Australian windsurfer Andy McDonald had a fortunate escape this week after coming face-to-face with a shark off the nation’s west coast.
A digital camera for the surf media web site swellnet.com captured the second that the shark seemingly got here out of nowhere and knocked the 61-year-old McDonald off his board.
“Everything was really nice, and then just out of the blue, bang, something so hard and strong hit me like a freight train,” McDonald informed the Australian community ABC. “It just pushed me up into the air and I fell into the, I fell into the water. I knew it was a shark.”
The swellnet video exhibits McDonald and a pair different windsurfers cruising by means of waters off the coast close to the city of Margaret River when each he and his sail out of the blue plunge into the water and out of view.
“The shark must’ve dived because everything went underwater, myself and all my gear and at that point I was like punching it and wrestling with it, pretty much just trying to get away from it, kicking it and just trying to hope that my, none of my limbs were near its mouth, which I had no idea where it was,” he informed ABC.
“I thought I was gone for. I just thought, ‘This is it, this is the moment that is the end of my life.’”
Windsurfer Andy McDonald speaks with the Australian Broadcasting Company a day after a shark took a chunk out of his surfboard, Nov. 11, 2025, in Margaret River, Australia.
Australian Broadcasting Company/Reuters
About 10 seconds after he was pulled below, with some splashing on the spot, McDonald may be seen resurfacing within the swellnet video. As he spoke with ABC, he sat behind his surfboard, which had a roughly one-foot-wide distinctive bite-shaped hole in its aspect.
Requested if his tussle with the shark had put him off browsing for some time, McDonald mentioned he’d already acquired a alternative, and would doubtless hit the water once more in a matter of hours.
“I ordered a new board this afternoon,” he mentioned. “I’ll go back in the water. I’ll go back out tomorrow.”
Extra from CBS Information
