British surfer fends off shark in Australia with his surfboard
A British surfer has described using his board to fend off a six-foot shark in Australia and then repeatedly smashing the creature's face before paddling ashore.
Richard Wands pictured on Trigg Beach, Western Australia, after encounter with tiger shark Photo: CASCADE NEWS
By Jonathan Pearlman in Sydney
1:18PM GMT 21 Dec 2012
Richard Wands, 33, an engineer from Scotland, found himself in a feeding frenzy involving up to sixteen tiger sharks at South Trigg beach in Western Australia.
He was about 100 feet offshore when one of the sharks, which had been feasting on a dolphin carcase, started to circle his board and began to attack.
"It was a heart-stopping moment and was the meanest, nastiest, most frightening thing ever," he said.
"I was basically trying to follow it as it circled me, then it came round and it rammed me." Mr Wands used his board to smash the shark's face but it swam away and then returned.
"It was going to happen, this was a final attack," he said. "I had to do something or I was going to lose an arm or a leg I saw it turn and it came straight for me, in a dead straight line, undeviating, and it genuinely felt like a true final approach I could virtually touch this thing – [it] was literally on me. I was trying to run to get it, to let it know I wasn't food. I saw its whole face right in front of me."
Mr Wands hit the shark again and then yelled for help and desperately paddled ashore.
"I speared the board into the water to try and deter it," he said.
"That seemed to work but it came back again so I used the board again and it moved away. I genuinely think this thing was looking for a limb, if not more than that. If it had struck blood my gut feeling is that might have encouraged the other sharks to get involved as well, and then there might be a different story today."
Mr Wands, who moved to Australia eight months ago to work for a Norwegian oil company, grew up in Perth in Scotland and took up surfing as a child during summer holidays with his family in Caithness.
Authorities in Western Australia have been grappling with a recent increase in shark attacks, which have led to five deaths in the past year.
Authorities plan to start catching and killing dangerous sharks which swim close to shore and will trial shark repellent devices and tagging equipment.
Tiger sharks are considered the second most dangerous shark to humans after the great white.
The beach has been closed indefinitely while the Department of Fisheries monitors for any further threats.
