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Speaking about shark phobias,this happened here yesterday!
- Teen 'didn't think about fear' when he helped mate
- Saw the sea had turned red
- Administered CPR on the beach
'A gentle giant ' ... Peter Edmonds (left) and Brock Curtis / Image supplied by Curtis family
BROCK Curtis's mind was clear when he saw his mate Peter Edmonds struggling in the surf.
The two 16-year-olds had taken advantage of a statewide teachers' stopwork meeting to go bodyboarding in the prized Lighthouse Beach surf break near Ballina in northern NSW, when Brock, resting on the beach, saw Peter waving his arms for help.
At that stage, he had no idea his "big mate" had been bitten on the leg by a shark and was moments away from death.
"I just wanted to get straight to him, I didn't think about fear," said Brock, from the small town of Wollongbar, 15km inland from the beach.
Brock plunged straight into the waves and headed for Peter - a school mate from Alstonville High School whom he had known for five years.
As he got closer, the sea had turned red with blood, Peter was floating face-down in the water and Brock saw a large shadow disappearing into the deep, away from Peter.
"As I headed towards him it looked like he was catching a wave and was heading back to shore," Brock said. "Then I saw him on his back with his head above the water, then he turned so he was face-down. I thought he was only joking, so I went over to him and as I flipped him over I saw his leg."
Peter had been savagely bitten twice on the left leg by a shark, which authorities have yet to identify.
Brock said he pulled Peter from the water and dragged him up the beach, dialling 000 on his mobile as he ran. Despite administering CPR - turning Peter on his side and clearing his airways - his mate died at the scene before ambulance and lifeguards arrived.
It is believed Peter died from loss of blood.
Police and lifeguards described Brock's actions in entering the water as an "extreme act of bravery". But Brock said he had not felt fear, or thought about anything other than reaching Peter in the water. He said he used the first-aid skills he had learnt at a surf survival course at school to try to revive his friend, a mate of five years.
"Peter was just the best kid," Brock said. "He was a gentle giant, six foot three (190cm)."
Peter's mother, Lisa, and father, Neil, praised Brock for his brave effort in trying to save their son.
Fighting back years, Ms Edmonds told the Ten Network last night the family was taking comfort in their Christian faith.
"He was such a loving boy, and just in the last few months he's really started to become an adult," she said. "I asked him where he was with God, and he said he was fine."
Mr Edmonds said that after seeing his son's body, he was surprised that he had died from his injuries. "We saw the bite on his leg and you wouldn't think that sort of thing would take someone," he said.
When the teenagers took to the water just before 8am, in drizzly conditions and 1m-plus waves, they had the beach to themselves.
They had a half-day off school due to a teachers stopwork meeting and they did not expect much from their outing. "The surf was average and choppy," Brock said.
The break is normally patrolled by surf lifesavers but was unguarded yesterday because it was not school holidays.
The beach's shark alarm had been sounded three times in the past summer, a relatively low frequency according to northern NSW lifeguard co-ordinator Steve Leahy. He said there had been a number of shark sightings in the region over the summer, most near Byron Bay.
"Bull sharks, white pointers and grey nurse sharks have been spotted in this area at different times," he said.
Authorities do not yet know what type of shark was involved in the attack, but one expert, Taronga Zoo's John West, said it was probably a bull shark.
Yesterday afternoon, mourners placed bunches of flowers near the beach. One had a note: "Rest in peace, fellow surfer."
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. Two of us got it to ourselves as the rest went in.
!
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