WEBVTT - Brett Connellan on the Surf That Changed Everything 0:00:00.280 --> 0:00:03.400 We'd like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:06.800 on which this podcast was produced, the Galligle people of 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:10.440 the orination. We pay our respects to Elder's past and present. 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:17.280 It's March twenty sixteen and we're on Bombo Beach, about 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:22.360 two hours south of Sydney. Brett Canellen is here to 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:26.000 try and clear his head. He's had a bad day 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.040 and knows that grabbing his surfboard and heading for the 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:34.440 waves will be the antidote he needs. He's roped his 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:39.800 friend's jol and Aggie into the mood boosting trip. Brett 0:00:39.840 --> 0:00:43.280 heads out into the surf. The sun is starting to 0:00:43.360 --> 0:00:48.040 set and the conditions are good. Brett reflects on the day. 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:51.199 He thinks to himself, at least I've been able to 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:55.360 do something to make me feel better. But Brett's bad 0:00:55.480 --> 0:01:01.320 day is about to become a total nightmare. He's thrown 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:07.680 off his board. The world goes silent. He's too afraid 0:01:07.760 --> 0:01:11.560 to look down. He sees Joel with panic in his eyes, 0:01:11.920 --> 0:01:17.280 racing towards him. I'm at Middleton and this is head 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:23.040 game today. Brett Connelan on the surf that changed everything. 0:01:27.400 --> 0:01:31.320 Super stoked to have Brett Conelan on my podcast Head 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:35.160 Game Now, talk about Headgame Car. He's had to battle 0:01:35.280 --> 0:01:41.679 some serious psychological and physical trauma. He's sitting opposite me 0:01:41.840 --> 0:01:44.679 right now and I can see his leg and that 0:01:44.880 --> 0:01:50.520 is quite the munch, Brett, Car. I can just by 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:52.760 looking at your leg, I can tell that you're super 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:53.400 lucky to have. 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:56.080 It right, Definitely lucky to have it. Calling it a 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:59.360 munch is definitely one way of describing It's. 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:03.800 Not some month has taken a big munch out of you. 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:06.040 Definitely. And it's quite an intro too, isn't it. 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:09.079 Yeah, I was going to get straight into your sat 0:02:09.240 --> 0:02:14.840 opposite there's no other intro to give. Wow, quite a 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:17.760 scene to see. And having sort of seen sort of 0:02:18.360 --> 0:02:21.880 physical trauma in my career in the military and I'm 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:26.359 now sitting opposite you, I appreciate what goes into it 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:31.600 psychologically and the recovery. But have you always been attracted 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:33.639 to the water? You know, what was your upbringing? 0:02:33.720 --> 0:02:37.400 Like? Yeah, I have always been in and around the ocean. 0:02:37.680 --> 0:02:40.640 I grew up in a small seaside town and just 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:43.960 by virtue of proximity to the water, you get into 0:02:44.040 --> 0:02:46.560 nippers and surf club and all these things. So from 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:48.519 a very very young age I was I was always 0:02:48.520 --> 0:02:51.280 in the water, first of all, on a bodyboard. My 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:53.880 dad grew up as a surfer, so he spent time 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:58.520 trying to get family. So it wasn't until I was 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:00.680 eleven years old that I actually jumped on a surfboard 0:03:00.840 --> 0:03:04.400 for the very very first time. And from that moment 0:03:04.639 --> 0:03:07.600 I was one hundred percent just a pure surfer. I 0:03:07.639 --> 0:03:09.280 did a bunch of other sports at that time in 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:11.960 my life and I dropped them all like and just 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.280 wanted to surf. So from that point, like you ask, 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.880 are you a surfer? Then definitely, when was your let's 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:18.880 call it your lucky break. 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:21.400 When did you realize, actually, this is something I can do, 0:03:21.919 --> 0:03:24.000 you know, I could really really get my head into 0:03:24.080 --> 0:03:26.000 and do professionally. 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:30.480 It was It wasn't until much later on, until when 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:33.119 I was about twenty one years old, is when I 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:36.040 had that realization. And I didn't have much success in 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.440 the early days of my surfing. I had success locally 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:40.600 in some of the competitions around where I live and 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:44.200 in board riders, but with the bigger competitions on like 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:48.000 a state in the nationwide level, I had always really 0:03:48.000 --> 0:03:50.400 struggled to get past the second or third round, and 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:53.680 I kind of got to the age of leaving school, 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.440 like eighteen years old, and I was faced with the 0:03:56.480 --> 0:03:58.280 decision of what what do I do with my life? 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.880 Like I had no real solid results that would indicate 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:04.160 that I was going to become a professional surfer, but 0:04:04.280 --> 0:04:06.840 I still wanted surfing to be a big part of 0:04:06.880 --> 0:04:09.480 my life. So I actually moved to the Gold Coast 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:12.840 for university and did Surfing Studies, which sounds like the 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:15.600 most ridiculous, bizarre course that you could ever do in Australia, 0:04:15.680 --> 0:04:19.400 not in Australia exactly. It's the main reason I wanted 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:22.200 to do that was it It's a course that gives 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:24.240 you a look at a bunch of different subjects that 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:27.040 they're all surfing specific. So you'll do marketing and events 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:29.240 management and hopefully you'll find something that you want to 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:31.320 do that you can follow a career with later on. 0:04:32.360 --> 0:04:34.480 But that was one reason that I did it. I 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:37.040 knew it would give me options, especially if the surfing 0:04:37.040 --> 0:04:38.840 thing didn't work out. But the Gold Coast is really 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:42.400 where the surfing scene is in Australia, and moving up 0:04:42.400 --> 0:04:44.520 to there, I knew I was going to at least 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:47.159 have a chance to be seen and noticed, and I'd 0:04:47.200 --> 0:04:50.200 be able to enter a few more events. And when 0:04:50.200 --> 0:04:53.479 I was up there, I loved doing my UNI, and 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.240 it's where I got my first ever proper sponsor. Was 0:04:57.320 --> 0:04:58.960 up there, just surfing a beach one day and a 0:04:58.960 --> 0:05:00.800 guy who made surfboards came up to me and said 0:05:00.800 --> 0:05:02.080 he really liked to look my surfing. 0:05:02.120 --> 0:05:03.800 He wanted to support me. 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:08.120 And that confidence, yeah, really really cool, and that confidence 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:12.760 that built. I ended up moving back from the Gold Coast. Essentially, 0:05:12.760 --> 0:05:14.560 I got sick of how busy it was up there. 0:05:15.200 --> 0:05:17.400 A small town. I'd go for a surf at home, 0:05:17.440 --> 0:05:19.440 there's like three or four people out, whereas you for 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:21.280 a surf at Snapper Rocks or anywhere up there, and 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.919 it's hundreds and I'd always I found it really difficult 0:05:24.960 --> 0:05:27.159 not to be able to find that little pocket or 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:28.240 that corner to myself. 0:05:28.279 --> 0:05:29.960 So I moved home for that. 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.160 But when I did the surfing was you're making decisions 0:05:34.880 --> 0:05:39.360 on your career, on your life due to surfing exactly. Yeah, 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:42.240 you're living and breathing it. Let's be honest, you know UNI, 0:05:42.279 --> 0:05:44.520 You're loving your UNI. But this is what you want 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:44.719 to do. 0:05:44.920 --> 0:05:47.080 Yeah, And my mindset and the reason I did the 0:05:47.200 --> 0:05:49.880 UNI was I've always want to leave the door open 0:05:50.000 --> 0:05:53.160 for professional surfing if it's available, if I keep improving 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:55.680 and things get better, but you've got to be realistic 0:05:55.680 --> 0:05:57.720 and I wanted to back myself up with a career. 