Teenager fights off shark with bodyboard
A teenager has told of how he fought off a shark that attacked him while he was bodyboarding on South Australia’s South Coast.
Jesse McKinnon, 15, was surfing with friends at Middleton Point about 5pm yesterday when he was bitten on the leg.
He said he was not even aware he had been bitten until he reached shore.
“I thought it was just my mate’s flipper hitting me in the leg so I turned around and saw that it was a black shadow so I hit it with my bodyboard,” he said.
“I couldn’t feel it at first, because I was in shock probably.
“Considering what could have happened, (I’m) pretty lucky.”
He paddled to shore and from there his mates helped him to the hospital.
His needed 27 stitches in his leg and was released from hospital last night.
Jesse is expected to make a full recovery, but will likely miss a few weeks of playing football.
“I was kind of shocked really, it was a bit weird because it doesn’t normally happen… it is not that often someone gets bitten by a shark,” Jesse said.
But the incident won’t stop him from returning to the waves.
“I’ll go back out when it’s healed, I like surfing, it probably won’t happen again,” he laughed.
Jesse said he was not familiar with sharks and could not say what type or size it was.
His father Robin said: “He’s not a cat but I think he’s only got seven lives left, he handled it pretty well, he hit the shark and got it off his leg and went in.”
It is the second shark attack in the area in the past fortnight.
Another body boarder was bitten by 1.5m bronze whaler at Parsons Beach last Monday.
