Survivor tells of his ordeal in the waves

The survivor of the most recent shark attack remembers watching how the dark shape in the water became a “massive” great white shark that bit into his leg while surfing with friends at Sand Beach in Jongensfontein near Stilbaai.

Jacques Mostert, 29, of Centurion, Pretoria, was surfing at Jongensfontein, about 20km from Stilbaai, when a shark attacked him on Friday afternoon.

“I was about to get out of the water, only about 15m into the surf, when I saw something swimming past me.

“At first I thought it was a dolphin, but then I realised I was in trouble. Then I just felt a hard hit on my side,” Mostert told the Cape Times while recovering at at Life Bay View Hospital in Mossel Bay on Sunday.

“It was as if a crazy dog had bitten into me because it started shaking my leg in the same way.

“It went under the water and then circled me twice. I managed to get a look at it and saw it was massive,” he said.

Mostert said he was terrified and had decided to “make peace” with what was happening to him.

“I was really scared. I’m very religious, so I believe a calmness came over me and I decided to stop panicking about something I couldn’t change.

“This was when a large wave came and I was able to paddle myself back to shore,” he said.

He won’t go back to surfing any time soon.

“The shark bit through the ligaments and nerves in the top part of my leg and my knee, so I can’t move my foot. I don’t know how to thank everyone that helped me,” he said.

His friend his friend De Wet Burger was with him, but had left the water by the time the attack happened.

“I rushed toward Jacques in the water. It all happened so fast,” he said.

National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) station commander Rico Menezies said the call for help came in at 5.15pm on Friday.

“NSRI Stilbaai volunteer sea rescue duty crew, CapeNature and the police responded to the scene. Mostert was found on the beach suffering from two serious cuts to his left upper leg and knee. He lost a large amount of blood, but remained conscious,” he said.

Menezies said medics and a local doctor, Pieter Joubert, stabilised Mostert at the scene.

“He was given intravenous fluids to compensate for massive blood loss,” he said.

Witnesses said the shark was between 4m and 4.5m in length, Menezies said.

Mostert is expected to be in hospital until the weekend, after which he will return to Pretoria.

Cape Times/IOL