0:05:57.760 --> 0:05:59.440 So yeah, there was a lot of decisions. 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:01.720 That were made that I guess from the outside they 0:06:01.760 --> 0:06:04.240 look like they are very very much driven by the 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.760 love of surfing, which which they absolutely were. So when 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:11.040 I moved home, I had kind of settled back into 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.880 working for a surf shop down in Woongone, close to 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:17.480 where I live. I was surfing riding for a new 0:06:17.600 --> 0:06:21.000 surfboard shaper, a new sponsor that I was also working for, 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:24.960 and had actually started surfing for my local board riders 0:06:24.960 --> 0:06:27.480 team that I grew up surfing for again. And this 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:31.080 event popped up called the Australian Board Riders Battle, and 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.720 it's like a team's event where you surf for your club. 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.440 So I had all these people that had grown up 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:40.159 surfing for as a team of six. You go and 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:42.120 surf against all the other board riders clubs in the area. 0:06:42.200 --> 0:06:44.400 And they had one event which was at Bombo Beach, 0:06:44.440 --> 0:06:45.400 my local beach. 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:48.640 And yeah, yeah, yeah. 0:06:48.640 --> 0:06:50.640 It was me, Me and a couple, a couple of 0:06:50.640 --> 0:06:52.440 older guys who had been in the club for a 0:06:52.440 --> 0:06:55.320 long time, and a couple of the younger surfers as well, 0:06:56.120 --> 0:06:59.719 and we ended up winning this competition and it's the 0:06:59.760 --> 0:07:03.640 first competition that our club had won in over twenty years, 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:04.960 so it was really big for our club. 0:07:05.400 --> 0:07:07.240 But what it did is it qualified as. 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:09.520 For the national final of this event, so all the 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:11.920 teams from all over Australia come to it was in 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:14.400 Cronulla that year and compete against each other. 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.240 Do you remember that moment Do you remember thinking wow, 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:19.760 this could potentially be a game changer for me? 0:07:20.200 --> 0:07:23.040 Not immediately. It wasn't until I was actually at the 0:07:23.080 --> 0:07:24.640 event that it all hit me. So the unique thing 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.040 about this event is it was the only event at 0:07:27.040 --> 0:07:32.200 the time where the World Tour actually permitted their surfers 0:07:32.240 --> 0:07:34.520 to compete in. So usually if you're on the World Tour, 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:37.840 you can only compete in World Tour sanctioned events. So 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:41.040 there are some of the best surfers like Mick Fanning 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.680 Owen right, like all these other great surfers who were 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:46.920 just surfing for their local clubs. So when I realized 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.040 it was actually an opportunity to go up against these 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:52.000 people that I dreamed of going up against and surfing against, 0:07:52.760 --> 0:07:56.920 I realized that was probably the opportunity, and that the 0:07:56.960 --> 0:08:02.200 weekend came around for the event and we did better 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:02.840 than expected. 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:05.480 So we came sixth overall, So the sixth best club 0:08:05.600 --> 0:08:06.280 in Australia. 0:08:07.080 --> 0:08:10.440 That's big and it was something that when I actually 0:08:10.560 --> 0:08:13.240 got to sit back and realize what we'd done in 0:08:13.280 --> 0:08:15.800 the space of having a club that hadn't won an 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.400 event in decades to being the sixth best in Australia 0:08:19.440 --> 0:08:21.480 against some of the best surfers in the world, I 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:24.200 realized that, you know, maybe I do belong I think 0:08:24.240 --> 0:08:26.280 being able to surf against some of the best and 0:08:26.400 --> 0:08:30.720 perform and be satisfied, I almost gave myself permission to 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:33.240 believe that it's somewhere where I belonged. 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:36.959 So basically, you've got this opportunity at your feet, you 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:42.200 come six which is great, and then you have a 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:45.480 bad day. Right, talk to me about your bad day, 0:08:45.480 --> 0:08:49.880 because what it leads on to is obviously the month 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:53.520 that I spoke about at the beginning of this podcast. 0:08:53.559 --> 0:08:55.960 But go on how bad was the day? 0:08:56.120 --> 0:09:00.280 So my day started out at two thirty am, received 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:02.920 a phone call from my boss of the surf shop 0:09:02.960 --> 0:09:05.080 that I was managing at the time, saying the shop 0:09:05.080 --> 0:09:08.360 had been broken into. So he said, there's nothing you 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:10.199 can do right now. Obviously I was leaving forty five 0:09:10.200 --> 0:09:11.560 minutes away. You said, I just want to let you know, 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:13.280 so when you come in you know what to expect. 0:09:14.160 --> 0:09:16.760 I think that's a bit of foreshadowing, Like if if 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:18.440 you knew what was to come, I probably should have 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:20.880 gone back to bed and like just called it quits 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:23.960 for the day. But you know, you only look at 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:26.880 these things in hindsight when something's happened, right, So I 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:30.520 going to work that day dealing with police, cleaning up broken. 0:09:30.200 --> 0:09:34.520 Glass, doing all of that. So not a great day definitely. 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:37.440 Like I remember leaving work that day and I was like, 0:09:37.559 --> 0:09:38.600 I just need to go for a So. 0:09:38.640 --> 0:09:40.800 And what they've broken in that? Have they destroyed stuff? 0:09:40.800 --> 0:09:41.880 If they pinched stuff. 0:09:42.000 --> 0:09:44.959 They smashed the front window and stole anything that was 0:09:45.040 --> 0:09:47.000 kind of within arms reach of the window, so it 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:51.040 sounds ridiculous, but they took like backpacks and socks and 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.240 things like that, which is I've always thought it was 0:09:53.280 --> 0:09:55.640 silly because the surfboards that were on the rack are 0:09:55.679 --> 0:09:57.080 worth one thousand dollars. 0:09:57.160 --> 0:09:59.080 But you can't run away with several surfboards. 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:01.480 It's you know, it's always going to be a bad 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:04.640 day if anything gets broken into no doubt. So I 0:10:05.760 --> 0:10:07.959 leave the shop that day and I get in the car. 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:11.720 I sent two messages to both my mates. One to 0:10:11.920 --> 0:10:13.800 my good friend Nick, who I grew up surfing with, 0:10:14.679 --> 0:10:17.000 and another one to a good friend of mine, Joel, 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:20.360 who I. 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:21.520 Had spent a bit of time living with. 0:10:22.040 --> 0:10:24.640 And he's someone who i'd always kind of send a 0:10:24.640 --> 0:10:26.040 message to because he's got the camera. 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:27.719 He'd always come and take photos or film or something 0:10:27.800 --> 0:10:28.040 like that. 0:10:28.080 --> 0:10:29.839 So send a message to Nick, and I was like, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:31.679 can go and go for a surf out Bombo when 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:33.080 I get back. I don't know what it's like, but 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:34.480 I'm going to go out there and send the same 0:10:34.480 --> 0:10:37.280 message to Joel. Nick messaged me and just said I'm 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:39.079 not going to make it, but Joel said, yeah, I'll 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:41.640 try and get down there. I got to the beach 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:45.479 after driving home, so forty five minutes later, Joel. 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:47.120 What time will we time? Do you hit the beach? 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:49.040 Roughly just so about quarter to six? 0:10:49.600 --> 0:10:50.640 Who quarter six at night? 0:10:50.720 --> 0:10:53.320 Yeah, so the sun's so it's. 0:10:53.559 --> 0:10:56.520 Late issue moon to late afternoon at that stage, like 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.679 it is. It's March, so the days are still semi long. 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:03.080 But yeah, I get there and obviously Nick's not there, 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:07.120 and Joel's also not there. Joel is notorious for being late. 