Crowdy Head on the East Coast of Australia, Aaron Wallis (middle), and Dave Pearson surfing and arriving at the Hospital.
“All I heard was this really loud crack of fiberglass.”
Aaron ”Noddy” Wallis was surfing on dusk, at Crowdy Head on the NSW mid-north-coast, when he turned to see his friend, 48-year-old Dave Pearson, scrambling to get back on his board.
“When I heard the noise, I turned to Dave and saw all the splashing and said, ‘What was that?’ He just stared at me blankly and said, ‘don’t come over here there’s a shark.'”
“I asked him if he was alright and he said ‘No, I’m not, I need help.’”
At this point Aaron chose to ignore the apparent risk and paddled over to help a mate he’d known his whole life. Although the attack had been more of a high speed, ram into the air than a clean bite, the fleshy section of Dave’s forearm was badly cut and he was struggling to paddle his own board.
“I told him to just grab my leg, so that I could paddle him in but he didn’t really have the strength or the balance to do it,” recalled Aaron. Eventually the two surfers made it to a heavy inside bank, where Aaron instructed Dave to just hold on to his board and let a wave wash him through the gutter.
“He said, ‘I can’t hold on, I can’t’ but one wave just obliterated the both of us and washed us in. By that stage I just wanted to get out of there but I think if the shark was intent on eating us it would have.” Eventually one of the guys Dave had paddled out with came back out and helped Aaron drag Dave up the beach. Meanwhile his other mate ran to get the ambulance.
“Once we got him to the beach he was fine,” insisted Aaron. “We helped him up the beach but he walked all the way. I can’t imagine anyone in the world having dealt with it any better.”
By this stage both Aaron and Dave were covered in blood. They stemmed the flow of blood from Dave’s arm with towels and closer inspection of the wound revealed that it looked as if ‘someone had shoved a knife into it.’ At present Dave is recovering in hospital. Although no official statement on his injuries has been made, Aaron was confident that he would regain full use of the arm.
Unfortunately the brand new Firewire he was riding didn’t fair so well. Certainly the extent of damage to a board that is built to endure the heaviest of impacts, indicates just how hard the shark hit. “ There were teeth marks in the bottom, all the balsa had been ripped off and the nose was de-laminated from the nose about a foot down fro the board. Yeah, Nev [Hyman – surfboard shaper] is going to have to do better than that,” chuckled Aaron.
In a positive twist to the story when Tracks gave Firewire a call about the incident, their marketing team insisted they would be happy to help Dave out with a new board when he’s ready to get back in the water.
Note: Dave Pearson’s partner Debbie told theThe Daily Telegraph today that, “It [surgery] went well and he retained his arm and is resting comfortably with his family by his side.” The paper also stated that the doctors had been pleased with movement in his left hand, indicating he was likely to make a full recovery.
All the best Dave – Tracks.
