Screams echo across the water and there are cries for help in the GoPro footage after 19-year-old Nat Drummond’s surf ski was bitten by a great white shark that hurtled from the depths of Seacliff Beach.
His fellow competitor, Heath Richards, recalled the terrifying events that unfolded.
”There was a ski completely in half upside down and no one in the water,” Richards told 9News.
“It was just pure fear … pure fear and having no control of what was going on.
”I looked over and saw a shark in the air with a ski in its mouth.
“I had no idea who it was and yeah, I thought whoever it was was instantly killed.”
Drummond survived after being flung into the air when the shark took a bite from the place he’d been sitting in the surf ski.
Richards’ footage captured what appeared to be the fin of the shark after it swam off underneath him.
”As I paddled in all I could think about was my kids and getting to them as quick as I can,” he said.
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Richards said he had felt a “presence nearby” before the race began as none of the group knew of the threat lurking below them.
“It was a very sinister feeling,” he said.
Richards has made a documentary about what happened that day and it will be shared on YouTube.
In it, he reveals he’d been nervous even before the attack after having spotted a giant shark in the same area two days earlier.
“It was a big shark, big fish and obviously got pretty scared from it,” he said.
Although three weeks have passed since the attack, Richards said he is still traumatised by what happened.
“I haven’t been back in the water since. I’ve got some counselling to help me out,” he said.
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