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:09.600 Is that mate that if you called to do something, 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.400 you're probably better off calling him an hour before, so 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:14.280 he can get there still a little bit late, but 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:16.679 not as late as what he would So I rock 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:18.560 up in the waves look really fun. So I'm like, okay, 0:11:18.559 --> 0:11:21.000 I'll just go out anyway. And I go down to 0:11:21.040 --> 0:11:24.160 the beach and there's a bunch of people surfing right 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:26.880 up in the northern corner. And as I said, I'm 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:28.480 not a big fan of surfing with these people a 0:11:28.520 --> 0:11:30.320 lot of the time, and especially after that day, I 0:11:30.360 --> 0:11:31.880 was like, I kind of just need to be by 0:11:31.920 --> 0:11:34.000 myself rather than people ask me, you know what I 0:11:34.000 --> 0:11:36.000 think about surfboards and fins and things like that. 0:11:36.120 --> 0:11:38.480 So I spot a little left. 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:39.920 Hand bank down the beach and I'm like, okay, we'll 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:42.280 just go and surf there. I'll be by myself. That'll 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:47.080 be fun. So I'm sitting out there surfing for about 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:49.880 twenty minutes, thirty minutes before I look in and Joel 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:50.360 rocks up. 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:53.560 So it's good. He's that's pretty on time for Joel, 0:11:53.559 --> 0:11:54.080 which is good. 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:56.000 So you're pretty impressed with him at this time. 0:11:56.400 --> 0:12:00.200 I am. I am. So he rocks up, he paddles out, 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:01.560 and we share a few waves. 0:12:01.800 --> 0:12:03.400 Now, did that put a smile on your face? You know, 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:04.960 I know that you want to be alone, but you've 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:07.760 obviously called him for a reason. You've had a crappy day. 0:12:08.120 --> 0:12:10.160 Do you feel better already just hitting the water. 0:12:10.360 --> 0:12:13.200 Yeah, Like I know that I'll always be happier in 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:15.040 the ocean. There's something about being in the salt and 0:12:15.240 --> 0:12:17.760 just surfing that it's always made me feel good, so 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.280 I know it has that, But also like being able 0:12:20.320 --> 0:12:22.440 to share that with someone and talk about the day, 0:12:22.559 --> 0:12:23.240 like that's. 0:12:23.080 --> 0:12:23.880 What that was great for. 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:27.520 So Joel comes out, we share a few waves, I'm 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:28.839 telling him about the day, and. 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:31.680 You know, it's bye. 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:34.840 We'd probably been surfing for like another thirty forty minutes, 0:12:34.880 --> 0:12:37.160 and by that stage I do have a little smile 0:12:37.200 --> 0:12:40.280 on my face, like it hasn't fixed what happened, Like 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:42.880 it hasn't repaired the front window of the shot, but 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:45.800 I feel a lot better because of it, and I'm like, Okay, 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:47.880 at least you know this has all happened, so. 0:12:48.040 --> 0:12:50.199 Yeah, what's done is done. Now it's time to yet. 0:12:50.640 --> 0:12:50.960 Yeah. 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:54.920 So Joel catches a wave and he gets quite a 0:12:55.000 --> 0:12:57.040 nice wave. He's probably about one hundred and fifty meters 0:12:57.080 --> 0:13:01.000 down the beach and I'm just sitting there reflecting on 0:13:01.400 --> 0:13:04.480 the day that's happened, just thinking about where it started, 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:07.200 or obviously all the way back at two thirty am, thinking, 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:08.600 you know, it's been bad, but at least I've been 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:09.240 able to do this. 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:10.840 And I'm looking back towards the beach. 0:13:11.520 --> 0:13:15.480 Joel's now wife, Aggie, she's on the beach, came down 0:13:15.480 --> 0:13:17.640 to watch him surf, which she doesn't usually do. She's 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:20.000 sitting there in a blanket, watching the sun starting to 0:13:20.080 --> 0:13:23.440 kind of go behind the mountain there. And as I'm 0:13:23.640 --> 0:13:25.719 sitting there having that thought of like, at least I've 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:27.760 been able to turn this day around, I get hit 0:13:27.760 --> 0:13:31.959 from my right side with immense force and I got 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.360 thrown off my surfboard and I land in the water. 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:37.800 And before I can even look around to figure out 0:13:38.040 --> 0:13:40.800 what has happened, where it came from, what it is. 0:13:41.120 --> 0:13:43.840 I look down as a shark biting into my leg. 0:13:53.120 --> 0:13:57.040 So, Brette, your first knock is not the bite. No, 0:13:57.400 --> 0:13:59.880 So the first knock is sort of like an Auca attack. 0:14:00.160 --> 0:14:03.000 When they knock the knock the seals off the ice 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:05.840 and then they attack from So that's that's sort of 0:14:05.960 --> 0:14:07.200 is a calculated attack. 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:09.840 It seems like, I mean, it feels like it. 0:14:09.840 --> 0:14:11.480 It's one of those things you don't know in the moment, 0:14:11.559 --> 0:14:14.160 but yeah, looking back on it, and it seems like 0:14:14.400 --> 0:14:17.920 that was, you know, almost the intent of what was 0:14:17.960 --> 0:14:22.880 absolutely so, yeah, I look down and I'm just looking. 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:26.040 I'm confronted because there's this shark biting into my leg, 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:32.560 and there's this there's this really clear moment where everything 0:14:32.640 --> 0:14:36.720 just stops. And I know there's a lot of different 0:14:36.760 --> 0:14:40.160 ways to try and describe this moment, but I think 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:43.800 the best way to try and talk about what it 0:14:43.960 --> 0:14:48.040 felt like is just saying, there's a profound sense of 0:14:48.320 --> 0:14:52.760 reality to the situation. You don't exactly know what's going 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.680 on or how bad it's going to be or anything 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:58.800 like that. You've got no thoughts other than this is real, 0:15:00.120 --> 0:15:05.840 serious yeah, knowing what's happening, and obviously that moment where 0:15:05.840 --> 0:15:09.680 time is kind of standing still, like you're just frozen. 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:14.840 And for me, like I remember just trying to actually 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:19.000 take stock of what's happening, and there's there's probably three 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:22.160 main things that I can recall from that. There's obviously 0:15:22.200 --> 0:15:24.360 more that's going on, but three things that stand out 0:15:24.400 --> 0:15:25.120 to me now. 0:15:26.360 --> 0:15:27.760 The first one is the feel. 0:15:27.560 --> 0:15:30.480 Of the shark's skin, so as it's biting down on 0:15:30.480 --> 0:15:32.720 my leg, I'm trying to like almost push it away 0:15:32.880 --> 0:15:35.440 and can feel this really rough skin on the top 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:36.120 of its nose. 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:39.880 The second thing is just the complete absence of sound. 0:15:40.800 --> 0:15:46.000 There's no water splashing and yeah, there's no no even 0:15:46.440 --> 0:15:47.600 like ringing sound. 0:15:47.600 --> 0:15:49.240 It's just complete silence. 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.720 And this one is really interesting to me because I 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:57.920 know I'm screaming for help straight away because of what 0:15:58.040 --> 0:16:01.520 Joel's recount is, but there's nothing for me, like it's 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.000 just total silence, and it's it's so eerie in that 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:08.720 moment because it doesn't feel real, like there's the things 0:16:08.720 --> 0:16:10.600 don't line up, like you're looking down at something you 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.280 should be able to match things up, and it's not 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:17.440 computing exactly, so there's That's the second thing. And the 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:18.840 third thing I can remember is just the look in 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.000 the shark's eyes. Like I think a lot of people 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.240 think the defining look of a shark would be its 0:16:23.240 --> 0:16:25.920 teeth and how sharp they are. But for me, when 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:28.080 you look at a shark's eye and it's it's got 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.960 no emotion, no feeling, it's just a black dot, and 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:35.360 that that for me is just terrifying, Like it's it's 0:16:35.360 --> 0:16:38.080 something that you know, I say that, you know you 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:39.840 can't reason with it, you can't argue it, you can't 0:16:39.840 --> 0:16:43.600 tell it to stop. There's there's just this feeling of 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:46.320 hopelessness within that moment that you're at the mercy of 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:48.480 this creature and there's just nothing that you can do 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.920 about it. And I think the hopelessness of that moment 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:56.360 kind of sums up the entire experience, Like I'm at 0:16:56.360 --> 0:16:58.920 the mercy of this creature and there's not a whole 0:16:58.920 --> 0:17:00.560 lot that I can do in this situation that's going 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.680 to make it better or help me get out of it. 