Riss Lasair filmed herself nearly getting mauled by a shark. Photos: YouTube//Screenshot
When Australian surfer Riss Lasair paddled out at Inyadda Beach, a few hours south of Sydney, it was just like any other day. But when she paddled in, her whole life had changed. A shark hit her twice, thankfully not biting her, while her camera rolled from the beach.
Remember when Mick Fanning was attacked by a shark during a live broadcast of the 2015 J-Bay Open? Mick sure does. There’s a good chance it was the most-viewed part of any event in surfing’s history, simply because while the vast majority of the world might not care about surfing, they do care about blood in the water. Lasair’s experience, while not broadcast live to the world, was eerily similar, except the footage of her attack was a lot blurrier.
“I’m pretty rattled to be honest,” she told reporters. “It’s been a couple of days since I’ve been in the water. Definitely feeling some post-traumatic sort of feelings going on. I was sitting out there and all of a sudden I felt this bang and then a small one straight after and I was like ‘oh god, okay.’ And normally when you get bumped on a surfboard, the shark will come back and it’ll bite you or attack you.”
Technically, Lasair was indeed attacked by a shark. According to John G West, the coordinator for the Australian Shark Attack File, “A ‘shark attack’ is defined in the ASAF as any human-shark interaction where either a shark (not in captivity) makes a determined attempt to attack a person who is alive and in the water or the shark attacks equipment held by the victim or attacks a small-water craft containing the victim.”
Thankfully, Lasair began to paddle in quickly but calmly, which may have saved her from further attracting the shark while shouting for help.
“I started yelling out because I knew the guys were on the beach and they saw me and they started moving down towards me and I just paddled as quickly but as calmly as I could just waiting for something to happen,” she remembered. “It was a really traumatic horrible experience but I was very grateful to get in unscathed and uninjured.”
The New South Wales coastline has been the site of numerous shark attacks in recent months, and given the severity of some of them, Lasair is likely counting her blessings that it wasn’t worse.
