Stuart Nettle December 30, 2009 My phone woke me just after 5am on Boxing Day: 'Tuncurry 3'-4', we're going out.' But festive excesses saw my spirit lagging and I rolled over and went back to bed. About an hour later my phone once again did the double-beep and this time the message was enough to rouse me: 'A shark bit my board. Give me a call when ya get up and I'll tell ya a story'. So I got up and called. Both messages were from my mate Trent 'Smell' Mellier, and after ringing him up, offering a dud excuse for missing the early, he told me a story... ***** After I bailed on him Smell met his cousin Greg 'Strap' Hill in the carpark at North Wall Tuncurry. Col, Thommo, Gaz and Al were also gearing up in the carpark and they all headed out at roughly the same time. Smell's a fairly reliable fella when it comes to giving remote surf reports, so the surf was just as he said - three to four feet. They paddled out along the breakwall and, after getting out the back, Smell and Strap left the other fellas alone on the main peak and paddled down to the next bank. There they surfed alone for 45 minutes as the sun began to rise. After catching a long right Smell was paddling back out, and in fairly deep water, when a set came through, the first wave breaking outside of him. As the whitewash approached he pushed his board down to duckdive, however it bumped into something when only a foot or so underwater. He told me it felt like duckdiving into a sandbank except it was a bit softer 'like cunji', but he knew it couldn't have been 'cause he was in deep water. When he came up he ran his hand along the rail to feel for damage and felt it crushed along the rail line. He then ran his hand along the bottom of the board and felt something else, it came off in his hand. Pulling it above the water he saw it was a tooth. A sharks tooth. Strap then heard the call a surfer never wants to hear and scrambled for the next wave in. Smell, with the shark right beneath him, spun around and put in the big ones. In the panic he unfortunately dropped the tooth. Meanwhile, the fellas up on the main peak figured there must be a good reason that Smell and Strap would be scrambling to shore and also turned tail. According to Smell's description the tooth wasn't the classic triangle shape but more like that of a sharpened knitting needle. A passing fisho who saw the commotion chimed in and said if that was the case it was likely to belong to a Grey Nurse. Nurse's however, aren't known for aggression so there was speculation that it may have been a Bull Shark. Gossip and speculation are wonderful things in a country town and by mid-morning news of the shark had passed down the main street news channel and was being broadcast over back fences. The lack of facts not impeding the flow. Truth be told, there's not a lot of certainty about the incident anyway. Besides the bite marks on the board that is. The breed was only identified by a grizzled fisho on second-hand info, and whether the shark was preparing to strike or whether Smell just sconed an innocent shark on the head and it bit back is also unclear. Even to Smell himself. One thing was certain though, whatever the breed of shark and whatever it's intentions were it didn't shake Smell's enthusiasm for the early. At 5am the next day my phone once again did the double-beep: 'Tuncurry 2'-3' and clean. No-one out'. I rolled over and went back to sleep. At least this time I had a good excuse.