Man Manages To Reach Shore Safely After Great White Shark Bites A Hole In Canoe

A man had luckily escaped being a meal of a great white shark after he fell into the sea as it bit a huge hole in his canoe. His brave son rescued him from the ordeal.

Roger Swinney, 58, toppled into the sea in the impact of the bite and watched in horror as the predator circled him at a short distance. He struggled his way back onto the canoe and shouted “shark! shark!” while the small boat kept sinking. His 16-year-old son, Luke, jumped to his rescue in his own surf ski. He pulled Swinney from half a mile offshore onto the back of his canoe and desperately paddled themselves back to the shore.

A couple of other peddlers brought Swinney’s canoe ashore in the meanwhile.

“I was paddling and heard this loud bang and was hit so hard I fell in and then I saw the tip of the fins and saw a shark was circling and got back on my surf ski,” Roger told Surfski.info.

After the father-son duo made it to the beach, they inspected the hole which measured up to 40cm.

"There was a 40cm gaping hole in my boat where the jaws had bitten into it," Roger added.

Roger, a primary school teacher, was surfing in the sea with his canoe on Dec. 26 at Nahoon Reef in East London’s Cape Province when the shark attacked.

Regardless of being aware of earlier shark attacks on the same beach, Roger took to the sea. "Some surfers have even died," he said.

He said this incident won’t stop him from exploring the waters in future.

Last month, human body parts and a curb chain were found in a tiger shark’s belly. The shark was caught off in the French overseas island of Réunion. Authorities believed them to be a kayaker’s who went missing in the same month while surfing the waters.