Shark attack at Cosies Surf Break, near Perth
>
Teen surfer reveals how he survived a terrifying encounter with a shark at a popular beach, as his mother orders him to NEVER surf again
- A teenage surfer has survived an encounter with a two meter shark on a WA beach
- Bryce Hickman, 15, and his twin brother were surfing at Cosies Surf Break
- They both quickly ran ashore after the predator hit Bryce’s surfboard.
- The boys surfed again in the same spot hours later to the dismay of their mother.
A 15-year-old surfer who had a terrifying encounter with a shark returned to the water to catch more waves just hours after the beast nearly knocked him off his surfboard, despite his mother warning him never to surf again. .
The teenager, Bryce Hickman, was surfing with his twin brother at Cosies Surf Break in the Mandurah suburb of Falcon, an hour south of Perth, when they encountered the shark around 7am on Thursday.
While sitting on his board in the waves, the seven-foot-long shark struck Mr. Hickman’s surfboard while he was looking at him curiously, nearly knocking him off the board before swimming away.
Dozens of sharks were sighted or detected nearby in the days before and shortly after the incident.
Quickly alerting his brother by yelling ‘shark’, the two paddled 40 meters to safety on land, neither being injured by the unidentified shark.
15-year-old Bryce Hickman (pictured) and his twin brother were surfing at Cosies Surf Break, south of Perth, when a two-metre shark hit his surfboard, nearly knocking him overboard.
All beaches within a kilometer of Cosies were closed while local rangers investigated the report, before they were reopened just hours later.
Against their mother’s wishes, the Hickman children returned to Cosies shortly after being told by rangers it was safe to return to the water.
“I only got one wave, so I waited a few hours and came back, and I got the last few games of the day,” Hickman told 9News as he returned to shore from his second wave that day.
‘Mum was pretty terrified [telling me] You’re not going to go surfing anymore,’ he laughed.
The Hickman kids scrambled to safety after the close encounter with the shark, then returned to the beach once it reopened to finish surfing (pictured near Falcon Bay)
A seven-foot bronze whaler was spotted hours after Hickman’s encounter on a nearby beach.
A seven-foot bronze whaler was sighted hours after Hickman’s encounter on a nearby beach.
Bronze whalers are not typically aggressive towards humans, but are listed as potentially dangerous and have been known to attack spearfishermen for their catch.
The last suspected fatal attack by a bronze whaler was in September 2011 in Bunker Bay, two hours south of Cosies, when a 21-year-old Sydney man was attacked while bodyboarding.