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:09.680 And that that moment of you know, all of that 0:17:09.680 --> 0:17:11.359 that I just described probably only happened in. 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.239 Two or three so split seconds, and that moment that 0:17:14.280 --> 0:17:16.959 you have because I've experienced it when I've gone been 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:20.679 into combat, when ultimately, when you're walking that line of 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:22.920 life and death, you know, there's you know, you're either 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:24.399 going to come out of it alive or you're going 0:17:24.440 --> 0:17:27.159 to come out of it dead. There's no there's no complications, 0:17:27.160 --> 0:17:31.040 there's no bs, you know, there's no it's it's as 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.360 pure cut as that. You call it the purest form 0:17:33.400 --> 0:17:37.880 of life. And you do. You you can't make sense 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.240 of it, and like you said, you can't hear anything. 0:17:40.280 --> 0:17:45.280 You can't you know, really make any any rational reality 0:17:45.359 --> 0:17:48.400 of it. So therefore that there's those split seconds where 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:50.920 you just almost as if your whole body in your 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:53.440 mind is zoned out in that moment he said, you've 0:17:53.480 --> 0:17:57.080 got your senses. Yeah, that's about it. It's a I've 0:17:57.119 --> 0:17:59.960 experienced it before. But obviously you didn't have a shark 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:04.480 hanging off my leg, fortunately for me. But even that bump, 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:05.960 you didn't even know what was going well, you didn't 0:18:05.960 --> 0:18:08.680 even know what was going on until what the shark 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:11.760 took the chunk out your leg? When did sort of 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:14.560 you know, you know, you sort of flash back into reality, 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:17.359 don't you, And you're just like Wow, what's happened here? 0:18:17.359 --> 0:18:18.960 And how did you get out the water? 0:18:19.359 --> 0:18:21.400 So that that takes a bit of time to kind 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:25.120 of get to that moment. I For the next little while, 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:28.119 I'm doing things, making decisions, trying to react, but I 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:30.600 don't think any of them were decisions that I consciously made. 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:33.480 Like we talked before about that gut instinct and how 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:37.480 that works. What happened after that, totally out of my control, 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.720 obviously worked out for the best. Because I'm alive. I'm 0:18:40.800 --> 0:18:44.159 kind of in that frozen state, and I think the 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.720 first thing that anyone who has heard anything about being 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:49.399 attacked by a shark would assume that you have to 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:51.880 do in a moment like that is punch in the nose. 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:52.680 Poke in the eyes. 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:57.760 Yeah, much easier said than done. I'll say I tried 0:18:57.760 --> 0:18:59.480 to punch it in the nose, but if you've ever 0:18:59.520 --> 0:19:01.520 tried to punch true water, nearly impossible. 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:02.960 Yeah, So that doesn't. 0:19:02.760 --> 0:19:07.719 Work, and I make what is considered to be the 0:19:07.760 --> 0:19:09.520 mistake of pulling away from the shark. 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:12.680 So this is how I lose the chunk of my leg. 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.520 So essentially, when a shark has a hold of your 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:19.360 leg and you pull away from it, it doesn't kind 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:21.120 of get the memo and let go that you don't 0:19:21.119 --> 0:19:23.119 want to be bit by it. It holds onto that 0:19:23.240 --> 0:19:25.320 chunk of flesh and as I pull away from it, 0:19:25.320 --> 0:19:30.120 it just completely separated from my body. So it's a 0:19:30.160 --> 0:19:32.400 gruesome thing to think about. 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:35.439 I have no idea in the moment that that's what's happened. 0:19:36.320 --> 0:19:39.159 You don't even know that half your leg ultimately is missing. 0:19:39.280 --> 0:19:41.359 No, because the first that I the first thing that 0:19:41.400 --> 0:19:42.800 I do is just know not to look down. 0:19:43.640 --> 0:19:46.119 And this is something that I have survival mechanism, exact 0:19:46.160 --> 0:19:49.159 survival mechanism, because you don't want to panic. See, you know, 0:19:49.240 --> 0:19:52.919 something really bad has happened, but you don't want to 0:19:53.600 --> 0:19:55.560 look at it and acknowledge it and then for it 0:19:55.600 --> 0:19:57.720 to compute in your head because then panic will set in. 0:19:57.760 --> 0:19:59.800 And it is a survival mechanism. 0:20:00.000 --> 0:20:00.679 It's really smart. 0:20:01.040 --> 0:20:03.800 I didn't choose to do it, no, it just it 0:20:03.880 --> 0:20:06.639 just happened that way, which I'm incredibly lucky. You know, 0:20:06.720 --> 0:20:08.800 if I did look down and go into shock and panic, 0:20:09.320 --> 0:20:11.160 the outcome, you know, I would. 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:12.920 Have started losing blood quicker. It would have been a 0:20:12.960 --> 0:20:13.400 lot worse. 0:20:13.440 --> 0:20:17.000 So again, instinct is a very strong force and I'm 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:19.400 lucky that that's the instinct that I have. So as 0:20:19.400 --> 0:20:22.399 it separates this chunk from my body, I obviously realized 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:24.040 that this is my chance to escape. So I put 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:25.760 my head down and just start swimming as hard as 0:20:25.760 --> 0:20:28.520 I can towards the beach, and I get about twenty 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:31.639 twenty five meters further in, and I have this this 0:20:31.720 --> 0:20:35.119 is kind of where everything comes back. I have this thought, 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:37.479 which is I wonder if it's going to come back 0:20:37.480 --> 0:20:42.040 again to kind of give you this Where I was, 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:44.560 where I was sitting when it first bit me, that 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:48.960 was probably about one hundred and fifty meters from the shore. 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.919 So I'm still not one hundred meters away from the 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:56.000 shore when I have that thought, and I look over 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.520 my shoulder because you've got to check. And when I 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:02.560 look over my shoulder, I see it rushing towards me 0:21:02.720 --> 0:21:05.800 like it's right there. And again there's nothing now I 0:21:05.840 --> 0:21:07.640 can do in that situation other than put my hands 0:21:07.640 --> 0:21:11.120 out to try and stop it. And I'm right handed, 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:13.240 so my right hand's got pretty good aim. That lands 0:21:13.280 --> 0:21:16.879 square on its nose. Luckily, my left hand takes a 0:21:16.920 --> 0:21:19.520 little detour through its mouth, snags itself on a few teeth. 0:21:19.560 --> 0:21:23.480 These are the not munch the cool scars, Like that's 0:21:23.600 --> 0:21:27.479 just brushed against the tooth there and pulled this massive 0:21:27.560 --> 0:21:29.600 chunk of skin out of my palm. There's a couple 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:33.639 of other little cool teeth marks there, yeah, the cool scars, 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:37.280 but just from brushing against it. And obviously when I 0:21:37.320 --> 0:21:38.719 realize where it is, I try and pull it out 0:21:38.720 --> 0:21:41.320 as fast as I can. And there's this next moment 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:43.080 where I've got like both hands on the nose of 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:45.320 the shark. It's pushed me through the water. I'm feeling 0:21:45.520 --> 0:21:47.480 the power and the force that this thing's got as 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:50.639 it's like kind of swimming me towards the beach, and 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:53.120 I'm like, how do I get away from this time? 