Speaker 1: Kill all right, but right now, Brooklyn, this was horrific
Speaker 1: in Sydney over the weekend.
Speaker 2: Now I know it's Couldjie. In Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, a
Speaker 2: thirty five year old mother was in the water swimming
Speaker 2: and the worst thing that we all dread happened. A
Speaker 2: shark started to maul her and an off Judy volunteer
Speaker 2: lifeguard so he was just outsurfing at the time. He
Speaker 2: was about one hundred meters away from where it was happening.
Speaker 2: He heard her screaming and then went straight to her
Speaker 2: to give any help that he could. He's just twenty
Speaker 2: five years old and his name is Charlie and he
Speaker 2: joins us now Morning Charlie, Charlie.
Speaker 3: Morning guys.
Speaker 4: Honestly, when I hear shark, or you hear that alarm
Speaker 4: or anyone screaming that out, the first thing I'm doing
Speaker 4: is getting out of the water. And you're in it
Speaker 4: and you can see this shark thrashing about and you've
Speaker 4: just gone directly to it, like it so incredible, brave,
Speaker 4: But I can imagine how traumatizing it must have been
Speaker 4: for you, Like are you actually doing okay?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I'm doing all right. It's it's been a
Speaker 3: pretty busy couple of days, so I haven't had too
Speaker 3: much time to myself to think about it. And I
Speaker 3: actually jumped in the pool this morning back training for
Speaker 3: the first time, and that was the first time I
Speaker 3: really had some timeline with my thoughts and yeah, I'm
Speaker 3: feeling all right. Obviously it's been a pretty full on experience,
Speaker 3: but yeah, the first time I think I'm managing it
Speaker 3: all right.
Speaker 4: There'd just be so much adrenaline going on.
Speaker 2: And we do get do you get training? I mean,
Speaker 2: as a as a lifeguard, what are you told to
Speaker 2: do in a situation like this?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so we don't exactly go through this exact scenario
Speaker 3: because it's a pretty unique one. But I guess we
Speaker 3: were always taught when we're doing rescues or managing first
Speaker 3: aid situations that is that you would put yourself first
Speaker 3: in terms of safety, and then the bystanders and then
Speaker 3: the patient, and you also kind of have a consideration
Speaker 3: of who's in the most dangerous well and so I
Speaker 3: guess I was on a board, so I felt like
Speaker 3: out of all the people in the water, I was
Speaker 3: the most safe, and well, yeah.
Speaker 1: Talk us through that for a lot of people that
Speaker 1: don't know. So you're on your paddle board, you're behind
Speaker 1: like I'm guessing your meters away from where this woman was.
Speaker 1: And did you hear screaming or what what actually went down?
Speaker 3: Yes, I was out training. I'm on eighteen foot board
Speaker 3: designed for open ocean paddling. And she actually the woman
Speaker 3: next to her was the one who originally saw the
Speaker 3: shark and started screaming about one hundred meters away from
Speaker 3: me at the beach. Okay, And yeah, that's when all
Speaker 3: the people around me, it was a couple of swimmers
Speaker 3: close to me, all looked up and started trying to
Speaker 3: get over to my board to get out of the
Speaker 3: water because I thought I'd help me into the beach,
Speaker 3: which obviously I wanted to, but I kind of had
Speaker 3: to go the shark's not near you, guys, I need
Speaker 3: to go check out on these people.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you're headed for the shark.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, yeah, at this point I could. Most of
Speaker 3: the time when someone screamed shark, it's it's usually not
Speaker 3: a shark. And if it is something small, especially on
Speaker 3: a day like that when it's such a clear DAYE
Speaker 3: don't expect there to be anything that serious up there,
Speaker 3: and as I got closer, I could see it underwater
Speaker 3: and moving really slowly, and again just thought it was
Speaker 3: going to have a look and realize it wasn't a
Speaker 3: seal and move on.
Speaker 1: So when you saw it.
Speaker 3: So underwater, it was impossible to tail. It was just
Speaker 3: a shadow. But once it actually grabbed her, there was
Speaker 3: a point where it came out of the water. I
Speaker 3: could see its dorsal tail, fin lord of its torso,
Speaker 3: and it was it was huge. That was when I
Speaker 3: actually went, Okay, I don't really know what to do here.
Speaker 3: It was probably the most frightened.
