Lily Kumpe was surfing on the West Australian coast near the town of Denmark when she was knocked off her surf board today, possibly by a shark.
She and her husband were the only two in the water and had been surfing around 15 to 20 minutes when the incident occurred.
She told 720 ABC Perth “I was laying down on my board paddling and then I just felt something hit me and I fell off my board.”
“My husband paddled over to me and got me onto his board and we paddled in.
“He said he saw it but … all that I think both of us saw was a large dark mass.”
Her surfboard did have a rather large chunk missing and looks similar to a shark bump but is not definitely conclusive.
The American surfer did sustain minor damage to her hand along with some abrasions and bruising to her face.
She was transported to the Denmark hospital, and has been released.
Authorities have closed the beach for 24 hours and are on the lookout for sharks.
Although she believes it was probably a shark, she could not confirm saying “I’m pretty definite that it was – it seemed gigantic – but again, we didn’t see it.”
The location has been marked on the 2015 shark attack bites map.
Should the damage be confirmed as a shark bite, then it will be moved to the shark attack bites section.
Update: The department of Fishers state it was “very likely” to have been a shark.
