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Any time a foiler falls in deep water, there must be a remote twinge of fear that something is under there waiting for them. Of course, 99 times out of a 100, there isn’t. On the other hand, this past week an Australian just happened to experience that one time.
Western Australian foiler Dave Daniell was riding between the Exmouth beaches Graveyards and Hunters on Tuesday around 5:00 p.m., when the incident occurred. Daniell had just fallen off his board and was attempting to get back on the craft, when a shark appeared out of the depths.
“It all happened pretty quick,” he told Perth Now. “As I was getting to my feet again, it nudged the actual foil, the mast itself, and it actually knocked me back in, on top of the shark.”
To make matters worse, he couldn’t get a good look at the beast, due to poor visibility in the water. “I wasn’t right on top, but it was just underneath the water, and it was very dirty water — I could only just see bits of the shark’s silhouette,” he continued. Sharks are known to prefer murky conditions, which allow them to more effectively ambush their prey. As you can see, the shark took a good chunk out of Daniell’s board.
After that, Daniell managed to get back on the foil, and promptly made a beeline back for shore. “I did that nine kilometers without falling off again,” he said. “I just didn’t want to do any more turning, or fall off from doing turns and like breaching your wings, because you kind of actually ride the lumps, surfing the lumps in the waves.”
DNA testing is being done by the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) to determine the exact species of shark. Danielle said that scientists believe it to be a 10-foot great white. “It could be just a large whaler or a possible great white, but just the way that it was hidden, and attacked quite aggressively and hard, they’re thinking more towards a white shark,” he explained.
