Long, said he was not aware of any evidence that a surfboard wax could effectively repel sharks.
But he encouraged scientific testing that might prove Mr Campbell’s theory.