Capsized pair eyeballed by shark
Submitted by Hobie-Wan on Thu, 2010-09-09 09:40
Capsized pair eyeballed by shark
NICK SAS, The West Australian September 9, 2010, 2:35 am
Damien Whitely shows the shark teeth marks on his kayak.
Supplied/The West Australian ©
A man knocked off his kayak with his father by a shark has revealed his terror at the thought of being breakfast.
Damien Whitely was on an early morning fishing trip with his father Reg, 60, 30km west of Albany, when the shark hit his kayak.
Mr Whitely, 33, said he caught a glimpse of the "massive" shark's head as the kayak flipped 1km off Cosy Corner Beach on Sunday.
He said underneath the kayak his father came face-to-face with a 3.5m to 4.5m great white.
"I could see it really well," he said. "It came from underneath us and chomped on the side of the kayak twice as we were flying through the air. It bit right where my dad was sitting."
Mr Whitely said he spent a terrifying second underwater before scrambling on top of the flipped kayak. But his father and the shark were nowhere to be seen.
"I was pretty worried at that stage," Mr Whitely Jr said. "I later found out Dad was literally face-to-face with the shark. When he eventually came to the surface, the look on his face said it all."
The men scrambled on to the kayak and waited for the next blow.
"I really thought it was coming back for dinner," Mr Whitely Sr said.
But the pair paddled towards Migo Island, about 300m away, as the damaged kayak started sinking.
"Our only option then was to swim to the island and that's when the dinghy came," Mr Whitely Sr said.
His son said a woman with binoculars was looking for whales at the isolated beach and spotted them.
"I'm not going back in there for a while," Mr Whitely Jr said.
"I bought the kayak to get close to nature when I'm fishing, but not that close."
Did anyone hear about this? Or know the guy? That would be terrifying.
Capsized pair eyeballed by shark
NICK SAS, The West Australian September 9, 2010, 2:35 am
Damien Whitely shows the shark teeth marks on his kayak.
Supplied/The West Australian ©
A man knocked off his kayak with his father by a shark has revealed his terror at the thought of being breakfast.
Damien Whitely was on an early morning fishing trip with his father Reg, 60, 30km west of Albany, when the shark hit his kayak.
Mr Whitely, 33, said he caught a glimpse of the "massive" shark's head as the kayak flipped 1km off Cosy Corner Beach on Sunday.
He said underneath the kayak his father came face-to-face with a 3.5m to 4.5m great white.
"I could see it really well," he said. "It came from underneath us and chomped on the side of the kayak twice as we were flying through the air. It bit right where my dad was sitting."
Mr Whitely said he spent a terrifying second underwater before scrambling on top of the flipped kayak. But his father and the shark were nowhere to be seen.
"I was pretty worried at that stage," Mr Whitely Jr said. "I later found out Dad was literally face-to-face with the shark. When he eventually came to the surface, the look on his face said it all."
The men scrambled on to the kayak and waited for the next blow.
"I really thought it was coming back for dinner," Mr Whitely Sr said.
But the pair paddled towards Migo Island, about 300m away, as the damaged kayak started sinking.
"Our only option then was to swim to the island and that's when the dinghy came," Mr Whitely Sr said.
His son said a woman with binoculars was looking for whales at the isolated beach and spotted them.
"I'm not going back in there for a while," Mr Whitely Jr said.
"I bought the kayak to get close to nature when I'm fishing, but not that close."
dodgy
Posts: 4562
Date Joined: 01/02/10
I had a school teacher named
I had a school teacher named Reg Whitely in Gero a while back. Sounds like the same bloke.
Does anyone know where the love of god goes, when the waves turn the minutes to hours?
Shorty
Posts: 1549
Date Joined: 10/05/08
Those Albany boys are soft,
Those Albany boys are soft, they should come out to Cockburn Sound and see what we have to put up with, a 4.5 meter white is a baby
So they wanted to get close to nature eh ?
Hobie-Wan
Posts: 119
Date Joined: 04/10/08
Shorty, I have been yakking
Shorty, I have been yakking in Cockburn sound only once, and saw a shark then :-) Do you guys see them often eh? Anyone ever get bumped or nosed?
Shorty
Posts: 1549
Date Joined: 10/05/08
But no its pretty quiet i
But no its pretty quiet i think Albee saw a big shark recently and theres sometimes some very "interesting "large objects just underneath the kayaks in the early hours of the morning on the fish finders, but hardly anybody has been going out this year.
Very few kayakers have been putting in the hours this year for snapper so theres no many yakkers out there,,
(Some of the regulars have shark shields )
Feral
Posts: 1508
Date Joined: 01/11/06
interesting that cozy corner
interesting that cozy corner aint anywhere near Albany ... but anyway .. cant trust a newspaper to get everything right.
maybe we need to breed sharks with arms and hands so they dont need to test bite everything that floats around. poor thing might have chipped a tooth :)
fishy fingers
Posts: 1719
Date Joined: 28/04/07
about 23k's
as the crow flies