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ABC News
05-07-2025
- Health
- ABC News
Surfer Craig Ison suffered nightmares after shark attack at Evans Head, until he made a promise to himself
A punch and a promise shark attack survivor Craig Ison made nearly 10 years ago has kept him alive. Warning: This story contains a photo and graphic descriptions of shark attack injuries. The ex-boxer, who went a few rounds with former world champion Jeff Fenech, reckons a punch on the snout of the great white that bit him at Evans Head on July 31, 2015 stunned it and caused it to let go of his left leg. While in hospital recovering from his injuries, Mr Ison made a pact with himself: to get over the attack mentally, he would never go surfing again. "When I was in hospital I was having some really heavy nightmares," he said. "I would wake up in a sweat because I was in a dream where I had just lost both my legs. "I decided there in hospital, that's it, I'm not going back in the water, and since then I've had no trouble." Apart from the occasional swim in the ocean, Mr Ison has kept his promise, and it has had a positive effect on his life. "If I was a young bloke, I'd push through it a bit," he said. "But I was 51, so I'd had my fair share of waves and I thought 'That'll do me', and since then I haven't had any nightmares." Another factor helping Mr Ison's recovery was Bite Club founder Dave Pearson's intervention. The first rule of Bite Club, a support group for people who have been bitten or witnessed an attack by an apex predator, is you talk about your experiences. Whether it was Mr Ison's attack 10 years ago, or the most recent incident involving a 16-year-old boy at Norries Cove near Cabarita Beach last Sunday, Mr Pearson's support group has been a much-needed lifeline. Mr Pearson said attacks like this would have a ripple effect on the community, particularly rescuers, fellow surfers, first responders, and even people who use the beach regularly. Like many, Mr Pearson watched graphic footage of last Sunday's attack on social media that showed the shark swimming right into the shallows as surfers helped drag the teenager to safety. It reminded him of his own attack by a 3-metre bull shark on the Mid North Coast of NSW in 2011. "The shark followed me all the way to the beach, and that also happens a lot more than people realise," he said. Mr Pearson said, initially, the teenager might feel fortunate to have survived the attack, but his longer-term recovery could be plagued by other problems. "Usually, the mental side of things doesn't kick in until some time afterwards. Usually, it is a period of weeks, or months before you really start to feel the full effects of the post-traumatic stress," he said. Bodhi McDonald was one of the surfers in the water that day. He is also the same age as the teenager who was attacked. "It took us all by surprise because it is such a horrific event to take place at our beach that we surf at nearly every day," he said. Queensland volunteer lifesaver Thiago Collela was also there on the day of the attack and helped an off-duty paramedic apply a tourniquet to stem the bleeding. "The laceration on his bicep was really, really bad. You could see all of the muscle and bone," he said. Mr Collela is a fellow surfer and said the shark attack had made him a bit nervous about getting back in the water. Mr Pearson said the Bite Club covered attacks not only by sharks but lions, bears, and crocodiles. It was also open to anyone who had witnessed an attack. "Those people who are responsible for saving your life can go through quite a lot of trauma afterwards because they second-guess what they did and didn't do," he said. The attack at Cabarita happened in an area covered by the NSW Shark Management Program and the deployment of SMART drum lines. There are four drum lines in the Norries Cove area. These drum lines used baited hooks and GPS communications to intercept and tag sharks near beaches.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Surfer recounts terrifying memories and desperate struggle during shark attack: 'It was like being hit by a freight train'
After surviving a shark attack in 2011, Dave Pearson began reaching out to others who'd experienced the same, and a personal journey of healing and helping turned into the first animal attack support group in the world: Bite Club. Pearson's account of his attack and the aftermath is both terrifying and heartwarming. It took him 10 minutes to get out of the water along the New South Wales Mid North Coast, during which time he lost 40% of his blood. As he, friends, and fellow surfers endured a long wait for emergency medical services, Pearson encouraged everyone else that they had done all they could to save him. He was also impressed with their actions. "I said to the guys: 'If I don't make it, you've tried your best and don't worry about it. … It's not a bad night to die anyway,'" Pearson told Sarah Kanowski in a January interview on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Conversations, recalling the sunset that had caught a few waves and was in the rip getting set for another when a bull shark came out of nowhere, chomping down on his arm and board. Luckily, his head was facing the other direction; its snout smacked him in the right temple."I just got hit by something," Pearson recounted. "And I remember saying that night it was like being hit by a freight train. … Next thing I noticed, I was under the water. There was bubbles everywhere. There was something big under there with me, but I couldn't make it out."His forearm muscle as well as thumb and wrist tendons were gone. He said he was stunned and dumbfounded. While he worked to get to the shore, wave after wave crashed down on his head, and he thought he was going to pain, however, didn't arrive for about 15 minutes. His and his friends' first aid training kicked in. They called for an ambulance and helicopter. That night, a doctor wanted to amputate his arm, but Pearson protested, and it didn't come to that. He was back in the water four days after being released from the hospital, and the first anniversary of the event was memorable, to say the least. Pearson wanted to return to the spot where he was attacked, and just after he paddled out, a bull shark appeared, flashing its head and tail above the surface of the water. There was also a shark-shaped cloud low in the sky at sunset. "The beauty of the celebration afterward is everybody else starts telling you what was happening to them on that day and what they heard and how they felt," Pearson said to Kanowski. "The most healing part of it is everybody else being able to let go of their situation as well." In between those highlights, however, he struggled. Pearson remembers the day "it all fell apart." He woke up with a migraine two days after his release, and the pain in his arm, which he said lasted three years, was excruciating. He took two different medications, but they didn't work. He had toast with tea before crawling, head spinning, from the kitchen to a chair and was "very uncomfortable" as he rested fitfully. When he slept, he had strange dreams, and then he woke up in "all sorts of pain again." "And it wasn't long after that that I woke up screaming in the middle of the day," he said. He was watching himself the day of the attack, yelling so he would not jump into the water. His partner, Deb, was home and said, "'You know you're doing that a lot,'" Pearson remembered. "That was when I knew that things weren't going all right." The hardest part was being home alone during the day, dealing with the pain. Do you worry about getting diseases from bug bites? Absolutely Only when I'm camping or hiking Not really Never Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. "It became a tough ask to try and get on with my life," he said on Conversations. In John Hunter Hospital after the attack, he had met a fellow shark attack survivor, and then there was another attack shortly after his on the NSW Central Coast. He called the hospital and left his number, telling Kanowski he did so because "it's much better when things are not a surprise to you." He kept up the habit, even asking news outlets to put him in touch with other survivors. The group grew, and Pearson spent his two-hour drives home from work on Fridays calling people in Bite Club. Sometimes, he'd speak to six or seven people over those two hours; other times, he'd talk to one. The impact he was having didn't hit him until a survivor from Western Australia told him they were contemplating suicide but didn't want to let Pearson down when he called the next day. Now, Bite Club includes members who survived attacks by sharks, crocodiles, lions, dingoes, alligators, hippopotamuses, bears, and wolves. "It's a tough meeting, and it always is. But there's a connection there straightaway," Pearson said on Conversations. "And I often say other shark attack survivors are like family that you've never met before because you've got that connection. … You become very comfortable with each other very quickly after you have that conversation." Join our free newsletter for good news and useful tips, and don't miss this cool list of easy ways to help yourself while helping the planet.
