Thread: JAWS Attacks Swimmer on Bondi Beach

The proper title for this thread should be Tasmanian Caveman Bitten By Baby Shark Then Starts Milking the Story By Going Round Telling Everyone He's Had a Brush With Jaws, but it's a bit long.

Nightswimmer Scott Wright has earned the dubious honour of being the first person in 70 years to be attacked by a shark off the famous Bondi Beach, saved his own life by punching the predator on the nose. He will go into surgery to have his wounds attended to – deep wounds in his right arm made by the shark as he swam in the dark at a beach was believed safe from such attacks.



A metal shark net stretches the entire length of Bondi Beach 600 yards from the shore, but somehow the creature that attacked Scott found a way around it – or managed to swim through a hole it had found.

The Tasmanian tourist's mistake was to go swimming at night, against all advice by lifeguards who say that is the time when sharks are likely to attack as they are less likely to distinguish a human from their usual prey such as seals.

As soon as he felt the shark grab his arm, Scott knew he was in trouble.

He said: "It had a firm grip and wouldn't let go. I struggled to get free but I couldn't get away, so I punched it on the nose. "It was what I'd heard about from others who had escaped sharks, but in those first few seconds I thought I was a goner. I thought I was going to die."



"But when I punched it, it let go and swam off." With blood pouring from his wounds, Scott managed to swim to some rocks and drag himself into a shallow cave. Then he passed out.

It was there that his girlfriend, worried that he had not returned home that night, found him the next morning.
Surfer Ben Davies, who was at the beach when the injured man was helped by her and a couple of friends to a waiting ambulance, said: "The gouges in his arm were terrible. As soon as I saw them I thought 'He's been bitten by a shark.'"

Bondi lifeguards they often saw sharks in deeper water, but they rarely got through the nets to pose a danger to swimmers, hundreds of thousands of whom head for Bondi each year from around the world.



One lifeguard said: "He could easily have been killed if the shark was bigger.

"Luckily for him it appears to have been a fairly small shark, despite the nasty-looking bites. If it had been bigger, he wouldn't have had his arm left."

Scott is expected to make a full recovery. And he is unlikely to ever go swimming at night again. When friends asked him if the gouges in his arm were made by a great white shark or a hammerhead he replied: "It was a shark – isn't that bad enough?"

It's gotta make you feel like a swingin dick to show everybody in the pub your scar and tell them "I punched that 20 foot great white sombitch in the nose and he went off wimpering."

It would still be scary, even if it wasn't full grown.

What an idiot, though. All Australians are taught from an early age, not to swim at night or in murky water.

I suppose allowances must be made for Tasmanians, though

Originally Posted by Lily

It would still be scary, even if it wasn't full grown.

What an idiot, though. All Australians are taught from an early age, not to swim at night or in murky water.

I suppose allowances must be made for Tasmanians, though

They may well be taught to not swim at night, ...



....


....But are they taught how to not be idiots?

I worked at a pub in Surfer's for a few months. The shark fishermen came in for morning pints. They told me the nets were set quite deep -- so can't the sharks swim above them? Yes. Never went swimming in the ocean there again. The shark-watching helicopters freaked me out, too.

Well well- it turns out the shark attack story was bogus, and our Hero is now in custody for various offences, including theft.

From the Sydney Morning Herald-

"IT WAS the great white lie...

"The shark attacked me, grabbed hold of my arm and wouldn't let go. So I ended up punching him in the nose and trying to fight him off," he said, displaying the gash marks on his arm. "I thought I was a goner. I thought I was going to die."

It would have been the first shark attack at the beach since Colin Stewart, 14, was savaged there in 1929.

But sources have told the Herald that Wright's wounds, which required dozens of stitches and a night at a Sydney hospital, were not caused by a vicious shark, or even by a relatively docile wobbegong, as was reported yesterday.

Rather, they were the result of Wright's arm going through a pane of glass - an incident that occurred several days before the supposed shark attack.

But by Tuesday night Wright was no longer basking in the glory of his new found fame. He was busy answering questions from police after being arrested outside Redfern RSL.

He was charged with various theft-related offences and faced Central Local Court on Wednesday.

Police alleged that sometime between Monday night and Tuesday morning Wright entered room 507 at Noah's Backpackers in Campbell Parade, Bondi, and stole two wallets and a set of keys, before driving away in someone else's Holden Rodeo.

Wright also faced charges relating to an outstanding arrest warrant issued in 2004 after he failed to appear in court over assault and trespass charges.

He did not apply for bail and will remain in custody until February 14, when he is due to face court again."

Bondi's bogus bite: shark attack just a fishy line - National - smh.com.au

Good find

What a twat.

He's from Tassie.Surprised he doesn't have three arms or David Boon growing out of his left ball.

i saw that on the tv tonite...