{"id":129549,"date":"2025-08-08T17:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T17:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/129549\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T17:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T17:01:15","slug":"shark-attack-at-tathra-beach-leaves-9yo-surfers-board-in-pieces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/129549\/","title":{"rendered":"Shark attack at Tathra Beach leaves 9yo surfer’s board in pieces"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nine-year-old surfer has survived a shark attack on a NSW far south coast beach.<\/p>\n

Bowie Daly was surfing at Tathra Beach at 4:30pm on Thursday when a shark grabbed his surfboard.<\/p>\n

“I was holding onto it [my board] and I felt a tug at the back of my board,” Bowie told the ABC.<\/p>\n

“I suddenly started drowning but I got back up \u2026 it only happened for a second.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bowie Daly and his broken surfboard. (Supplied: Simon Daly)<\/p>\n

“When I came back up, I saw a giant back and I realised it was a shark and then I started screaming for help.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The shark let go of the board and a group of nearby surfers, including Bowie’s father, helped him get to shore safely.<\/p>\n

The young surfer managed to emerge largely unscathed from the attack.<\/p>\n

“I have a hole in my wetsuit \u2026 I have a scratch mark,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bowie has a scratch and a bruise as a result of the incident. (Supplied: Simon Daly)<\/p>\n

‘My board’s fully wrecked’<\/p>\n

Bowie’s surfboard was not as lucky.<\/p>\n

“It made a giant bite mark \u2026 it fully took out my fin,” the nine-year-old said.<\/p>\n

“My board was fully into pieces \u2026 fully wrecked.<\/p>\n

“It was not good.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bowie’s broken surfboard. (Supplied: Simon Daly)<\/p>\n

According to the Australian Shark-Incident Database, on average 20 people are injured by sharks in Australia each year.<\/p>\n

The data also said there were 2.8 fatalities on average in Australia each year, and seven incidents in which a person was involved in a shark incident but was not injured.<\/p>\n

Shark attacks in region unusual\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tathra Surf Life Saving Club president Andrew Johnson was called to the beach just after the attack.<\/p>\n

He said shark sightings were not common in the Tathra Beach area and none had been reported before Thursday.<\/p>\n

“We’re not renowned for having sharks \u2026 but obviously, there’s always sharks in the water,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“All surfers think that there’s sharks out there and they just accept that.”<\/p>\n

The last shark attack at Tathra<\/a> was in 2014 when a woman was swimming off Tathra Wharf.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The shark attack happened on Thursday afternoon. (ABC South East NSW: Isla Evans)<\/p>\n

Mr Johnson flew a drone over the water on Thursday and Friday, but the shark has not been seen since the attack.<\/p>\n

The incident did not stop Mr Johnson and many other locals from going out into the surf on Friday, but he said young Bowie was lucky to be okay.<\/p>\n

“I’ve had a board broken by a dolphin once \u2026 but having some teeth and that come at you, that would be a whole different kettle of fish,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

he said.<\/p>\n

“He’s probably really, really cheesed off that his board’s broken.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Bowie has been surfing for four years. (Supplied: Simon Daly)<\/p>\n

Asked when he would surf again, Bowie said it would be “two to four weeks till I get back in”.<\/p>\n

Tathra-born former professional surfer Kai Otten has been in touch with Bowie’s family and offered the grom a new surfboard.<\/p>\n

The news has fast-tracked Bowie’s planned return to the surf.<\/p>\n

“I’m going to go sooner,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A nine-year-old surfer has survived a shark attack on a NSW far south coast beach. Bowie Daly was…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":129550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,78999,78997,18996,50,78998,4747,22230,11486,9052,71777,79000],"class_list":{"0":"post-129549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-bowie-daly","10":"tag-close-encounter","11":"tag-kid","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-nsw-far-south-coast","14":"tag-rescue","15":"tag-shark-attack","16":"tag-shark-bite","17":"tag-surf","18":"tag-surfing","19":"tag-tathra-beach"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114994222471013530","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}