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:55.720 Like I had to give up a large chunk of 0:21:55.760 --> 0:21:57.320 my cord the first time, What's it going to take 0:21:57.359 --> 0:21:59.080 this time to get away from it. That's like what 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:02.320 I'm trying to realize in that moment. Obviously this stage, 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:04.359 I've got a little bit more sense, and I'm starting 0:22:04.359 --> 0:22:09.439 to actually compute things a little bit more, and I'm 0:22:09.480 --> 0:22:11.840 looking around because I'm just trying to figure out what's available, 0:22:11.840 --> 0:22:13.359 what I can do. I don't have my surfboard at 0:22:13.359 --> 0:22:15.160 that stage, because when it hit me the first time, 0:22:15.240 --> 0:22:17.760 its teeth cuts through my leg rope. So when I 0:22:17.760 --> 0:22:20.800 got thrown off my surfboarder, I was immediately disconnected from it. 0:22:21.720 --> 0:22:23.720 So I'm looking around to see what I've got. I 0:22:23.760 --> 0:22:25.919 don't have a surfboard, I don't have anything. And I 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:28.880 see a wave approaching because we're just inside where it's breaking, 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:31.639 and I think to myself, I think the only thing 0:22:31.680 --> 0:22:34.400 I can do, like last ditch effort, really is when 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.639 the wave hits me and hits us, try and push 0:22:37.640 --> 0:22:39.480 the shark to one side and just hope that that 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:41.679 way is going to push me into the beach. So 0:22:41.720 --> 0:22:43.960 the waves approaching, I'm like, I hope this works, because 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:46.080 if it doesn't, I'm like, I don't know what's going 0:22:46.080 --> 0:22:49.000 to happen. Next the wave hits me, I pushed it 0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:52.680 to the left and just immediately doing front flips underwater. 0:22:53.040 --> 0:22:55.960 And that's obviously a good thing in this situation because 0:22:55.960 --> 0:22:59.800 it's pushing me towards the beach and I surface after 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:02.160 get then tumbled in quite a way and I'm actually 0:23:02.200 --> 0:23:02.919 able to stand up. 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:04.720 I'm on the sand bank and it's about waste eap 0:23:04.800 --> 0:23:06.000 the water, so it's good. 0:23:06.000 --> 0:23:07.679 It's washed me in quite a way. And I look 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:10.560 up again, and luckily I don't see the shark another time. 0:23:11.160 --> 0:23:12.919 I look up and see my good mate Joel, just 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:14.760 paddling towards me as fast as he can. 0:23:15.800 --> 0:23:17.320 So luckily he'd heard. 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:20.159 My screams back at the start when I couldn't hear anything, 0:23:20.640 --> 0:23:24.720 and luckily he made the brave decision to paddle towards 0:23:24.720 --> 0:23:27.520 me instead of to the beach. And the first thing 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:29.240 he says, he looks back on. He says, it's the 0:23:29.280 --> 0:23:31.280 dumbest thing to ask, but he says, is it bad. 0:23:32.520 --> 0:23:35.520 I'm like, mate, I'm like, it's not good. 0:23:36.560 --> 0:23:40.400 So he realizes, like he can obviously he can see 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:42.080 the blood in the water. He can see how bad 0:23:42.119 --> 0:23:45.679 it is just from where he is, and he just 0:23:45.760 --> 0:23:48.199 puts me on his surfboard and tries to get me 0:23:48.200 --> 0:23:48.720 into the beach. 0:23:49.000 --> 0:23:50.920 And he takes me all the way into the beach. 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:53.119 It takes quite a while because we get stuck in 0:23:53.160 --> 0:23:55.960 a little rip, and like it's one of those things 0:23:55.960 --> 0:23:59.000 where I'm losing energy as we're getting close to the beach. 0:23:59.040 --> 0:23:59.600 So I'm able to. 0:23:59.600 --> 0:24:04.600 Help and less losing consciousness. I can't imagine. I can't 0:24:04.640 --> 0:24:09.600 believe how switched on you were, because in a sense 0:24:09.600 --> 0:24:12.040 of panic like that, especially when you start to realize 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:15.080 it's like, don't look behind, just just swim just you know, 0:24:15.200 --> 0:24:17.359 just just get out of here. And if you didn't 0:24:17.400 --> 0:24:20.399 have looked behind you, you didn't see, then you'd no 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:22.960 doubt not be here. You know, let's let's be honest, 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:27.520 when do you first take a look? Obviously Joel's in there, 0:24:27.520 --> 0:24:30.280 you're on your board, you get when do you have 0:24:30.400 --> 0:24:33.800 the nerve to take a look to see, like Joel said, 0:24:33.840 --> 0:24:35.879 how bad it is because you didn't know at this stage. 0:24:35.960 --> 0:24:39.000 Right three weeks after it happened, I realized there was 0:24:39.320 --> 0:24:41.080 nothing good was going to come from looking down at 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:44.520 the lake. I could sense just by the way that 0:24:44.600 --> 0:24:46.600 Joel looked at it that there wasn't something. 0:24:46.400 --> 0:24:49.080 That So when you stand up in the in the sand, you. 0:24:50.200 --> 0:24:52.880 I can't feel anything. There's no pain the whole time. 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:56.240 Yeah, and that's so that's another thing that's kind of 0:24:56.240 --> 0:24:58.080 helping me there, that I just don't know. 0:24:58.480 --> 0:25:00.280 You're almost better off being blisfuly. 0:25:00.119 --> 0:25:03.199 Ye, naive to the to the attack. 0:25:03.320 --> 0:25:06.040 Yeah, yeah, so I I didn't look for for a 0:25:06.080 --> 0:25:08.680 long time, but could easily tell just by not only Joel, 0:25:08.720 --> 0:25:10.639 but as more people came over to try. 0:25:10.520 --> 0:25:13.080 And help how bad it was. 0:25:13.240 --> 0:25:15.679 So it was one of those things that almost paints 0:25:15.720 --> 0:25:19.119 itself like in your own head, which is as you know, 0:25:19.320 --> 0:25:23.480 that can be its own, you know, struggle when it 0:25:23.520 --> 0:25:26.440 comes to the expectations that you formed further down the track. 0:25:26.480 --> 0:25:28.480 But I wasn't thinking that far ahead at the time. 0:25:29.040 --> 0:25:32.320 Wow, so you hit the hit the shore. What's your 0:25:32.400 --> 0:25:36.720 last memory of of of sort of being on the 0:25:36.760 --> 0:25:39.600 shoreline once you're once you're you know you're safe. 0:25:39.920 --> 0:25:40.160 Yeah. 0:25:40.200 --> 0:25:42.960 So I was conscious on the beach right up intol 0:25:42.960 --> 0:25:46.560 the helicopter took me away. So I was there when 0:25:47.240 --> 0:25:48.879 Joel ran off to go and get help from his 0:25:48.880 --> 0:25:51.560 partner Aggie. I was there when another bystander on the beach, 0:25:51.560 --> 0:25:53.560 whose names John, came over and helped Joe tie the 0:25:53.600 --> 0:25:56.280 torner cave. I could remember all the people who were 0:25:56.280 --> 0:25:58.320 surfing on that bank further up in the north corner 0:25:58.359 --> 0:26:00.119 as they came in one by one, and there's face 0:26:00.280 --> 0:26:03.040 that I know, and seeing the shock on their faces 0:26:03.080 --> 0:26:05.240 and like I was almost I. 0:26:05.200 --> 0:26:06.280 See you're pretty coherent. 0:26:06.400 --> 0:26:10.399 I'm really like I I think I tried to stay 0:26:10.440 --> 0:26:13.040 as calm as I could throughout that situation, because if 0:26:13.080 --> 0:26:16.840 I was panicking, that wasn't going to be good. My 0:26:16.840 --> 0:26:18.880 my tactic, I guess it would be, was when people 0:26:18.920 --> 0:26:21.080 had come up like a new person, I'd say how 0:26:21.119 --> 0:26:22.640 are you to them? So I remember like my good 0:26:22.680 --> 0:26:24.800 mate Geordie, who I did competitions with when I was younger. 0:26:24.840 --> 0:26:26.240 He came up and was like, hey, Jeordie, how are you? 0:26:26.280 --> 0:26:30.240 And he just looked at my leg and was like, big, yeah. 0:26:30.000 --> 0:26:30.880 I'm good buddy. Here. 0:26:31.080 --> 0:26:35.800 You know I'm looking so good that Wow. I'm incredibly 0:26:35.880 --> 0:26:36.399 lucky to be live. 0:26:36.440 --> 0:26:40.320 Obviously, yeah, absolutely, I'm I'm lucky with where the shark 0:26:40.359 --> 0:26:43.240 bit me. It missed my femeral artery by two millimeters. 0:26:43.960 --> 0:26:45.679 If that had been seven, I would have made it 0:26:45.680 --> 0:26:47.720 to the beach. I was lucky that Joel was there, 0:26:47.760 --> 0:26:49.760 obviously he would know his track record and being there 0:26:49.760 --> 0:26:52.760 on time. I was lucky to paddle towards me. I 0:26:52.800 --> 0:26:54.920 was lucky that his partner was on the beach that afternoon. 0:26:54.960 --> 0:26:57.280 She's an intensive care nurse, so the first respond is 0:26:57.280 --> 0:27:00.199 an intensive care nurse. John that I mentioned before, off 0:27:00.280 --> 0:27:04.120 duty nurse. I've spoken like I'm incredibly lucky to be here. 0:27:04.119 --> 0:27:07.800 And I've spoken to those people about the incident, obviously 0:27:08.000 --> 0:27:10.560 long after it's been and I remember John saying that 0:27:11.720 --> 0:27:15.320 for all the situations that he's been in, anything medically related, 0:27:15.320 --> 0:27:18.119 anything emergency related, he said, that's the calmest that's been 0:27:18.200 --> 0:27:20.600 And he says he thinks it's just due to how 0:27:20.640 --> 0:27:23.800 calm I was, and in which I guess I was 0:27:23.840 --> 0:27:27.600 trying to manage things in that moment. I think that 0:27:27.840 --> 0:27:31.600 just my approach just came out of almost the fear of, 0:27:32.280 --> 0:27:34.520 you know, knowing what could happen if it was as 0:27:34.560 --> 0:27:37.520 bad as what it could be. So I was almost 0:27:37.560 --> 0:27:40.960 just trying to remain disconnected from it for as long 0:27:40.960 --> 0:27:43.280 as I could, which explains not looking at the leg for. 0:27:43.600 --> 0:27:45.840 Say, definitely defense mechanism. 0:27:46.040 --> 0:27:48.439 So like I having all those people do all the 0:27:48.520 --> 0:27:51.919 right things on the beach is I can't credit them 0:27:52.000 --> 0:27:55.080 enough with saving my life and doing everything they could 0:27:55.080 --> 0:27:58.400 to get emergency services there in the helicopter. The last 0:27:58.440 --> 0:28:02.720 memory I have was getting loaded into the helicopter and 0:28:03.040 --> 0:28:04.560 my mom and dad got down to the beach. 