It is hard to imagine the sheer moment of terror.
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That moment you are enjoying your dive when you come literally face-to-face with a 3.5 m Great White. Wollongong freediver Callum Stewart has lived that moment. Thankfully he survived to tell the tale.
“It did a full 180-degree turn and came back to look at me. That's probably the point I realised I might be in trouble,” he told Illawarra Mercury’s Angela Thompson on Monday.
“The most amazing memory I have is looking this thing dead in the eye, and wondering if that was the last thing I’m going to see.
“I was kind of caught up in the beauty of it. I realised later, it had my fin in its mouth.”
It is hard to read those words without shivering. Amazingly, freediving photographer Mitch Scanlon-Boor managed to capture the incredible moment his mate came face-to-face with the predator of the deep.
It was only late last year we featured Mr Scanlon’s less terrifying and more beautiful images as part of a special feature we did showcasing the beauty of free diving in our waters.
Every time we step into the ocean we are walking into the domain of these majestic animals. Nobody knows that better than divers. It’s an ever present danger particularly when diving near a seal colony.
Luckily, tale’s like Callum’s are rare.mActually attacks in our region are rare. Thank goodness and touch wood.
While some of our northern neighbours have had far more regular and drastic encounters, this region and the South Coast has been largely unscathed despite our love of our beautiful ocean playground.
The most prominent recent major attack was in March, 2016, when a large shark attacked Brett Connellan, savaging his left thigh while on a twilight surf at Bomb. Again, Brett survived to tell the tale thanks to some fast-thinking heroes whose quick action undoubtedly changed the course of history. Even for Callum it was a moment of mixed emotion.
“Once we got back on the boat I was pretty upset and a little bit shocked, but it’s a really beautiful encounter with out of our most revered apex predator. It’s this really weird combination of being terrified, but also completely in awe,” he said.
It’s a story Callum will no doubt recount for the rest of his life.