Yamba teen attacked by shark | Northern Rivers News | Local News in Northern Rivers

Kate Matthews | 10th February 2010

DEAN EVERSON was back surfing his favourite break yesterday, just days after using his bodyboard to fight off what he believes was a 2.5 metre white pointer shark at Yamba’s Turners Beach.

Under overcast skies, the 18-year-old Yamba surfer was taking advantage of big swells in dirty water at the popular surfing beach on Saturday afternoon.

He was about 20 metres from the rocks when he got the shock of his life.

“The shark threw itself out of the wave at me,” Dean said.

“I was in shock.”

He said the potential killer was so close he got a good view of its teeth.

“All I could think to do was throw the board at it,” he said yesterday.

The board made contact with the shark and probably distracted it, but the ordeal was not over.

He was trying desperately to swim back to shore, and was struggling against the waves and got caught in the same rip that almost claimed the life of a young boy a few days earlier.

“It was like being in a washing machine with an eight foot shark,” he said.

It took him about 10 minutes to get out of the water and on to the rocks.

“I was ready for it. I thought I was done for,” he said.

When he finally scrambled up on to the rocks, horrified onlookers told Dean he was lucky to be alive.

“One guy said that he had been watching the shark move around and he thought it was following me,” he said.

With shaking hands and an amazing story to tell, Dean immediately warned others of the shark’s threat.

Dean is the son of a fourth generation professional fisherman with 35 years’ experience.

He works at the Yamba Fish Market and also the fish co-op in Maclean.

He said the shape of the shark’s tail indicated it was a white pointer.

For most people, a close encounter of this kind would deter them from the water, probably for good.

But Dean felt he needed to get back into the surf, which he did on Monday and again yesterday at the same location.

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