Killer of the deep leaves Gracetown in mourning

18.08.2010

The beauty of Gracetown and its
perfect stretch of water which
claimed nine lives to a cliff collapse in
1996 and that of a surfer in 2004 has
again been scarred.
As 31-year-old Nick Edwards
straddled his board yesterday morning,
about 300m from shore, he had no
idea a killer was hunting below him.
It was shortly after 8am and the
Busselton father-of-two was having
his final surf before returning to his
fly-in, fly-out job at a Goldfields
mine today.
The conditions were perfect at the
area known as Cowaramup Bay's
South Point.
The swell guaranteed some quality
surfing and onshore some of the locals
were getting tempted.
"I was watching through binoculars
and deciding whether I was going
to go to South Point or North Point
and went to get into my wetsuit," Rob
Alder said.
"By the time I got back, I did a last
check to confirm South Point and
there was no surfer with the board
anymore.
"The board looked like it had
been snapped."
Oblivious to the shark but still
concerned, Mr Alder called the emergency
response telephone number
and raced to the beach.
"I got down to the waterfront
where he was already being cared for
by my friend Craig, who'd actually
pulled him up off the rocks, and we
got him out of the foam into a comfortable
place and started doing
CPR," Mr Alder said.
We got colour back into him. He'd
lost a lot of blood.
"The wound was severe and it
looked like a very wide bite on the top
of the thigh and one further down.
"This guy was out there and all of a
sudden he wasn't there anymore."
Surfer Eddie Kilgallon was paddling
in the water when he saw a man
running along the cliff screaming
"shark".
"The four of us were paddling in, to
keep together," he said.
"I looked behind and I could see
the guy's board on the point and
obviously it was on the rocks.
"As we paddled in, a pod of seals
came up within 10 feet of us."
As the men headed to safety,
Cowaramup resident Craig Gordon
was trying to pull Mr Edwards from
the water.
When he saw the seriousness of the
shark bites, he removed one of his
shoelaces to use as a tourniquet to
stem the flow of blood.
Soon up to a dozen people were
working in rotation to get a pulse. But
Mr Edwards father to son Nathan,
7, and two-year-old daughter Lucy
did not respond.
"They could see he had a wedding
ring on and I hope he could hear them
and know that he was loved," Mr
Kilgallon said.
The St John Ambulance officers
took over and worked on Mr Edwards
his right leg mauled in several places
and one of the main arteries severed
until doctors pronounced him dead
on arrival at the Margaret River
Hospital.
Police said that once again the
Gracetown community reacted valiantly
when confronted by death.
"They've seen some tragedy in
their history but I'm sure they'll pull
through and Cowaramup will still be
the beautiful place that it is to visit,"
Sgt Craig Anderson said.
In September 1996, a group of nine
children and adults sheltering under
a fragile limestone cliff overhang
during a surf school class were
buried alive.
Eight years later, surfer Brad Smith
was killed by a Great White and now
another board rider has met the
same fate.
"You know, when you see these
guys out there, they have such a
connection with the water," Sgt.
Anderson said.
"It's a passion. To tell them not to
go back into the water, it just won't
happen.
"It was beautiful out there this
morning. You can understand why the
guy has hit the water to do what he's
loved doing."
Neighbours of the family said Mr
Edwards seemed like a devoted father
and "an average Aussie bloke".
While Mr Edwards' wife Melissa
and two children grieved his loss at
their Busselton home yesterday, flowers
were being placed at the stairs
which lead down to the water where
he died.
"I would like to go for a surf right
now and get a really great wave and
honour the spirit of this surfer," Mr
Alder said.