An Irish man has been nominated for the Pride of Australia Medal for his bravery in saving his friend after an attack by a great white shark.
Shane De Roiste, originally from Wexford, was surfing 200m off the Australian coast in August 2015 with Dale Carr when the shark appeared nearby.
"We had been surfing with dolphins for months and months before it. So that initial reaction, when we saw a fin come up behind my friend Dale who was just a few metres away from me, was 'just another dolphin'," said Mr De Roiste, speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland on Wednesday.
“It bumped Dale of his board, turned and rolled in front of me and that’s when I noticed the white belly,” he said.
He described the “ferocious attack”, during which the shark bit down on Mr Carr’s leg and groin area.
“Dale was actually punching the shark in the head and he said to me afterwards. . . ‘that wasn’t doing anything, you could tell, it was like punching a brick wall’.”
Mr De Roiste said Mr Carr then “changed tactics” and stuck his thumb into the shark’s eyeball, which caused it to release its bite.
Mr De Roiste then had to take Mr Carr, who was injured and still bleeding, back to the shore.
“That took a long time, that took five or ten minutes at least and a few stoppages,” he said.
“There was quite a bit of blood and there was a few times I realised that if the shark attacked us I couldn’t defend myself, never mind Dale.”
Mr De Roiste stopped swimming and “went under water quite a few times to try and find it. But the visibility was very, very short, like 2 metres or 3 metres.”
He said: “After that ordeal we caught some waves in, which helped a lot getting us in, and then I dragged Dale up the shore, where I pretty quickly had some people help me, thankfully, because I couldn’t quite stand myself when I got there.
“I was like a jellybaby, quite exhausted.”
The Pride of Australia Medal is awarded to members of the Australian community for “remarkable” contributions and achievements.
