A BARWON Heads man is recovering at home after being attacked by a shark while surfing Boings on 13th Beach.
He has since had to undergo skin and muscle surgery on his hand but was otherwise unhurt.
Local Patrick Lockie, a respected Geelong eye surgeon who is also medical director at St John of God Hospital, was in the water with four other surfers on Friday morning at about 7.30am when he felt a bump on his left leg.
“It came towards me and presume it was trying to see what I was and I reached down and shoved it away,” Dr Lockie told the Voice.
“I reached down to push it away and it grabbed my hand. It did not really bite it. I think if it had wanted to bite it I would have lost my hand. I pulled my hand away.
“It came up to towards me and I tried to sort of kick it away. That’s when I fell into the water. It was only about 10 or 15 seconds but it felt a lot longer.
“I had to ask the other surfers to push my board back to me. I probably could have pulled it with the leash but I just didn’t have the presence of mind to do that at the time.
“I’m pretty certain the other surfers didn’t realise what had happened. They carried on surfing.”
Dr Lockie said that he was eventually able to paddle in and other locals on the beach were kind enough to drive him home before family took him to hospital.
“It was only skin and muscle damage and there was no damage to the tendons. It’s not painful,” he said.
Asked about what sort of shark it was Dr Lockie believes it may have been a tiger shark as he did get a good look at its head and has since looked up the description on the internet.
The size was also difficult to estimate.
“I think its head was two hand spans across,” he said. “I think it was a tiger shark, it was grey and its eyes were on the top of its head.
Will he be going back?
“The odd thing about it was there were some fishing boats close by. About 100 metres away, which is pretty close for 13th Beach. I can only assume a school of fish had come in close.
“I think I will go back in again, but only if there are no fishing boats nearby.”
The last publicised shark sighting at 13th Beach was a bronze whaler in December 2007.
Whalers are usually sighted close to the region’s shores two or three times each summer.
It’s believed the species, which on average grows to about 2.5m and weighs 300kg, swims into the shallows when the water is at its warmest to eat schooling fish such as salmon.
• Have you had any sharky experiences on our local breaks? Email news@oceangrovevoice.com
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