They paddled out as surfers and paddled in as heroes. Photo: YouTube//Screenshot
When Ash Bowler and Eduardo Botti paddled out at North Steyne near Manly Beach, they expected the usual afternoon surf session: a few fun waves, a few laughs, and a normal exit onto the beach. What happened instead, though, was that they became heroes.
The coastline of New South Wales has been the site of a frenzied spate of shark attacks over the last few days. Andre de Ruyter, a 27-year-old surfer, artist, and musician, was the victim of one of those attacks. While his injuries were reported to be “probably life-changing,” the presence of Ash and Eduardo saved Andre’s life.
The attack, which occurred at just after 6 p.m. on the evening of January 19, was shocking to see. Andre paddled out alone and sat near Ash and Eduardo. They exchanged hellos, but moments after Andre paddled out, he was hit by a shark. At first, Ash believed it was some awful prank.
“We gave him a smile and a wave,” Ash remembered. “He was jovial, you know? He was pumped to be out there. It was almost like a ‘yew’ moment. He sort of paused to catch his breath and then the shouting started,” Ash continued. “He’s just going, ‘Shark! Shark! Shark!’ and bouncing up and down. I looked over and it was so animated I thought it was just a terrible joke.”
It soon became apparent that it was not a joke. The water around Andre turned red as he continued to scream for help. “He started shouting ‘It’s biting me! It’s biting me! It’s eating me! It’s eating me! It’s killing me!'” Ash said in an interview with 10 News. “I looked back and he’s still getting shaken around.”
As the attack continued, Ash and Eduardo could see the shark’s tail as it whipped around. As both Ash and Eduardo are surfers and spearfishermen, they’re fairly used to seeing sharks. Still, though, seeing a shark and seeing a shark attack are very different things. They would be excused if they paddled for safety, but in the moment, that wasn’t an option for either of them.
“This thing was big,” Ash said. “It put the fear into me. Just seeing the way it shook him around… I was expecting him to just go ‘thunk,’ straight down. It had total control of him… In that first moment, my first instinct was to move away because I just assessed like, ‘Woah, I can’t do anything to help with that. It’s just too big. And then there’s blood, and you get the first look at his leg… it was out of a horror movie. You do sort of go for a moment, ‘What am I risking here?’ But then when the guy says again ‘Help, help,’ it just takes over and you do what you’ve got to do.”
What they had to do was pretty remarkable, considering the circumstances. Andre, bleeding profusely and likely in shock, was in bad shape. With the shark still in the immediate vicinity, Eduardo slid off his surfboard and got Andre onto it. The three of them paddled towards the beach, screaming for the bystanders to get a tourniquet ready. By this time it was around 6:30 in the evening.
Bystanders — one of which may have been a nurse — leapt into action with the help of a lifeguard who hadn’t yet left for the day. One of those bystanders, the founder of Marine Life Rangers, was ironically named Sharky. He was standing with the lifeguard when he heard the radio call about the attack.
“I was having a casual conversation with one of the senior lifeguards, who I’ve known for over 20 years, and all of a sudden the radio came across saying, possible shark bite at North Steyne,” Sharky told the Manly Observer. “And we looked up and could see people on the water’s edge and we both ran up and they had dragged the person out of the surf and started CPR straight away.”
By that time, paramedics were en route and the beach came together to keep Andre alive. “Everything escalated from there,” Sharky continued. “We had doctors running down who were off duty, nurses coming in to help. The ambulance arrived, the helicopter came in, and they worked on him for a hell of a long time with a hell of a lot of fluid into him and pumping his chest and using the defibrillator, and fingers crossed that he does make it.”
Sharky described Andre’s leg injury as “being from the knee down,” and as of this writing, he is in stable condition. His mother shared a statement on behalf of the family.
“We would like to express our gratitude to all the brave first responders to our son Andre relating to the shark attack at Manly Beach yesterday,” she said. “Andre de Ruyter, our compassionate, talented musician, graphic artist and lover of surfing has been placed in a stable condition with wonderful attentive medical staff. We ask for positive energy around his recovery and will give more information when he is ready. We ask for mindful care and respect of our son’s privacy till the path forward is clearer. Thank you so much. Kindly, Lisa, Olaf and Alysha, his direct family.”