Speaker 4: Oh yeah, it says here it was like three to
Speaker 4: four meters. That's longer than my car.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you kept going, Charlie. You went to the woman,
Speaker 1: so you saw how big the shark was, but you
Speaker 1: just kept going to her.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I definitely wanted to paddle in. I was.
Speaker 3: I was very scared.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is why everyone's calling you a hero, Charlie.
Speaker 2: It is heroic to do that. Well, even if you've
Speaker 2: got training in this well, yeah, but talk.
Speaker 1: Us through that moment. You've got a decision, right, go
Speaker 1: in or go towards her? What made you go towards her.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, once the shark came out of the water
Speaker 3: and I saw how big it was, I actually didn't
Speaker 3: know what to do, and I didn't think there was much
Speaker 3: I could do to help, just because it was such
Speaker 3: a powerful animal. So that was when I just signaled
Speaker 3: to the beach, tried to signal to lifeguards, basically evacuate
Speaker 3: the water, try and maybe get some powercraft out. There's
Speaker 3: something to help. And it was only after that she
Speaker 3: got taken under the water when I just went, okay,
Speaker 3: I don't really know what to do here at all.
Speaker 3: And she popped back up and the sharka let her go,
Speaker 3: and that was when I went, okay, I'm going to
Speaker 3: get her, to get her now, And that was when
Speaker 3: I paddled in.
Speaker 4: And have you spoken to the victim's family since Saturday? Like,
Speaker 4: do you know if she's doing Okay, I haven't.
Speaker 3: The only updates I've had haven't changed since yesterday morning.
Speaker 3: I don't even know her name, but she's in a
Speaker 3: critical condition and stable is what I last. And I
Speaker 3: only found out that she was a mother in the
Speaker 3: intro you just gave them, So that was pretty upsetting here.
Speaker 4: I just found that out as well. I can only like,
Speaker 4: you know, when you're out in the water or anywhere
Speaker 4: and you're in danger, all you are wanting is somebody
Speaker 4: to step in and help and save you. And that's
Speaker 4: what we did. But yeah, that's what you've done for
Speaker 4: this mum and this woman, Charlie like you. Honestly, your
Speaker 4: parents must be so bloody proud of you. Also probably
Speaker 4: angry that you put yourself out there. But I mean,
Speaker 4: I feel like, as human beings, that's what we do. Like,
Speaker 4: if you see someone in distress and danger and stuff,
Speaker 4: sometimes you really don't think about it. You just you
Speaker 4: want to dive in and help.
Speaker 1: And that's when you, Charlie did that. Yeah, what do
Speaker 1: you think, mate, You're gonna get back in the water
Speaker 1: and they are talking about culling sharks. What do you
Speaker 1: think about that? Is that a good idea or not?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm definitely going to get back in the water.
Speaker 3: It's yeah, it's gonna be a bit scary. Mum is
Speaker 3: definitely not stoked about it. I'm not actually waiting at
Speaker 3: Manly Beach right now. About the art for a paddle
Speaker 3: you're going in off the t I didn't get to
Speaker 3: finish on the weekend. In terms of the shark going,
Speaker 3: I'm not educated enough on the subjects have an opinion.
Speaker 3: I don't like the idea of needlessly killing animals, but
Speaker 3: I think some action needs to be taken because I've
Speaker 3: spent the whole life on my water, in my whole
Speaker 3: life in the water, and I feel over the last
Speaker 3: year there's been more shark attached in Australian i've heard
Speaker 3: in any of the time before that.
Speaker 4: Combined, I just feel like things to bring back shark nets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well they're off at the moment, right, so they're
Speaker 1: off for winter. Are you seeing more sharks when you're
Speaker 1: out there?
Speaker 3: It's actually quite rare that I see sharks when I'm
Speaker 3: on this board paddling, because I'm usually out in quite
Speaker 3: open ocean in windy conditions, and when you're in deep water,
Speaker 3: it's pretty rare for sharks develpment on the surface. But
Speaker 3: definitely going up and down the coast and surfing and yeah,
Speaker 3: just being coastal hearing in the community, there's definitely more
Speaker 3: talk about it and I've definitely seen more and more
Speaker 3: recently over the last few years.
Speaker 4: Alright, mate, well good on you kids are never going
Speaker 4: in the ocean again. Oh well, that's it from.
Speaker 1: Me, Charlie. I hear I mate, well done, Okay, thanks
Speaker 1: so much for coming on the show.
Speaker 4: You're amazing you guys.
Speaker 3: Thank really appreciate it. She's all right.