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Rosy Hodge / image: © SPEX
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"This was the heaviest thing that has ever happened to me," said professional surfer Greg Emslie after an encounter with a massive white shark at Queensbury Bay yesterday - Sat 22 May.
An idyllic surf at the Eastern Cape point break, with fellow professional surfer Rosy Hodge, came very close to ending in tragedy, with Emslie being relentlessly circled and buzzed by a great white, and Rosy almost paddling straight into the danger zone.
"The whole thing must have taken about three to four minutes, but it felt like absolute ages,"said Greg. "I had plenty of time to size it up, and it was probably about four metres in length. It was like right out of the water. Both fins out, just staring at me. We had full eye contact for most of the time as well, just fully sussing each other out the whole time."
East London is well-known for shark encounters and attacks, and there was an attack a few weeks ago down the road at Port Alfred. While this didn’t lead into an attack, it was enough to rattle the two surfers properly. "I was just thinking, this is it," said Greg. "I’m going to get hit. It kept on coming at me, while I sat with my feet up on my board."
Rosy had just caught a wave and had ridden it in. When she started paddling back out, she had no idea what was going on. as Rosy recalls, "Then Greg started shouting and I thought, ‘Oh cool, he’s claiming my wave.’" Rosy continued to paddle. "Earlier in the day we had had some dolphins around and when I saw the two fins I thought there were two dolphins by Greg. As I got close I saw that it was a gaint shark, showing it’s dorsal and tail fin, and I realised that Greg was in serious trouble."
The shark continued to circle Greg, occasionally darting towards him and then veering off. "All I could think about was that I hadn’t said goodbye to my wife and kids," said Greg of those panicky moments. "We had been to a kids party in the morning so my wife and kids had fallen asleep, exhausted, and I slipped out for a surf. I always say goodbye to them, and this time I didn’t." Greg is married to Chantel and has a son Dave, aged three and a daughter Taylor, aged one.
Rosy takes up the story. "Greg shouted at me to go in, and I remember saying ‘What about you?’ but there wasn’t much I could do so I headed over the rocks."
"Rosy was so brave," said Greg. She was wanting to help me, but if the shark had checked her it might have gone into attack mode, so she did the right thing and headed in."
Then a wave appeared. "The shark was watching me so closely, we were just staring at each other. full on eyeball to eyeball. The shark definitely checked the wave as well, and was waiting to see what I was going to do. It was so close and the situation was so tense, and I thought that if I started paddling, it would simply attack. so I waited until the last split second. I did like one stroke, caught the wave and went left and straight over the bricks."
Rosy was desperately clambering over the rocks. "I was climbing over the rocks and I turned around and saw Greg on the rocks. I was so relieved, it was beyond belief. I started crying on the beach. It was all so scary," said Rosy. Even hours after the incident she was still emotional about it all. "Flip, I still felt completely vulnerable even on dry land. I ran home. My home overlooks the point, and I asked my mom, where’s dad? My dad had gone to the shop to by onions. The most radical thing happens to Greg and I, in full view of my house, and my dad had gone off to buy some onions."
What does this mean for these East London surfers and their water time?
"Well, first things first, I’m going to church," said Emslie. "I’m serious."
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