Surfer survives shark attack by cursing and punching it in the face

Up there with the world’s most terrifying experiences, a shark attack is not on anyone’s bucket list. But, for a surfer, the risk comes with the territory. Nick Minogue, a surfer in the New Zealand city of Auckland was bitten by a shark during a session on Saturday.

By his own (wild) account, this is how he fended off the great white.

Speaking to the NZ Herald: “I was just paddling along and got hit on the side of my elbow and forearm.

“By the time I realised what was going on, its teeth were definitely latched on to the front section of the board.”

“So I actually shouted at it ‘f***off!’ and went to punch it in the eye and missed,” he said.

“Then I pulled my fist back and shouted ‘f*** off!’ again and got it right smack bang in the eye. It’s quite a big eye, about three knuckles across, and its eye kind of looked up and rolled up.

“In between the two punches it crunched down a bit more on the board and then disengaged its teeth, got its jaws off and then I got brushed by the dorsal fin and the tail fin and swam off.”

Mr Minogue said: “It was a grey shark with a white bottom, probably a great white. It was a big head and jaw. I kind of sat up in shock and decided to hit it. That was the only thing to do.”

He said he was alone in the water apart from one other surfer who heard his screams and paddled back to shore.