16 year old body boarder died yesterday as a result of a bull shark attack near a rivermouth at Ballina, NSW (approx 30k from Byron) Australia. His mate went in after the attack to bring him to shore alas it was too late to save him. First death in Nsw from a shark attack since 98 (i think). Just spent a week in the area and surfed for 5 days so im kinda glad to be hittin the waters of the emerald isle soon.

The poor lad! When I was in Oz last Dec 12 months, the day after I surfed Winki there was a shark attack, the first one there in 20+ years. You never really think about until after you've heard a story like this.
Word on the street is your having a crackin time out there - what were those Campbell Bros boards like, and how was dinner @ Wegners?

RIP. I will never forget coming out from surfing Muzenburg in SA and being told that it was the Shark breeding ground . The edjit who told me said in front of my wife and needless to say she was not too happy

that place is always jampacked so there will always be someone tastier on the menu.
the old irish offal is rotten,sharks much prefer the well done tanned foreign bodies instead.
the young lad who attempted to save his friend is going to recieve an award for bravery.he seen the shark pass him by but kept swimming to get his friend..now thats a true friend

sad story,

anyone know anything about sharks?
it always strikes me as weird that there is anything left to 'recover' after a shark attack.
I wonder do they not like the taste of land animals. more bones or something?

from my limited knowledge through the discovery channel what i can gather is a high percentage of encounters are what the shark would consider as a tester bite which we regard as an attack but it seems in a lot of the fatal cases it results in death through blood loss because of a severed major artery or a ripped of limb.rather than being completely ripped apart.. pure nasty shit.

Channel 4/ Shark attack

Scroll down to: Why do sharks attack?

In most cases where people get seriously injured it is usually a mistake by the shark who is after some tasty seal. Most people survive because the shark spits them out noticing its mistake (wetsuits just don't have that seal flavour). The only way for a shark, and most sharks are very inquisitive, to find out anything about an object, is to take it gently into its mouth. However, 'gently' for a great white is a different kind of gentleness alltogether. Although sharks have very good eyesight, just before they attack their prey they close their eyes to protect them which could explain why they only notice their mistake when it's too late for the poor guy whos leg is caught in between them razor sharp teeth. A few years ago there was a documentary about great whites in which scientists revealed that anything shaped like a seal was attacked. One demonstration included a dummy surfer stuck onto a board in the paddling position. From 20meters below it looked like the outline of a seal. the sharks attacked almost instantly and spat out big chunks of the board in repeated experiments.

Like the old saying: If you go swimming with sharks - don't look like prey!

Anyone see this on the Jonathan Ross show on Friday night. F*ckin gruesome. They were standing waist deep surrounded by bull sharks.

ya i saw it, pretty messy. reckon the sharks were only havin yer man on until a camera crew arrived, then bam, took half his calf off. that guy ross had on was nuts, that snake biting into his hand was crazy.

Im tellin ya lads its the way forward

I knew something like that was gonna happen, as soon as I saw that guy walk on with a cotton baggie I zapped channel. If I see a snake strike at something I'll be sure to have nightmares about it
Still got a fierce phobia/fear of the feckin' things.
The three times I have been to Indo I have never come across one thank god. One time we started trekking down the overgrown little path to Padang Padang and a huge rain shower came down on us completely flooding the little path, funk that.... the car is only 50mtrs away. Couldn't do it as soon as it got into my head.
Every time I surf over there my knuckles are white from keeping the fingers so tightly packed together.

NB.
If any of my so called friends plays a prank with me with a snake (pet or otherwise) I will kill you..... no, no.. I will kill you !

how cool is that hollow wave board!! and laugh as you may - what were you doing in 1988

Now thats just asking for trouble! .

I had a black mamba slither across a path in front of me in SA . I find looking at animals like that very surreal, your so used to seeing them on tv that you dont really appreciate that your seeing them for real.

Watched way too much Tarzan when I was young.

You dont have pictures do you

R.I.P. to the poor aul sponger.