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When you are a professional surfer, you know that at some point in your career you are going to have close contact with a shark.
Spending that much time in the water makes it almost inevitable, and you just hope your experience is more like Matt Wilkinson’s and less like Mick Fanning’s.
Fanning, as you may recall, battled a shark on live television during the 2015 J-Bay Open..
In Wilkinson’s case, images from a drone captured yesterday off Ballina in New South Wales, Australia, show a great white shark approaching Sharpes Beach.
Here is the guardian:
“I heard a splash and a noise and I looked around and couldn’t see anything,” Wilkinson said, according to a statement from Surf Life Saving NSW.
Surf lifeguards were operating a drone overhead and were able to broadcast a warning from the plane’s speakers.
“The drone came down and told me there was a dangerous shark in the area, go back to the beach,” Wilkinson said.
“I got to shore feeling a little weird and the lifeguards showed me the images and I realized how close I was without knowing I was there. It seems he’s going for my leg and he’s changed his mind. “
This is not the first time that a drone in New South Wales has warned people about the presence of a shark. In September last year, a similar drone was used off the coast of Werri Beach.
Here are the images of Wilkinson and the shark:
Wilkinson went on to say that “he’s been surfing with sharks my whole life and I understand that they are there and I know enough about them to know that they don’t have much interest in humans.”
The great white shark was estimated to be around 2.5 meters long, making it about half the size of Nukumi, that beauty tagged off the coast of Canada.
Beau Monks, who was operating the drone, gave his side of the story:
It came out of nowhere and then headed straight for Matt. It moved pretty fast. I was tracking him, notified the first responders and used the drone’s speaker to get everyone out of the water, ”he said.
“In 10 seconds he was in the surfer and five seconds later he was gone” …
“I’m not entirely sure why the shark decided to walk away at the last minute. It could have been something as simple as bumping into the rope on his leg, or it could have been the drone. Sea creatures are known to drift away when the drone approaches, “he said.
I don’t think Wilkinson cares what made the shark detach from him.
He added that his wife does not want to see him surfing “for a couple of days.”
Work is work, friend, I have to come back sooner or later.
[source:guardian]