BLOODY NIGHTMARE

Surfer Bitten by Shark Reveals How He Escaped

The 16-year-old was far from shore when the beast knocked him off his board.

A surfer has revealed the moment a shark grabbed his foot, leaving him with a bloodied ankle. Lone surfer Oliver Tokic-Bensley, 16, was more than 100 yards from the coast in Middleton, South Australia, when it hit him, knocking him off his board. After the contact, he paddled for shore, but the apex predator’s fin disappeared from view under the waves, 9News Australia reports. He said he was “sitting on my board waiting for a wave to come and something just came and grabbed my foot.” He continued, “I fell into the water with it and then maybe five meters in front of me there was a little fin that popped up, and I just hopped on my board and legged it back to the beach.” “It was pretty frantic,” he said. “There were no waves to catch at the time it got me so I just had to paddle.” “I think the movement of his foot and maybe the murky water, the shark mistimed the hit,” his father, Andrew Bensley, said. “If it was a little bit up he definitely would have lost his foot. Based on the size of the teeth it was a reasonable-sized shark.”

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