‘I just went flying’: Boardrider’s close call with massive shark

A Bundaberg boardrider has survived a close call with what an expert believes could have been a three-metre shark.

Dave Seymour was testing out a mate’s new hydrofoil and had been in the water for about 10 minutes before he said he was sent flying into the air.

He returned to the beach to find the carbon board had multiple bite marks.

“I’m there and about to push up and I grab onto the remote and I just go flying... it just hit me,” Seymour said.

“I’m swimming and having a look around... and I got this weird flush... this eerie flush.”

Seymour is no amateur and said he has been board-riding for 35 years.

“Always heading into the water here it feels a bit sharky, but you know I’ve spent my life in the ocean, that hasn’t really affected me,” he said.

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Seymour didn’t see the shark, but said the fisheries department is keen to swab the bite mark for DNA in the hope of determining the species.

According to marine expert Dr Vincent Raoult from Griffith University, whatever it was, it was big.

“From the size and the angle of the shark bite, it was a fairly large shark,” he said.

“I’d be saying in the two- to three-metre-range.”

Seymour said he still believes the ocean delivers more good than bad.

“It’s not going to stop me,” he said.

“But at the same time, going back and having a look at it, the waves were pretty fun and it kind of sunk in a little bit more this morning, you know.

“It’s a good reminder just to be careful out there.”