From his first-ever wave, to his first victory at the legendary Gunston 500 – now the Mr Price Pro Ballito – SA surfing legend Shaun Tomson reflects on how much surfing, and his father, have meant to him
My dad didn’t like to talk about the shark attack. He wouldn’t directly evade the issue, but he’d skirt around its edges with his own brand of strange humour.
“The shark died of blood poisoning,” he would say, or “I don’t know who got the bigger shock, me of the shark.” My mom said he experienced terrible nightmares, but we children never saw them. He was always smiling, totally unselfconscious of the terrible scars the black fin’s teeth had left on his arm. He could find humour in any situation.
The attack happened in 1946, shortly after he returned from World War II. He’d been a tail gunner in the American B25 Marauders flying for the SA Air Force and after the attack he travelled to San Francisco for extensive surgery to attempt to regain the use of his right arm. He also needed a series of skin grafts from his stomach – he’d smile and tell us the scars on his stomach were from anti-aircraft fire.
After being in a critical condition for some time, my dad only just pulled through from the shark attack. For years afterwards I’d have people come up to me on the beach saying, “You’re Ernie’s son. I helped your father that day.” He said that when he got hit the shark lifted him straight out of the water and dropped him back in, and with blood all around, the fear really set in. He was riding a little wooden surfboard. He said he’d never seen the ocean clear so fast. Men were scrambling up the pilings, shredding themselves on the mussels, so people thought that there were multiple attacks.
For the full story pick up the June Red Bulletin Magazine.
A Surfing Legacy
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