‘I thought it was all done’: Exmouth foil-boarder’s survival tale after terrifying run-in with 3m great white

A WA sparkie says it’s a “miracle” he’s alive after a shark attacked his foil board before he was thrown into the murky depths beside the ocean predator. Dave Daniell was doing a 15km run on his board between Exmouth beaches, known as Graveyards and Hunters, when he was attacked about 2km offshore on Tuesday about 5pm. He had been trying to get back on his board after falling off when breaching the tip of a wave. His mate, out foil-boarding, was too far downwind to see what happened next. “I fell off the board, and as I was climbing back up on the board, the shark came flying in,” Mr Daniell said. “I didn’t even see where the shark came from, but I just caught the nose as it bit down, and it pulled the whole back of the board. “It all happened pretty quick, and as I was getting to my feet again, it nudged the actual foil, the mast itself, and it actually knocked me back in, on top of the shark.” Mr Daniell said he was centimetres away from the shark, thought to be a great white, after being thrown into the “murky water”. “I wasn’t right on top, but it was just underneath the water, and it was very dirty water — I could only just see bits of the shark’s silhouette. “I was praying because I thought it was all done. After the bump came along I managed to paddle the board up and get up on the foil, and I rode it all the way back to Hunters Beach from out the back. “It was a bit of a miracle, getting the bump and getting back up again on the foil.” Mr Daniell said he “cruised” his way back to Hunters — about 9km away from from the scene of the shark attack — with a chunk of his board missing. “I did that 9km without falling off again, I just didn’t want to do any more turning, or fall off from doing turns and like breaching your wings in that, because you kind of actually ride the lumps, surfing the lumps in the waves,” he said. “I just straight lined it and didn’t really try and do anything crazy.” Mr Daniell’s friend reached Hunters Beach before him but was oblivious to the attack until he saw the bite mark. “The whole thing could have been a lot worse, even when it had the initial bite, as I was hopping back onto the board to start paddling it probably cut have but my leg off,” he said. “I had no tourniquets or anything out there. I have a watch that I can call on, and even if I’d let my mate know, he would have had to paddle all the way back upwind to where I was, and that wouldn’t have worked any way. “It would have been quite a quite a sticky situation.” Mr Daniell said DNA testing was being undertaken by DPIRD on his board to determine what species of shark was involved. He said scientists suspected it was a great white about 3m in size. “It could be just a large whaler or a possible great white, but just the way that it was hidden, and attacked quite aggressively and hard, they’re thinking more towards a white shark,” he said. “They usually come flying in to have a chomp, and that’s why lots of people die from them.” Mr Daniell said the attack didn’t stop him heading out for another foil the following day. “I’ve had lots of encounters and lots of attacks because I spent a lot of time in the water. I do like swimming with sharks,” he said. “Out here, there’s lots of time in the water, for the family, diving, surfing and foiling.” The encounter was reported about 8pm on Tuesday, with a 3m great white seen by a member of the public in the area a few hours before the attack.