Ben Swart from Pretoria said he and two friends, regular paddlers Nick Bester and Ronald Pronk, were busy paddling from Central Beach to Keurbooms about 400m off-shore when he suddenly felt an impact behind the seat of his surf-ski. The blow knocked him out of his surf-ski and into the water.
Swart said the impact had been caused by a shark – estimated to be about 4m long – breaching under his surf-ski and taking a large bite out of it.
After landing in the water, Swart immediately swam towards and got onto the damaged surf-ski, while he waited for his friends to assist.
Bester and Pronk rafted their 3 surf-skis together and started paddling to shore while calling the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) for assistance.
Plettenberg Bay NSRI station commander Marc Rodgers said when volunteers arrived on the scene just after 07:00, they found the 3 men paddling to shore. “One of the surf-skis was found to be damaged from a shark bite. All 3 men were taken aboard the two rescue crafts and the surf-skis were recovered and brought to shore without incident. The men were not injured and they required no further assistance,” Rodgers said.
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