There are few “hey, I beat up an animal” stories that make you come out in a good light, but it’s hard to deny that having punched a shark carries a bit of social weight. People respect someone who has come eye-to-eye with a torpedo-shaped mouthful of teeth and decided to feed it a knuckle sandwich, primarily because it’s an insane thing to do.
British amateur surfer and professional doctor Charlie Fry is the most recent person to enter into Australia‘s very prestigious Shark Clocker Hall of Fame, after yesterday afternoon kindly delivering a fist to a shark that decided to snack on his shoulder.
Fry was having a surf at Avoca Beach on NSW‘s Central Coast at about 4pm yesterday when a two-metre shark jumped out of the water and had a go at him. Fry immediately decided to punch the thing in the face, telling ‘Today‘ he was inspired by fellow Shark Clocker Hall of Fame inductee Mick Fanning:
Me and my friends have just started surfing and we saw the YouTube clip of Mick Fanning saying he punched it in the nose. So when it happened I was like, ‘Just do what Mick did, just punch it in the nose’. So, Mick, I owe you a beer.
After punching the shark, Fry hightailed it back to the beach, where he was quickly driven to hospital by friends. Miraculously, he only sustained scratches and a few puncture wounds, but they’re still pretty gnarly:
British doctor tells how he fought off a shark at Avoca. ‘I thought Australia was all snakes and spiders hadn’t thought about sharks.’ pic.twitter.com/oNM0IfBGGH
— Mylee Hogan (@MyleeHogan) November 14, 2017
In that absolutely insane fashion that people who have just narrowly escaped a shark attack seem to operate, Fry says he’s heading back into the water as soon as he’s had a week to heal up – I once had an automatic door not open for me and I’ve never ever gone back to that IGA out of sheer embarrassment, but sure, why not go back to the hobby where you almost lost your arm to a shark. What a legend.
