Posted on 05/26/2005 6:16:17 PM PDT by wagglebee
A BRITISH surfer who fought off a shark attack yesterday on South Africa’s coast is recovering with more than one hundred stitches to wounds on his hips, buttocks and arms.
Jay Catherall, 32, a wildlife photographer from Worcester, was knocked from his board at Wackey Point, an outstanding but remote surfing spot near the mouth of the Kei River, north of East London, a city on the Indian Ocean coast.
“Jay had just completed a ride on a huge barrel wave and was beginning to paddle in when I saw him give the shark warning symbol, an upturned hand to the forehead,” his girlfriend, Nicola Garner, also a wildlife photographer from Worcester, said. The couple were at the end of an eight-month trip through Africa.
“Other surfers said he was knocked off his board and taken down under the water, but Jay can’t remember that,” she told The Times.
“He just remembers getting back on his board and giving the shark symbol. He assumes the adrenalin was flowing because he had been terribly bitten. He remembers paddling towards a rock around which the water was swirling when something seemed to pull him back. Then there was a second pull, this time much harder.
“Then it all happened in a swirl. He thinks that, as he turned, the shark bit into his right arm and he reacted by punching the shark and getting back on his board. If it had attacked a third time, Jay probably wouldn’t have made it.”
He was calm, she said, but in a mess by the time he reached the beach. “He was bleeding severely, and the district surgeon said later that the shark had just missed severing the main artery at the back of one of Jay’s legs. On the beach we just saw lots of raw flesh. His wet suit seemed to be holding his buttocks together but fortunately no large chunks of flesh had been torn off.
“Jay was on a kind of high, and it was only after his sister in Worcester phoned in tears that the reality began to sink in. But already he just wants to get back in the water.”
He refused to go to hospital and had returned to his small hotel, but was unable to speak because the district surgeon had knocked him out with morphine, she said. “His wounds are so bad that he can’t lie on his back. So we’ve arranged him on his front with cushions over the back of an armchair. He’s dead to the world, so I assume he’s comfortable.”
He was surfing as the annual sardine run began. “There were dolphins everywhere and thousands of birds diving for fish,” she said.
Every year at this time billions of sardines migrate 1,000 miles eastwards from the Southern Cape to the warmer waters of Zululand, pursued by other species of fish, sharks, dolphins, southern fur seals and sea birds in an extended feeding chain
Ouch! Stiff upper lip and all that. The Brits were never whiners. At least the lad is alive...
At least the shark bit the back of him and not.....
man , I tell ya....
Some surfers are just way to fanatical about their urge to surf. Sometimes ,like this , they aren't very mindful of conditions in nature and they pay with their lives.
Plus it gives sharks a taste for the human .....
How the heck is it that people nailed for doing stupid things never seem to have jobs? Can anybody here afford to take 8 months off to pursue whatever?
That doesn't include you retirees who for some reason I can't picture you living on a beach and surfing all day long............
The moral to this story is one the seven RINO dwarfs should learn: You can even defeat a shark on its own turf if you are willing to fight.
surfing is a way of life... i know it is for me, but i still would be remiss in getting out into the water after something like that...
i don't know what it is with some surfers though... aquatic monkey theory...?
It says that he is a wildlife photographer, I would think that a lot of his work is in places such as sub-Saharan Africa.
Surfers in FL look forward to hurricanes. I rest my case.
Poor headline. One could think the surfer was in the feeding frenzy.
How about "Frenzied sharks attack heady British surfer"? Six words instead of eight and conveys the same thought.
Too cheeky for the Brits. ;P
FReeeePeee!
"Other surfers said he was knocked off his board and taken down under the water, but Jay can’t remember that"
Probably so terrifying his mind blocked it out, they don't mention what shark it is but based on the location it's not too hard to guess.
I check the local surf cams almost every afternoon and morning. I figure a Great White getting me off the Delaware coast is less likely than getting hit by lightening. Still....the thought sometimes crosses my mind while I'm in the water. Usually when I see Dolphins nearby.
Admin Mods nearly killed me once. Took a month before I surfed here again.
Only a hundred stiches? The guy is extremely lucky to survive.
"extended feeding chain" indeed! He became part of it. I don't know, it just seems to me that if there are millions of sardines, there just might be sharks.
That had to hurt.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.