0:28:05.640 --> 0:28:07.240 Oh your mom and dad were. 0:28:08.000 --> 0:28:12.640 They lived five minutes away, So that's its own thing 0:28:12.720 --> 0:28:16.639 like I up until that stage, like until my parents 0:28:16.720 --> 0:28:20.000 got there, it was very much process and survival and 0:28:20.040 --> 0:28:22.720 all of these things. When they got there, that's when 0:28:22.760 --> 0:28:27.840 emotion comes in. And that's emotion comes from seeing my 0:28:27.960 --> 0:28:31.960 mom obviously distraught, like she doesn't know what this situation 0:28:32.040 --> 0:28:33.200 is going to lead to, if it's going to be 0:28:33.200 --> 0:28:34.760 the loss of her son, what that's going to be. 0:28:35.480 --> 0:28:37.439 It's really tough seeing your mom in a situation like that. 0:28:37.480 --> 0:28:39.000 I think I had a harder time seeing my dad 0:28:39.000 --> 0:28:41.960 in a situation like that, and the reason isn't easy 0:28:42.000 --> 0:28:43.960 to protect her is and I think just what the 0:28:44.000 --> 0:28:47.160 situation was. So as my dad's worked in foreign rescue 0:28:47.200 --> 0:28:51.120 his whole life, so he arrived almost ready to jump 0:28:51.200 --> 0:28:53.200 into action, like he's used to being a part of 0:28:53.200 --> 0:28:55.760 these situations and knows how to help out, coordinate things, 0:28:55.840 --> 0:28:58.320 do all this, but instead of being able to do 0:28:58.640 --> 0:29:02.120 any of that, he's actually being held back, not being 0:29:02.120 --> 0:29:05.600 able to do what's normal, And like, can you imagine 0:29:05.600 --> 0:29:07.440 what that'll be like if you were in a situation 0:29:07.600 --> 0:29:10.720 like that and you can't you can't help. And there's 0:29:10.760 --> 0:29:13.520 there's actually a photo of me getting taken off the 0:29:13.560 --> 0:29:16.080 beach and Dad just standing on the outside just looking 0:29:16.640 --> 0:29:21.480 like there's he's just stunning ghost, and that those emotions 0:29:21.520 --> 0:29:26.200 are what makes that whole situation so different in that 0:29:26.320 --> 0:29:28.280 moment to what it was the entire time. 0:29:28.120 --> 0:29:28.760 Up until there. 0:29:28.880 --> 0:29:32.000 And when the emotions kicked in. Was that did that 0:29:32.040 --> 0:29:34.120 go from you going hey, hey, you doing mate to 0:29:34.920 --> 0:29:36.880 being in a different headspace? 0:29:37.320 --> 0:29:37.960 I would say so. 0:29:38.080 --> 0:29:41.800 But it's also the time in that whole scenario where 0:29:42.240 --> 0:29:46.360 they'd given me painkillers and they'd started. 0:29:46.040 --> 0:29:46.880 To really take over. 0:29:47.040 --> 0:29:52.320 So like there was as I'm getting, you know, loaded 0:29:52.360 --> 0:29:55.280 onto the helicopter, I just remember Mum. She really wanted 0:29:55.280 --> 0:29:58.240 to come with me, but there was a tiny helicopter 0:29:58.280 --> 0:30:01.480 and she couldn't come, and she was like she was 0:30:01.520 --> 0:30:04.440 at that point where she was like, is this actually 0:30:04.480 --> 0:30:05.760 going to be the last time I see my son? 0:30:05.760 --> 0:30:06.800 I don't know if he's going to make it to 0:30:06.800 --> 0:30:08.480 the hospital, and she's got to go sit in a 0:30:08.520 --> 0:30:10.360 calf two hours to get to the hospital and not 0:30:10.400 --> 0:30:11.600 know what the outcome is going to be on the 0:30:11.640 --> 0:30:17.920 other side. And I think there's that's like the last 0:30:17.920 --> 0:30:20.360 thought that I have as I as I go in 0:30:20.400 --> 0:30:22.560 there and end up getting knocked out by all these 0:30:22.600 --> 0:30:26.560 painkillers and things like that, So the do. 0:30:26.520 --> 0:30:28.440 You can't remember anything from the helicopter ride. 0:30:28.960 --> 0:30:30.720 I had a dream when I was on the helicopter, 0:30:32.280 --> 0:30:36.880 which was a really strange dream. I essentially dreamt my recovery. 0:30:38.000 --> 0:30:42.880 So I dreamt waking up in hospital hearing that I had, 0:30:43.040 --> 0:30:45.000 you know, these injuries to my leg and that I 0:30:45.040 --> 0:30:47.400 had to learn how to walk. In in my dream, I'm 0:30:47.440 --> 0:30:50.320 like in the gym lifting weights, learning like slowly learning 0:30:50.360 --> 0:30:52.400 how to walk and getting back to a normal life 0:30:52.520 --> 0:30:55.680 and the now you can. Sometimes you have those dreams 0:30:55.680 --> 0:30:58.800 that are so real, but they also you know they're 0:30:58.840 --> 0:30:59.280 a dream. 0:30:59.760 --> 0:31:00.520 Yea, yeah, it was. 0:31:01.280 --> 0:31:03.320 It was one of those ones. So it was almost 0:31:03.360 --> 0:31:05.640 like this, it kind OF's nearing to the end of 0:31:05.640 --> 0:31:07.920 the dream and you feel like you're almost got to 0:31:07.960 --> 0:31:11.000 go back to square one. I've never been someone who 0:31:11.080 --> 0:31:15.160 would consider myself, you know, typically spiritual in any sort 0:31:15.200 --> 0:31:18.000 of way, but I think there's something about that dream 0:31:18.000 --> 0:31:22.120 which was almost instructive of the recovery, even though it 0:31:22.200 --> 0:31:25.240 wasn't real, I think it at least showed me that 0:31:25.280 --> 0:31:27.680 there's a narrative that you can tell yourself that it 0:31:27.680 --> 0:31:30.840 can happen. And that's where I think in times of 0:31:30.920 --> 0:31:33.280 uncertainty and in times when your backs against the wall, 0:31:34.200 --> 0:31:35.840 a lot of the times, that's the only thing that 0:31:35.840 --> 0:31:38.360 you've got, it's the only thing you can control. So 0:31:38.520 --> 0:31:41.000 I think I lean on that dream quite a lot 0:31:41.200 --> 0:31:42.920 when you know, I wake up in the hospital and 0:31:42.960 --> 0:31:45.680 I am back at square one, and I'm like, this sucks, 0:31:45.720 --> 0:31:48.040 Like I've got to deal with this in real time 0:31:48.120 --> 0:31:53.120 now and go through everything. But there's that little piece 0:31:53.120 --> 0:31:56.680 where you like, I kind of know that something can happen, 0:31:56.680 --> 0:31:59.120 that something can be made of this situation, as bad 0:31:59.120 --> 0:32:01.040 as it can be, and like, at that stage, you 0:32:01.040 --> 0:32:03.520 don't really even know what the future is going to 0:32:03.600 --> 0:32:05.760 look like, because I didn't know the full extent of 0:32:05.760 --> 0:32:08.200 my injuries as of yet, and I didn't know what 0:32:08.280 --> 0:32:10.360 it was going to take to be able to get 0:32:10.400 --> 0:32:13.320 back to any sort of normality in my life. So 0:32:13.400 --> 0:32:18.480 that the dream itself is it's something that it could 0:32:18.520 --> 0:32:20.520 easily just be looked at and been like, it's just 0:32:20.560 --> 0:32:23.920 a dream, it's nothing, but you took holder that. 0:32:24.040 --> 0:32:25.360 I think, yeah, it was. 0:32:25.480 --> 0:32:27.320 Again, it was one of the few things that I 0:32:27.360 --> 0:32:31.040 had to kind of, you know, grab onto in those 0:32:31.040 --> 0:32:32.080 early days for sure. 0:32:41.480 --> 0:32:46.360 So when do you actually realize the severity of the 0:32:46.400 --> 0:32:50.320 shark attack. You know when you the first time you 0:32:50.640 --> 0:32:51.520 look at your leg. 0:32:52.520 --> 0:32:56.840 So again, like, there's that happened three weeks after the attack, 0:32:56.920 --> 0:32:59.480 so a lot happens in that time. The first time 0:32:59.480 --> 0:33:02.040 I actually realized as the severity of the attack was 0:33:02.080 --> 0:33:04.560 when the doctors were telling me about it. So they 0:33:05.120 --> 0:33:07.800 come in early on after they've been able to assess it. 0:33:08.600 --> 0:33:11.400 They're like, you've lost about three quarters of your left quad, 0:33:11.840 --> 0:33:13.080 so it's pretty bad. 0:33:13.120 --> 0:33:14.720 We're not sure if we're gonna have to amputate or not. 0:33:15.120 --> 0:33:17.320 So there was a question that they might have to 0:33:17.360 --> 0:33:18.280 take it off completely. 0:33:18.400 --> 0:33:20.800 Yeah, they were really unsure in the early days. They 0:33:20.840 --> 0:33:24.120 were saying, we're still like they said, it was a 0:33:24.160 --> 0:33:26.520 mess when it first came in, covered in sand and 0:33:26.600 --> 0:33:29.120 just bits everywhere, and they couldn't they couldn't really figure 0:33:29.160 --> 0:33:31.800 out what was left, what was taken. So they were 0:33:31.840 --> 0:33:33.520 really really unsure, and they're like, we don't know if 0:33:33.520 --> 0:33:35.720 there's been any damage to the actual bone, and if 0:33:35.720 --> 0:33:37.400 there's damage to the bone, they like, we will have 0:33:37.440 --> 0:33:37.920 to amputate. 0:33:38.800 --> 0:33:40.360 So I just remember the first time I heard them. 0:33:40.320 --> 0:33:46.240 Saying amputators scared me so much, And I just remember 0:33:46.400 --> 0:33:48.440 first of all just being like, if there's anything else 0:33:48.440 --> 0:33:51.000 we can do, like, I'll take that option. I don't 0:33:51.040 --> 0:33:54.960 care what, because there's something about like obviously there's a 0:33:54.960 --> 0:33:56.680 point where it's not a choice and you don't really 0:33:56.760 --> 0:33:59.120 get to choose whether your leg gets amputated or not. 0:33:59.160 --> 0:34:02.200 But I just remember how the thought of after they 0:34:02.320 --> 0:34:05.040 told me where the wound was and everything, the idea 0:34:05.040 --> 0:34:08.200 of throwing away the knee down, which is perfectly fine. 0:34:08.960 --> 0:34:10.200 I was like, I don't want to have to do that, 0:34:10.360 --> 0:34:14.880 like it's getting rid of good parts. So I was like, 0:34:14.960 --> 0:34:16.719 if there's anything, and they're like, we're looking into a 0:34:16.760 --> 0:34:18.719 few other things they can do. So they came back 0:34:19.480 --> 0:34:22.280 the day after and they like, we're looking into this operation, 0:34:22.320 --> 0:34:24.640 which is going to be a bit of an experiment 0:34:24.760 --> 0:34:26.239 in a way, just to see what we can do. 0:34:27.480 --> 0:34:30.399 What they ended up doing is they took my entire 0:34:30.480 --> 0:34:33.480 left lap muscle from my back and they transplanted that 0:34:33.520 --> 0:34:36.319 into my leg. So as you look at my munch 0:34:36.400 --> 0:34:38.320 leg that there is actually my back muscle. 0:34:39.080 --> 0:34:41.799 Oh way, bash your back muscle. Yeah. 0:34:42.120 --> 0:34:45.239 So they take the lap muscle from the back transplant 0:34:45.320 --> 0:34:47.319 that into the leg. Because it's about fifteen centimeters of 0:34:47.320 --> 0:34:50.120 exposed bone that they've got to cover up, so they 0:34:50.160 --> 0:34:52.279 put that in there. They connected blood supply to keep 0:34:52.280 --> 0:34:54.480 it alive. They connected nerve, which they say might make 0:34:54.520 --> 0:34:56.799 it work at some point in the future, but it's 0:34:56.840 --> 0:34:58.759 not about that. It's just about trying to stave off 0:34:58.800 --> 0:35:01.320 the imputation. So they do a bunch of skin grafts 0:35:01.320 --> 0:35:04.879 and that's what they did for the operation, and there 0:35:04.920 --> 0:35:07.319 was so much uncertainty with that, but I was just 0:35:07.360 --> 0:35:09.719 happy that I had the chance to keep it. So 0:35:09.760 --> 0:35:12.240 I was like, whatever, what they can do now, it's amazing. 