Shark attack victim Dave Quinlivan speaks about his near death experience

Less than an hour later, and only 40 paddles into his 450-stroke warm down, the 65-year-old realised he was wrong.

Very wrong.

About 150-metres off the beach, a great white shark zeroed in on the paddler before leaping out of the water and latching onto his left ankle. And Mr Quinlivan’s fight for survival began.

‘‘He just came straight across and I couldn’t believe it when he took my leg clean, never chomped the ski or anything,’’ Mr Quinlivan told the  Newcastle Herald during his first interview since the September 4 shark attack.

‘‘Got it clean. I reckon I was on the ski with him for about 10 seconds at least, because he took another adjustment and got [the leg] right into the corner of its mouth and then he gave me two almighty shakes.

‘‘Shook the head side to side and then stopped because I said to him ‘Look, go away mate, you are killing me’. He paused, looked at me, then endeavoured to do it again but with the weight shift of the shark, his weight was overwhelming and we capsized together.

‘‘We went below the water together and then all of a sudden there was a mass of bubbles, mass of silver and grey where he was flicking around in it somewhere and obviously he let me go and I surfaced on the other side of the ski.’’

Mr Quinlivan got back onto the ski before realising it was upside down. He made the brave decision to get back into the water, severed artery and all, and turn the ski over. That tough decision gave him the chance to escape.

He climbed onto  the ski, lying on his stomach, and began paddling, while expecting the next hit from the shark.

‘‘I was prepared to die because I looked at the artery and it was severed, and I knew the length of time that it was going to take me to get in, but I was pretty calm,’’ Mr Quinlivan said.

‘‘Even calm to the fact that when I was paddling I was telling myself ‘long and strong, don’t splash,’ just make sure the [strokes] were long and strong. Make sure it looks like I am in charge.

‘‘I couldn’t see anything because of the glare under the water and I realised that if he did hit me again I was gone for sure.

‘‘There would have been no chance.

‘‘But obviously he had had enough and I made it to shore.

‘‘The closer I got to the shore the more anxious I got because all of a sudden you realise you are close to making it.’’

Local lifeguards, beachgoers and then emergency services arrived and stabilised Mr Quinlivan, a former Newcastle fireman who moved to the Tuncurry area in his retirement.

Photographs and TV footage of him smiling at his rescuers may have painted a picture that it was not a bad attack.

As he said: ‘‘They gave me the drug relief and I was happy. I was happy to be alive, happy to stop the pain and someone says something and you smile.’’

But the road to recovery has been a long one.

Mr Quinlivan nearly died from  blood loss during the flight in the Hunter Westpac rescue helicopter  to John Hunter Hospital.

Doctors performed several operations to reattach his Achilles tendon and other badly damaged parts of his ankle and lower calf.

There was the operation where a chunk of muscle from his right thigh was removed and reattached to his left shin to replace the chunk taken by the shark. There were the hundreds of stitches, which took three hours to remove.

And there were the dozens of bone fractures and chips from the first shark bite, and when the shark adjusted its bite and shook him like a ragdoll – twice.

It’s been seven weeks since the attack and Mr Quinlivan remains in hospital. He was transferred to the Newcastle Private Hospital and could be discharged in about a week. However he gets his first leave pass on Saturday to go to a Newcastle Surf Lifesaving Club life members show.

And the road ahead remains a long one – months on crutches and possibly years of rehabilitation.

And for a surf club legend, he can also smell the salt air beckoning him.

 ‘‘I can’t wait to get back in, but with reservations,’’ Mr Quinlivan said.

 ‘‘I could be the biggest sook in the world but I want to go back in the salt, there is no doubt about that.

‘‘[A mate] has told me I am a back paddler on the double ski now. Apparently I have lost my front status because I can’t steer any more.’’

He doesn’t believe in shark culls, although he thinks nets are a positive move.

He has no ill-feeling towards the shark that attacked him. It would be a teenager in great white terms, measuring about 2 metres long.

‘‘The expert told me at about that size they change from a fish  and squid diet, their teeth get stronger, their jaws get stronger, and they are looking for something else,’’ Mr Quinlivan said.

‘‘Something bigger, something more chewy, and obviously I was the experiment.

‘‘But he wouldn’t have made a mistake that shark, you could just see it.

‘‘He didn’t take the bulk, he took something that was a bit smaller.

‘‘He was going to maim me, and then the way he looked at me, it was like ‘‘that’s a little bit different to what I thought it was’’.

‘‘So he tried to get my leg off, and then when he didn’t succeed and we eventually got into the water and with the salt mixed up with the blood he has gone ‘‘that’s pretty ordinary’’.’’

And he feels that for those 10 seconds as they were atop the ski together, they almost understood each other.

‘‘I spoke to him three times,’’ he said.

‘‘Once I lost the paddles I leant back trying to stabilise myself and I was putting all my weight on one side.

‘‘When he readjusted, I just said ‘‘don’t do that’’ because I just saw the jaws clamp again.

‘‘And then when he shook me the first time I said ‘‘you’re bloody killing me’’ and then I said ‘‘haven’t you had enough’’.

‘‘He looked at me side on, and then shook me again.

‘‘It must have been 10 seconds because I said three things to it and it stopped and looked at me.’’

‘‘Almost like it was sizing me up.’’