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A Sunshine Coast man who had a lucky escape after a shark bit off the back of his kayak in Moreton Bay has spoken about how he tried to remain calm during the stressful situation.
Gavin Kleidon was about 30 minutes from the end of a leisurely Sunday afternoon kayak from Cleveland to Scarborough, off Brisbane, when he was thrown off his craft into the shark-infested waters of Moreton Bay.
"It took me by surprise because generally if you fall off, you know if you've caught your paddle or you've fallen off for some reason, and I hadn't done any of that," he said.
The Maroochydore man said he never saw the shark, but once he resurfaced he saw a "fair-sized swirl beneath the boat" and knew immediately what had happened.
"I saw the back of my boat floating away and I knew pretty quickly what it was," he said.
"I tried to climb on my boat as quick as I could. It was sinking pretty quick which was stressing me out a bit.
"I looked for my paddle but unfortunately it had drifted away."
As he lay on top of what remained of his 6.5-metre kayak, waves crashed overhead.
The Moreton Bay waters were cloudy "but not like chocolate milk" after days of torrential rain.
Desperate to call for help, Mr Kleidon delicately retrieved his mobile phone, which was secured inside the kayak, but he had to carefully remove it from its waterproof case in order to phone Triple-0.
"It probably took a few minutes to settle down and collect my thoughts a bit," he said.
"Unfortunately it [the phone] doesn't work inside the waterproof case … if I'd have dropped it, that would've been it.
"I was definitely trying to keep it level with my limbs inside."
Overhead planes aid rescue
Mr Kleidon, an experienced paddler, said he had had a "fair idea" of his location because of his familiarity with the area and landmarks on the Redcliffe shoreline.
But that turned out to be little help when it came to being rescued.
"I did tell them [police] that I was off the water tower at Redcliffe, but unfortunately they didn't know where that was, so the only way I could guide them was by the aircraft coming into the airport," he said.
"I said 'That plane that just turned was right on top of me' so they were there pretty quick."
But until they arrived, Mr Kleidon spent 40 minutes nervously clinging to the remains of the kayak.
"The bung in the front has a split in it so the craft doesn't get over pressurised when it's hot, but the air was coming out," he said.
"So I had to lie forward and keep my thumb over the bung so it'd stop the air coming out and hopefully stay buoyant for a bit longer."
Nervous call to wife
As he lay bobbing in Moreton Bay, he also phoned his wife.
"I was very nervous at that stage to know that it [the shark] could've moved on pretty quick, or it could've still been around. I just wasn't sure at that stage," Mr Kleidon said.
He said it had been a "fair relief" when police came to the rescue.
"I was getting blown with the wind and they were coming with the wind so I was facing the wrong way, and they did ask 'Can you see me?' and I said 'I'm not getting off this to turn around and look. I'm looking this way and I'll wait for you to turn up'," he said.
"There wasn't much left floating. I was just hanging on until it sunk and once it sunk I guess I was swimming after it."
Paddler thinking about getting back in water
Mr Kleidon said despite the fact the incident was "10 out of 10" frightening, he was not deterred from the sport he loved.
Just 24 hours later, he was even contemplating heading back into the water.
"It's unfortunate that I was there and that the shark was there and that's how it ended up," he said.
"We've done that run many times and paddled in locations where there's probably bigger sharks and touch wood we've never had an incident, but unfortunately we have now.
"In paddling I thought I'd been scared before, but when you know that there's something that can do harm to you, not far from you, I guess that puts everything in perspective."
Safety lessons for the future
Mr Kleidon said he was grateful to have had his phone inside the remaining part of the ski, but would take additional safety measures in future.
"If I'd have dropped the phone or the phone got wet then I'd have no communication," he said.
In future he plans to paddle with a phone attached to himself, in addition to an EPIRB and flares.
He was wearing a fluorescent orange shirt at the time, but admitted that was little comfort because "when your boat has sunk, you're not easily visible" in the ocean.
"It's quite easy to miss people out there even if they're 100 metres away," he said.
Sergeant Gordon Thiry, from Brisbane Water Police, said it was very fortunate they had found Mr Kleidon in time.
"We would encourage anyone heading out on the water to always wear a life jacket, carry an EPIRB and make sure you let someone else know where you're travelling to and how long it will take," he said.
Topics: shark, maroochydore-4558, scarborough-4020