Surfer at Ballina lucky to escape serious injury after shark attacks him and board
UPDATE: A SURFER bitten by a shark off Ballina says he’s never been so happy to be back on dry land after the attack.
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A SURFER bitten by a shark off Ballina says he’s never been so happy to be back on dry land after the attack.
Seneca Rus, 25, told media that he had hit his head in the struggle with the shark and just kept heading towards land.
The Brunswick Heads man said he had ‘never been so happy to back on land’.
He needed five stitches to a wound on his leg and was discharged from Ballina Hospital about 11am.
Earlier today a witness to the attack in the water at Sharpes Beach described seeing the victim launched into the air when the shark hit him
Surfboard shaper Scott Crump said he was among about 10 surfers at the break about 10.30am when the shark attacked.
NSW PREMIER BACKFLIPS ON SHARK NETS
“In my mind I was thinking: That guy just got nailed by a shark,” Mr Crump said.
“He was a tall skinny guy in his late 20s surfing with three friends. There was just one other guy between me and him when it happend ... I was maybe 50m away.
“He screamed loudly and I knew something was really wrong, then his friends were calling out to everyone to paddle in.”
All beaches in the Ballina Shire have been closed for 24 hours in the wake of the attack.
A Northern NSW Local Health District spokesperson said the surfer received a couple of stitches at the Ballina Hospital to a “very minor” wound to his lower right leg.
He was discharged about 1.30pm.
Mr Crump said the group asked for directions to the hospital before bundling their mate into a car and driving off.
“I saw the wound on his leg – it looked like he’d been stabbed, like a tooth had got him,” he said.
“The bite marks on his board looked like the shark’s jaw was about 30cm wide.”
Mr Crump said conditions at the time were perfect with sunny skies, clear water and no baitfish in the water, only a pod of dolphins. He said the surfers were riding a break on a sandbar in no more than 2m of water.
“It was a pretty spooky thing, man, it took his fins out and he got launched into the air,” he said.
Mr Crump, who shapes for Sollife surfboards at Lennox Head, splits his time between Australia and his native California.
He said he’d only been back on the NSW North Coast for three weeks and there had been two shark attacks at Ballina beaches.
Lifeguards patrolling #Ballina beaches following this morning's #shark #attack. No surfers out. @GCBulletin pic.twitter.com/A1vm38FrJ8
— Nic McElroy (@Nic_McElroy) October 12, 2016
Police say they are working with authorities to determine what species of shark bit the surfer.
Warning signs have been erected and lifeguards will remain on-scene to alert beachgoers. People are encouraged to avoid Sharpes Beach.
Lifeguards are using a jet ski from nearby Lennox Head to sweep of the area.
The species of the shark involved is not known and the matter has been referred to the NSW Department of Primary Industries for further investigation.
It comes after 17-year-old Cooper Allen was bitten on the leg by a great white shark at nearby Lighthouse Beach just three weeks ago.
Three people have been killed by sharks in northern NSW since 2008 and another eight have been injured in the past two years.