‘It was eating me': Paul de Gelder reflects on horror Sydney Harbour shark attack

News.com.au

2 days ago

It was another normal day on Sydney Harbour in 2009 when navy diver Paul de Gelder lost an arm, a leg – and very nearly his life.
de Gelder was undertaking a navy counter-terrorism operation, swimming in murky waters near Woolloomooloo, when a bull shark grabbed hold of him in an attack that lasted just eight seconds but would give him permanently life-changing injuries.
But de Gelder survived, and turned his near-death experience into a new career as a motivational speaker and shark expert, making him an ideal candidate to host the new TV special How to Survive A Shark Attack, streaming as part of Shark Week on HBO Max and Discovery from August 10.
de Gelder goes full method for the special, strapping on prosthetic limbs packed with fake blood, then literally feeding them into wild sharks' mouths to recreate the frenzy of an attack, and explain what to do afterwards to better your chances of survival.
It's intense viewing, but de Gelder bats away any suggestion that it might have been re-traumatising for him.
'I've lived a pretty tumultuous life, and I don't really look at the bad things that have happened to me as anchor points that I need to latch onto and spiral into depression or have PTSD or anything like that,' he tells news.com.au.
'I survived, I wasn't a victim, and I've cracked on with life. Now I get paid to travel the world, have adventures... and try not to nearly die again.'
It seems he comes frighteningly close in How To Survive a Shark Attack, though: At one point in the special, as de Gelder holds onto an upturned kayak with hungry sharks circling underneath, we hear the voice of a producer ring out from a nearby boat: 'Paul, I just want to go on the record and say that I'm not comfortable with this.'
de Gelder scoffs at the notion he should be taking safety advice from a TV hack.
'The producers, you have to understand, they're generally not particularly knowledgeable in working with sharks,' he says. 'They know what [shots] they want, and sometimes it's them who start to push the boundaries: I have to say 'Actually no, we're not going to do that, it's way too dangerous.' But to push a producer to the brink like that … yeah, we were doing something pretty wild,' he concedes.
The special outlines de Gelder's top tips for shark attack survival – and while some are commonsense (don't swim in murky water or near fishing activity), others might surprise you. Contrary to popular belief, de Gelder advises against punching a shark on the nose if it comes toward you.
'Now, if you're in the jaws of the shark? At that point, you want to do all you can. In that case, I would go for the eyeballs, go for the gills, just fight for your life,' he says.
'But generally speaking, if you see a shark and it does approach you, you do not want to punch it in the nose.'
The reasons are twofold: Firstly, sharks have 'incredibly thick cartilage' on their heads and you may seriously hurt your hand (introducing blood to the water is not ideal in this scenario).
Secondly, and more importantly: Your skills at underwater punching will probably be outgunned by the shark's ability to manoeuvre in the water. Your planned Rocky-esque left hook might actually result in you delivering your hand into the mouth of a shark. It'd be the easiest meal they'd find all day.
'It's just not worth it. It's better to just be calm. I would say you always want to be swimming or diving in clear water, because that's the only time you're going to be able to defend yourself. In murky water, like my situation, you just don't see them coming.'
Which begs the question: Does de Gelder think anything could have improved the outcome of his own near-fatal shark attack? Is there anything he thinks he should've done differently?
'There really wasn't anything I could do; no one saw the shark coming,' de Gelder says.
'It was eating me before everyone knew what was even happening.'
de Gelder says it was the training he and his navy colleagues had received that saved his life: 'Having the focus to be able to swim back to the safety boat with one hand and one leg through a pool of my own blood, and then my three teammates in the boat jamming their T-shirts into the wound, strapping it with a life jacket to cinch it all down,' he says.
By now I'm feeling slightly giddy, but de Gelder continues, in vivid detail: 'Then it was thanks to my chief on the wharf, knowing that it wasn't stopping the blood, so he got one of the guys to pinch an artery closed with their fingers. The surgeon said if he hadn't done that, I would have died within another 30 seconds.'
It's time to ask a question on behalf of every other Sydney resident who's ever enjoyed a cooling dip in Sydney Harbour, famously teeming with the sort of aggressive bull sharks who did so much damage to him: Are we all complete idiots?
'No, I don't think so. In these scenarios, always look at the numbers. How many attacks have there been? There was a woman last year that got a little nibble. Other than that, I'm the only one in about 50 years.
'So you've got more chance of dying in a car accident on the way to the beach than you do of getting attacked by a shark anywhere in Australia,' he says.
'Now, having said that, it wouldn't be my first place to go swimming,' de Gelder confesses with a laugh.
'But you know, if it's hot and the water's inviting, I would say: Jump in, don't swim around too long... then get back on the boat.'