0:35:12.280 --> 0:35:14.680 It is amazing what they can do in the operating theater. 0:35:14.840 --> 0:35:17.480 One thing doctors haven't quite nailed though, is the delivery 0:35:17.520 --> 0:35:19.360 of the prognosis, because they're like, we've been able to 0:35:19.360 --> 0:35:22.799 do this great thing, but we don't think you're going 0:35:22.800 --> 0:35:24.960 to be able to walk again, and you're definitely not 0:35:24.960 --> 0:35:29.120 going to surf again. So that's reality coming straight back. 0:35:29.239 --> 0:35:32.120 So like, you get given this whole but then just 0:35:32.200 --> 0:35:36.680 taken straight back away, and that was its own thing 0:35:36.719 --> 0:35:40.320 to deal with. And I think another reason why it 0:35:40.360 --> 0:35:42.080 took me so long to look down at my leg 0:35:42.200 --> 0:35:43.719 is just because I knew if I was going to 0:35:43.719 --> 0:35:45.680 look at it and it looked bad. I'd just fall 0:35:45.719 --> 0:35:49.200 into believing what they'd said. So I was like, I 0:35:49.239 --> 0:35:50.960 just want to put it off for as long as possible, 0:35:51.000 --> 0:35:53.240 focus on what I can. And it was hard because 0:35:53.280 --> 0:35:55.400 I was getting some of the operations, especially when they 0:35:55.400 --> 0:35:57.960 were changing my dressings where they lift my leg up 0:35:58.160 --> 0:36:03.480 because I because I had no quad muscle to oppose 0:36:03.520 --> 0:36:06.080 the hamstring, my leg was hyper flexible, so they could 0:36:06.080 --> 0:36:07.400 lift it up where it was like next to my 0:36:07.480 --> 0:36:10.960 head and I know it's right there and I'm I'm 0:36:10.960 --> 0:36:13.520 looking away, but I I'm. 0:36:13.560 --> 0:36:17.280 Just imagine you're going yeah, and I'm still not gonna 0:36:17.320 --> 0:36:19.359 you know that takes willpower maybe to be fair. 0:36:19.640 --> 0:36:24.480 Well, I got a glimpse of it very early on 0:36:24.560 --> 0:36:27.680 where part of the dressing on the upper leg had 0:36:27.680 --> 0:36:30.880 fallen down and that's where it's all stapled together, and 0:36:30.920 --> 0:36:32.440 it just looked like a zipper that was trying to 0:36:32.440 --> 0:36:34.480 pull apart, and I was like that again, it was 0:36:34.520 --> 0:36:36.360 just reminded. I just didn't want to look at it. 0:36:37.400 --> 0:36:42.399 So throughout those three weeks, I'm obviously dealing with what 0:36:42.440 --> 0:36:44.680 life's going to look like. I'm trying to figure out 0:36:44.680 --> 0:36:49.200 how to live life from there and there's obviously the 0:36:49.239 --> 0:36:52.600 reality of what that might look like, but then you're 0:36:52.600 --> 0:36:54.400 also trying to give yourself that bit of hope of 0:36:54.440 --> 0:36:57.600 being like, you know, maybe maybe maybe we can we 0:36:57.640 --> 0:37:02.080 can do something to overcome this. And the first time 0:37:02.120 --> 0:37:04.239 I did look at the leg I had to kind 0:37:04.239 --> 0:37:06.040 of get myself ready for it. I had to tell, 0:37:06.160 --> 0:37:07.880 you know, people around me, Okay, this is going to 0:37:07.920 --> 0:37:09.160 be the day, and actually have a look. 0:37:10.400 --> 0:37:12.160 And to be honest, it wasn't as bad as what I. 0:37:12.080 --> 0:37:15.720 Thought, which is that's a number bonus. 0:37:15.400 --> 0:37:18.480 Right it is, And I think it really kind of 0:37:18.520 --> 0:37:21.560 just goes to show the way in which we can 0:37:21.600 --> 0:37:24.239 paint those pictures in our heads of how bad and 0:37:24.280 --> 0:37:29.480 how terrible things can be, and it's not always the case, 0:37:29.560 --> 0:37:32.000 but a lot of the time they're not as bad 0:37:32.040 --> 0:37:36.080 as what you think. And I think that was probably 0:37:36.320 --> 0:37:38.440 I mean, it might have been a different story if 0:37:38.440 --> 0:37:41.440 I looked down and it was it was awful, But 0:37:41.719 --> 0:37:44.319 I remember looking down and being like, we can work 0:37:44.320 --> 0:37:47.200 with this. It's not as bad as what I think. 0:37:47.320 --> 0:37:51.280 And at that stage, I'd gotten a heap of support, 0:37:51.719 --> 0:37:55.520 so I'd started getting messages from people, you know, friends, 0:37:55.600 --> 0:37:58.600 family members, community, all of these people like people you 0:37:58.640 --> 0:38:03.360 wouldn't expect as well. Yeah, and then the surfing community worldwide. 0:38:04.200 --> 0:38:07.800 I remember when I was growing up, there's a surfing 0:38:07.840 --> 0:38:11.960 magazine called STAB Magazine, and it was my favorite magazine. 0:38:12.080 --> 0:38:13.440 My dream for so long is to. 0:38:13.400 --> 0:38:17.080 Get a video featured on their website, and it wasn't 0:38:17.160 --> 0:38:18.880 until I was attacked by a shark and they did 0:38:18.920 --> 0:38:21.200 a story on it that one of my videos that 0:38:21.239 --> 0:38:23.960 I did with Joel made it onto their website and 0:38:23.960 --> 0:38:26.520 people actually saw it and loved it, and I started 0:38:26.520 --> 0:38:29.279 getting support off that, started getting people like Owen and 0:38:29.360 --> 0:38:31.759 Mick Fanning and Kelly Slater sending me messages and I was. 0:38:31.719 --> 0:38:33.080 Like, oh, wow, that's cool. 0:38:33.520 --> 0:38:37.440 The support that you receive in those times is it's incredible. 0:38:37.800 --> 0:38:40.719 And I don't think you realize the support that you 0:38:40.760 --> 0:38:44.160 have until something bad happens, and it's honestly, it's a 0:38:44.200 --> 0:38:47.319 terrible way to find out. And I felt all of that, 0:38:47.560 --> 0:38:50.160 and there's one person who's part of that support, who 0:38:50.239 --> 0:38:54.240 I credit with essentially i'd say, changing my life, definitely 0:38:54.320 --> 0:38:57.080 changing the course of my recovery. So I'm laying in 0:38:57.080 --> 0:38:59.200 hospital one day and I get a text message come through. 0:38:59.880 --> 0:39:02.879 It's from a number that I don't know. But guy 0:39:02.920 --> 0:39:05.200 introduces himself. He says, hey, my name Scott. Actually went 0:39:05.239 --> 0:39:08.880 to school with Joel. I'm a physiotherapist from a local 0:39:08.880 --> 0:39:12.520 physiotherapy clinic in Kayama, so very close to to where 0:39:12.520 --> 0:39:14.680 I live. He kind of he'd heard about me and 0:39:14.760 --> 0:39:17.600 my story and he just wanted to offer his services 0:39:17.600 --> 0:39:20.960 in physiotherapy to help me get better. And he said, look, 0:39:20.960 --> 0:39:23.000 you've obviously got a long road ahead of you. We said, 0:39:23.000 --> 0:39:25.759 people failed not from aiming too high and missing, but 0:39:25.880 --> 0:39:28.640 from aiming too low and hitting. He said, look ab 0:39:28.719 --> 0:39:33.200 with determination and set lofty goals. And I remember steering 0:39:33.239 --> 0:39:36.520 at that message for a good ten to fifteen minutes 0:39:37.080 --> 0:39:40.640 and just thinking about essentially what it meant. And the 0:39:40.680 --> 0:39:42.880 first thing, like, I had to figure out what it 0:39:42.880 --> 0:39:44.799 means to aim too low and to miss, because that's 0:39:44.840 --> 0:39:47.080 something that we don't really think about all that often. 0:39:47.840 --> 0:39:50.760 And I guess the best way I used to describe 0:39:50.760 --> 0:39:53.480 it is like, and you'd have to excuse the lack 0:39:53.480 --> 0:39:55.640 of a better metaphor and a story about a shark attack, 0:39:55.680 --> 0:39:57.439 but what it means to aim too low and to miss, 0:39:57.480 --> 0:40:00.480 it's the equivalent of like choosing to go fish in 0:40:00.520 --> 0:40:02.920 a puddle or a pond as opposed to the vast 0:40:02.960 --> 0:40:05.759 open ocean. Yeah, the puddle in the pond can be 0:40:05.760 --> 0:40:08.760 safe and comfortable, but you're fishing there at the expense 0:40:08.840 --> 0:40:11.560 of Yeah, of course. So it got me to look 0:40:11.600 --> 0:40:14.200 at the goal that I was going to set. So 0:40:14.239 --> 0:40:16.440 I had to look at what it meant to be 0:40:16.560 --> 0:40:19.040 ambitious and to set a lofty goal, but also what 0:40:19.080 --> 0:40:21.400 it means to miss and what failure you know, what 0:40:21.480 --> 0:40:24.520 role failure plays. And I realized the only thing that 0:40:24.560 --> 0:40:27.439 would stop me from setting a lofty and ambitious goal 0:40:27.640 --> 0:40:30.640 from that point was the fear of failure, which was 0:40:30.719 --> 0:40:32.480 kind of easy for me to cast aside at that 0:40:32.520 --> 0:40:35.120 point in time because I had no other options. There 0:40:35.160 --> 0:40:38.759 was only really opportunity in front of me. And we 0:40:38.800 --> 0:40:42.200 talked about, you know, that regret. I didn't want to 0:40:42.200 --> 0:40:44.040 look back and didn't think I made the most of 0:40:44.040 --> 0:40:45.719 my recovery. So I just replied to Scott and said, 0:40:45.719 --> 0:40:48.440 you think I'll be able to surf again? And he 0:40:48.520 --> 0:40:51.279 was like, yeah, because if that's your thought that. 0:40:51.360 --> 0:40:55.279 The doctor said you not, you'd be lucky if you 0:40:55.360 --> 0:40:58.480 walk again, let alone surf, And so you went straight 0:40:58.560 --> 0:40:58.960 up to. 0:40:59.120 --> 0:41:00.440 I went straight straight to me. 0:41:00.960 --> 0:41:06.920 And it's obviously, like it can seem silly to a 0:41:06.920 --> 0:41:09.120 lot of people to be like, why would you know 0:41:09.280 --> 0:41:10.960 have the hubris to think that you can do that? 0:41:11.840 --> 0:41:15.120 But I think just hearing Scott's encouragement, like he was like, mate, 0:41:15.160 --> 0:41:17.120 if that's your thought, that's all we need, shows me 0:41:17.160 --> 0:41:19.719 your intention. I'll set up a recovery program that will 0:41:19.760 --> 0:41:21.520 head us in the direction of helping you surf again. 