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There’s about 12 kilometres of coastline between Bondi and Maroubra beaches – a decent stretch of ocean for paddleboard world champion, Charlie Verco’s training session.
So it was extraordinary luck that Verco, 24, found himself 80 metres from Coogee Beach as a large great white stalked a group of women swimming nearby.
“One of the women screamed, ‘Shark!’ and everyone started panicking,” Verco said.
A handful of swimmers tried to pull themselves onto his 18-foot paddleboard to get out of the water, as Verco pushed them back.
“I had to tell them, the shark was over there, near the women, I have to help them,” he said.
“I could see the shark only as a shadow at first, and it looked pretty big,” Verco said. Its movements suggested it was more inquisitive than threatening at first. Verco hoped it had realised the women were not seals, and would move on.
“But the shark grabbed one of the women and started dragging her around … it was such an aggressive thing to watch happen,” he said.
As Verco paddled towards the woman, the shark broke the water’s surface, exposing its body, dorsal fin and tail, and Verco was shocked by its size.
“I didn’t know if there was anything I could do, given the power and size of this shark,” the ironman and three-time world paddleboard champion said.
As the shark pulled the woman underwater, Verco abandoned a fleeting thought of jumping in, remembering his father was about 100 metres away on his own paddleboard.
“I certainly couldn’t fight off the shark once I realised how big it was, and I couldn’t imagine doing that, and Dad having to watch me get attacked,” he said.
Verco signalled to the lifeguards, raising his arms to form the ‘X’ code, hoping they would sound the shark alarm and send out a power craft.
“Then I saw the woman’s head pop up … the shark had let go of her,” he said.
Verco paddled through the opaque blood-red water towards the woman, knowing the shark was still there, somewhere unseen.
“It was one of the scariest things, not being able to see whether it would come at my board or her again,” he said.
The woman was too weak to hold on to the nose of Verco’s board, so he paddled back and had her grab onto his drink bottle cage fastened in front of him.
“She was too weak to get onto the board, and it’s not a rescue craft or very agile … I didn’t know how I could pull her up, or if I did, I wouldn’t have been able to control it.”
So Verco started paddling to shore. When the woman seemed to lose consciousness and let go of the cage, Verco paddled back to her again and grabbed her with one arm, towing her along as he paddled with his other arm, he said.
“I didn’t even know her name … I just kept saying things like ‘keep your head above water, keep breathing, you’re doing a very good job’,” he said. “Anything to fill the silence and give her something to focus on.”
As they got close to shore, lifeguards and other beachgoers met the pair. Verco lifted the woman at the torso, and with a lifeguard holding her legs, they carried her to the sand.
“It was very lucky that it was such a busy day at Coogee, and that there were so many people ready to go [to perform first aid],” he said.
An off-duty critical care doctor, lifeguards, police and council personnel helped to stabilise the woman.
“I put pressure on her left while they put tourniquets on her leg and arms. There were people more experienced than I was, so I could take a step back then,” Verco said.
Taking a few deep breaths and with adrenaline pumping through him, Verco’s thoughts turned to his Dad, still in the water.
His father had reached the shore and taken a jet ski back out to look for the shark. Verco recalls his father describing the white shark as a massive, arrogant animal that turned to face the jetski as it approached.
Speaking hours after the rescue, Verco said all he was thinking about was the woman in critical condition at St Vincent’s Hospital.
“It should be all about her,” he said. “All I feel is really bad for her and how unlucky she was. I hope she can pull through.”
“I’ve never been more grateful for my education with the Surf Life Saving community and for North Bondi Surf Club, who trained me how to respond in emergency scenarios and know first aid and have the surf skills to help in dangerous situations that happen in the ocean,” he said.
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