The beaches of the Pacific are some of the most beautiful beaches on the planet, and most people dream of spending their days here. Let’s be honest, who among us hasn’t dreamt of surfing in Australian or New Zealand waters?
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A close encounter
But as we’re sure you are aware, you have to be very vigilant of your surroundings. In New Zealand, one surfer managed to escape a shark attack in quite a surprising way. Nick Minogue, a 60-year-old resident of Auckland, probably had one of the worst experiences of his life on 22nd February 2020.
300 meters off Pauanui beach while out with a friend, this man went surfing in a really good mood at around 11.30 am. As the New Zealand radio station explained, however, not long after he entered the waters, he, unfortunately, came face to face with something unexpected.
I was just paddling along and got hit on the side of my elbow and forearm.
While the shark was swimming alongside Nick Minogue, the predator suddenly plunged its mighty teeth into the front section of his surfboard. Terrified about the idea of being face to face with this shark, Nick immediately reacted in quite a surprising way!
By the time I realised what was going on, its teeth were definitely latched on to the front section of the board.
Minogue said he then remembered hearing that sharks don’t particularly like being punched in the nose or the eye.
‘So I actually shouted at it 'f**k off!’ and went to punch it in the eye and missed.’
However, this man’s heroic act didn’t end there. After the first punch to protect himself, he went to hit the predator again.
'Then I pulled my fist back and shouted ‘f**k off!’ Again and got it right smack bang in the eye. It’s quite a big eye, around three knuckles across.’
Although the first punch didn’t seem to bother the shark too much, the animal completely stopped its attack after the second blow to the face. According to Nick, its eye 'kind of looked up and rolled up’ before disengaging from his board and swimming off into the ocean.
Once the shark swam away, Nick then returned to the shore swimming as quickly as he could. Luckily, Nick and his friend escaped the situation safe and sound, with no serious injuries but still rather shook up.
Later on, he discovered that the shark's teeth had broken through the sleeve of his wetsuit and slightly punctured his skin.
‘Thankfully it wasn’t too deep. Two teeth put holes in my wetsuit but only one punctured the skin. I’ve still got arms and fingers, it could have been a lot worse.’
According to the NZ Herald, he then had his surfboard examined by the marine scientist Clinton Duffy who said that:
the photograph of the bite to the board is consistent with a fairly small white shark.
According to a second opinion obtained from shark specialist Riley Elliot however, from Minogue’s description, this bite most likely came from a great white shark.
‘It was a grey shark with a white bottom, probably a great white. It was a big head and jaw. I kind of sat up in shock and decided to hit it. That was the only thing to do.’
This was probably an incredibly stressful situation for the man that he will likely never forget. However, we applaud his bravery and his confidence. We all know we would probably have just panicked if we faced such a terrifying beast.
For more details, check out the video at the top of the article.
