Perth teenager describes terrifying encounter with shark at popular surf break
A young man has described the terrifying moment he confronted the one thing all surfers dread at a Perth break.
A Perth teenager has narrowly avoided becoming the latest addition to the state’s growing number of shark attack victims, with the young man nearly knocked from his board at a popular break in Perth’s southern suburbs.
Bryce Hickman, 15, was surfing at Cosies surf break, Mandurah, about 7am on Wednesday when the fin of a 2m shark nearly knocked him from his surfboard.
Bryce quickly signalled to his younger brother to paddle to safety.
“I was waiting for another wave, and something just kind of nudged my surfboard,” he told Nine News.
“It was pretty scary.”
The shark swam off, leaving Bryce with a perilous 40m paddle to the safety of the shoreline.
“I didn’t want to hang around that long,” he said.
The break where Bryce was nudged was about 350m from the spot where, in 2016, 29-year-old Ben Gerring was fatally mauled by a suspected great white while surfing.
According to Shark Smart, all beaches within 1km of Falcon Bay, the area of the attack, were closed on Wednesday morning.
Last week, a tiger shark closed another popular Perth beach after it was captured lurking metres from the shoreline.
Drone footage captured the 2.5m shark at Mullaloo. Locals said it had been “hanging around” the beach for several days.
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