0:41:22.080 --> 0:41:23.680 He said, I have no idea how far we'll get, 0:41:23.680 --> 0:41:26.319 but at least let's give it a crack. That that 0:41:26.400 --> 0:41:29.920 for me, kickstarted my recovery Like it didn't happen overnight, 0:41:30.000 --> 0:41:33.839 took time, but working closely with Scott, he was the 0:41:33.880 --> 0:41:35.680 perfect person to help me get through it. Like I 0:41:37.160 --> 0:41:40.440 can't credit him enough with helping me get through that obviously, 0:41:40.600 --> 0:41:41.920 Like I'm the one that has to get in there 0:41:41.960 --> 0:41:44.640 every single day and do the work, but without having 0:41:44.719 --> 0:41:48.880 him believe in me and actually support me through that, 0:41:48.920 --> 0:41:51.680 like it was good to It's really good to have 0:41:51.760 --> 0:41:55.520 someone who can help you physically work your way through it, 0:41:55.600 --> 0:41:57.040 but then to be there as a friend and a 0:41:57.080 --> 0:41:59.399 mate and a supporter who wants the best for you 0:41:59.440 --> 0:42:03.600 like that, I think is a pretty unstoppable combination. So 0:42:03.640 --> 0:42:06.600 he helped me massively over the coming months as we 0:42:06.920 --> 0:42:08.360 worked our way through this recovery. 0:42:08.840 --> 0:42:13.040 How long after until you let's let's get past the 0:42:13.080 --> 0:42:15.759 walking bit, let's go straight to this. So how long 0:42:16.440 --> 0:42:19.320 after till you jumped on a surfboard and you caught 0:42:19.760 --> 0:42:22.680 your first wave after the shark attack? 0:42:23.680 --> 0:42:25.520 It was five months after the attack. 0:42:25.800 --> 0:42:30.200 Five months? Yeah, that's it. That's that's it. Which is 0:42:30.520 --> 0:42:31.680 he's going to say five years? 0:42:31.880 --> 0:42:35.840 No, So it's it's something. I It was the longest 0:42:35.840 --> 0:42:38.240 five months of my life. Obviously, time is different depending 0:42:38.239 --> 0:42:40.800 on the way in which I know. A lot of 0:42:40.840 --> 0:42:42.200 people look at it in that way and they say 0:42:42.280 --> 0:42:44.719 five months is like nothing. It wasn't not as bad 0:42:44.760 --> 0:42:46.239 as what it was, And I was like, no, to 0:42:46.320 --> 0:42:49.920 be honest, I when I set myself that goal of 0:42:49.920 --> 0:42:52.200 wanting to surf against it was the only thing I 0:42:52.239 --> 0:42:53.040 cared about. 0:42:53.200 --> 0:42:54.919 I was incredibly. 0:42:54.360 --> 0:42:56.960 Lucky that I had all those people supporting me that 0:42:57.080 --> 0:42:59.319 set up that basically put me in a position where 0:42:59.320 --> 0:43:01.719 they were like, your recovery is your full time job 0:43:01.800 --> 0:43:04.840 right now. So I was doing it seven days a 0:43:04.840 --> 0:43:07.919 week and going in every single day obsessed with it, 0:43:08.400 --> 0:43:11.439 and it wasn't obsessed in the way that I had 0:43:11.480 --> 0:43:13.919 to go in there and be the best every single day, 0:43:13.960 --> 0:43:16.759 Like it was just my mindset was actually just to 0:43:16.760 --> 0:43:18.120 show off every single day and trying to be a 0:43:18.120 --> 0:43:20.120 little bit better than the person I was yesterday. 0:43:21.360 --> 0:43:23.720 As well over and over again. Yeah, and that. 0:43:24.480 --> 0:43:28.040 Those tiny percentages isn't it is tipping up you know, 0:43:28.320 --> 0:43:30.800 zero points zero one more of a percent than you 0:43:30.880 --> 0:43:34.600 did yesterday. This zero to one hundred doesn't exist, you know. 0:43:34.719 --> 0:43:37.239 It's it's about acknowledging that it's going to know, it's 0:43:37.239 --> 0:43:39.319 going to take time. And but as long as you're 0:43:39.640 --> 0:43:42.279 on that trajectory of you know, and it's going up 0:43:43.000 --> 0:43:45.680 tiny substrata of a percentage at the time, then you 0:43:45.719 --> 0:43:47.440 know you're winning. That are small victories that you. 0:43:47.400 --> 0:43:48.320 Need right exactly. 0:43:48.400 --> 0:43:52.560 And those victories, it's funny in a recovery like that, 0:43:52.600 --> 0:43:54.960 those victories are really easy to see in the early days, 0:43:55.080 --> 0:43:56.640 like you make a huge amount of progress. 0:43:56.960 --> 0:43:59.960 They get smaller as time goes on. And that's that's. 0:44:00.239 --> 0:44:04.120 Where recovery does get difficult. When you're really really close 0:44:04.160 --> 0:44:08.400 to your goal and it's right there, but you just 0:44:08.400 --> 0:44:10.960 can't jump there. You have to kind of trust that 0:44:11.000 --> 0:44:12.640 you are still doing the right thing and you are 0:44:12.680 --> 0:44:16.160 going to get there. But that's really really tough to 0:44:16.160 --> 0:44:19.279 deal with. As much as it looks like you're you know, 0:44:19.320 --> 0:44:20.879 when you look back at where you started and where 0:44:20.880 --> 0:44:22.719 you are, you should be so proud of getting to 0:44:22.760 --> 0:44:25.200 that point, but you just want to get that little 0:44:25.200 --> 0:44:27.360 bit more and that little bit more. That for me, 0:44:27.520 --> 0:44:30.319 was probably the hardest part of my recovery, and that's 0:44:30.360 --> 0:44:32.640 where I really had to lean on a lot of 0:44:32.680 --> 0:44:33.800 that support. 0:44:33.440 --> 0:44:34.080 That was around me. 0:44:34.120 --> 0:44:37.000 And I've mentioned Owen Write's name a few times as 0:44:37.000 --> 0:44:39.280 we've been talking. I know you've chatted to him before. 0:44:39.440 --> 0:44:41.839 I just ran into him at a local cafe when 0:44:41.880 --> 0:44:44.719 he was going through his injury. And one of the 0:44:44.760 --> 0:44:46.600 big things that helped me through that back half my 0:44:46.640 --> 0:44:49.480 recovery was after I chatted to him and saw some 0:44:49.480 --> 0:44:51.960 of the struggles that he was going through, it made 0:44:52.040 --> 0:44:54.960 me realize that it wasn't just specific to me, like 0:44:55.000 --> 0:44:58.000 these are things that everyone has to deal with, and 0:44:58.040 --> 0:45:00.640 I think there's a bit of comfort you can take 0:45:00.680 --> 0:45:03.359 in knowing that people have been through those tough times 0:45:03.360 --> 0:45:05.880 before and they've gotten through them and you can do 0:45:05.920 --> 0:45:07.319 the same. And I think that was one of the 0:45:07.360 --> 0:45:10.200 things that got me over that last fifteen percent to 0:45:10.239 --> 0:45:11.360 the point of surfing again. 0:45:11.880 --> 0:45:14.000 Love it, mate, love it. And what I find fascinating 0:45:14.040 --> 0:45:16.520 about this story and there was an opportunity to have 0:45:16.600 --> 0:45:23.399 the shark cold and you said no, you didn't even 0:45:23.480 --> 0:45:24.960 question that. The answer, did you? 0:45:25.160 --> 0:45:27.799 Is like no, no, exactly when you grow up a 0:45:27.840 --> 0:45:31.000 surfer and you're going into that environment every single day, 0:45:31.200 --> 0:45:35.160 you know that that's their home, like it's it's something. 0:45:35.360 --> 0:45:40.040 I in no set of circumstances, could have felt any 0:45:40.080 --> 0:45:43.040 sort of malice towards the shark, just based on who 0:45:43.280 --> 0:45:46.719 I grew up as a surfer, believing like it's it's 0:45:46.760 --> 0:45:50.680 something that it wasn't even a question. And I think 0:45:51.600 --> 0:45:54.000 I didn't feel this in the moment, but this is 0:45:54.040 --> 0:45:56.239 something I've gained with a bit of perspective and some 0:45:56.320 --> 0:46:00.759 time to think about it. I, despite what happened to me, 0:46:01.560 --> 0:46:03.800 have a huge amount of love and respect for sharks. 0:46:04.360 --> 0:46:08.400 I think they are incredible creatures. I don't recommend you 0:46:08.480 --> 0:46:10.640 finding that out the way that I found it out, 0:46:11.600 --> 0:46:16.200 but they are just simply amazing creatures. I think if 0:46:16.880 --> 0:46:20.120 if you are questioning how you feel about sharks, go 0:46:20.239 --> 0:46:25.200 swimming with sharks obviously with professional healthier I've done that 0:46:25.239 --> 0:46:28.040 since the attack. Best experience of my life, like seeing 0:46:28.120 --> 0:46:32.400 them in the ocean just glide effortlessly through the water. 0:46:33.520 --> 0:46:37.279 That I think you when you can start to appreciate 0:46:37.440 --> 0:46:40.319 this creature that's been developed over three hundred and fifty 0:46:40.320 --> 0:46:44.200 million years, it's it's an incredible thing that we are 0:46:44.600 --> 0:46:46.640 kind of lucky to be able to share the planet with. 0:46:46.920 --> 0:46:49.840 And I think, you know, there's there's probably people that 0:46:49.880 --> 0:46:52.000 can hear me say that and still say I'd want 0:46:52.000 --> 0:46:53.839 the shark killed no matter what, Like it took something 0:46:53.880 --> 0:46:54.920 from me, and I want to take that. 0:46:55.000 --> 0:46:56.239 I want to take something from it. 0:46:57.040 --> 0:47:00.360 But at the end of the day, like the the 0:47:00.400 --> 0:47:03.720 menta that I've kind of lived by since the attack 0:47:03.920 --> 0:47:06.040 is that it's not about what happens to you. It's 0:47:06.080 --> 0:47:08.160 not about sharktack, it's not about any of that. Like 0:47:08.200 --> 0:47:11.879 what truly matters is how you respond, because that's where 0:47:11.880 --> 0:47:15.600 pride lives. And I think if that pride can come 0:47:15.920 --> 0:47:19.479 in the form of a recovery that you put everything into, 0:47:19.520 --> 0:47:22.000 when you achieve your goals and you can look back 0:47:22.000 --> 0:47:24.040 with and know that you're stronger because of it, and 0:47:23.680 --> 0:47:27.279 you can overcome anything. That's one part of pride, But 0:47:27.320 --> 0:47:30.000 I think the other part of pride is looking at 0:47:30.360 --> 0:47:31.840 the type of human that you can be in a 0:47:31.840 --> 0:47:34.160 situation like that, and if you can show some sort 0:47:34.160 --> 0:47:38.359 of humility and grace knowing that it would be so 0:47:38.440 --> 0:47:41.160 easy to turn the other way. I think that's something 0:47:41.200 --> 0:47:44.920 I can I know, regardless of anything else I do 0:47:44.960 --> 0:47:46.480 in my life, I can look back and be proud 0:47:46.480 --> 0:47:48.759 that that's a decision that I made and no one 0:47:48.800 --> 0:47:51.280 can say anything about it that can change my mind. 0:47:52.080 --> 0:47:56.080 Bret, absolutely love that, mate. Listen, keep up the positivity. 0:47:56.880 --> 0:47:59.400 You're a good man and it's a contagious mate. So 0:47:59.560 --> 0:48:00.880 thank you so much for coming on. 0:48:00.960 --> 0:48:01.560 Thanks for having me. 0:48:01.640 --> 0:48:02.160 Cheers, buddy. 0:48:02.239 --> 0:48:02.560 Thank you. 0:48:03.920 --> 0:48:06.719 To find out more about Brett, head to his website 0:48:06.800 --> 0:48:12.799 Brettcanelin dot com or check out his documentary Attacking Life. 0:48:12.920 --> 0:48:16.120 I'll link the details in the show notes. Thanks for 0:48:16.160 --> 0:48:19.759 listening to this episode of Headgame. If you enjoyed it, 0:48:19.880 --> 0:48:23.200 I'd love if you could leave me a review. I'm 0:48:23.200 --> 0:48:29.960 Att Middleton. Catch you in the next episode.