Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Music and more. Today, my guest is Dave Pearson. Dave runs a very exclusive club, but it's a club that no one wants to be a part of. Bite Club, yes, that's B-I-T-E Club, is for people who've survived attack by an apex predator. Sharks mainly, but there are also members who've escaped crocodiles, lions and bears.
These are people who have experienced a primal human terror and somehow they've made it out alive. But for many members of Bike Club, the initial elation of survival has been replaced by something darker. And that's where the fellowship of other survivors can make all the difference, as it has for Dave. His entry into Bike Club happened 13 years ago, during an everyday after-work surf. Hi, Dave.
Hi, Sarah.
Can you tell me about that day at the beach? Why were you especially amped about having a surf that day?
I'd picked up a new surfboard the night before, so I was pretty keen to get out there. And I remember driving home from work. I worked 100 kilometres away from where I lived, so every afternoon was an hour's drive home. And I was ringing a couple of mates saying, I'm going for a surf, Savo, anybody want a lift? So I picked up my neighbour when I got home and off we went out to the beach.
I was keen to surf anything. It doesn't bother me anyway, but I'm going out.
Were there other people in the water when you got there?
Yeah, when I got there, one of my young mates was out there on his own and further up the beach there was three or four bodyboarders and I think there was another break out the back where there was a few more bodyboarders out there as well. So there was a few around but only one guy where we were going.
And how long did it take for you to catch your first wave with that new surfboard?
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Chapter 2: What happened during Dave Pearson's shark attack?
But in real life, probably five, six seconds maybe. Maybe not even that. It was quick.
Did you see the shark? Do you remember seeing it?
Yeah, afterwards I was sitting on my board and it took me, as I said, a little while to comprehend what was happening. And I heard Aaron, the young guy who was out there when we turned up, shouting out to me. And apparently he'd been shouting, Dave, was that a shark? Was that a shark? And... The bit I heard, unfortunately, you know, it had a big F word in it as well.
Then I sort of realised he was shouting to me and I said, yeah, it's a shark, because I was looking at my arm and the blood squirting out and I was thinking, that's not good, I've got to stop that bleeding. And in the process of looking at the red water around me and realising that sometimes I do get it right in the movies, I seen this big bull shark underneath me and
It was surprising to see its size and also my reaction to it because of being stunned and worried about bleeding was that I didn't care about it. It didn't become part of my issue at that time. To me, it was trying to stop the bleeding and get out of the surf. But I did call back to Aaron and I said, look, it's still here, get out and I'll meet you on the beach. And I said, I'll be all right.
So I proceeded to kind of tuck my arm together and put all my weight on it and try to catch a wave one handed and a set come through and I thought, beauty, I'm out of here. But I wasn't in the right spot and the wave picked me up And I was too far in, so I got picked up and dumped straight into the sand again.
Next thing, I'm rolling around the bottom again, not wanting to be there at all, and came back to the surface and got hit by another wave. And sets come in three to four waves, and I got all four of them on the head. And the one stage was at the bottom. you see stars for a little while and then you see nothing.
And I was seeing stars and I'd known I'd run out of air and that I was about to, I guess, pass out and realising that I was just about to die. And I went, wow, today's the day I die. And it was a tough realisation, I guess, that I actually now knew the moment of my life ending.
Were you panicking, Dave, or was it sort of a different kind of acceptance? How do you describe it?
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Chapter 3: How did Dave Pearson survive his shark attack?
The body's shutting down what it doesn't need. Some will say my head's always numb anyway, so it really doesn't matter. But yeah, so I was cracking jokes with the guys and apologising for ruining the surf the afternoon. But yeah, we were just trying to keep it calm enough until help arrived.
So it sounds, Dave, like you didn't feel confident you were in the clear yet. It still feel like you mightn't make it through this.
Yeah, and I guess that's obviously, you know, like I said, I've done first aid my whole life and when you realise the person you're looking after is not good, you've got to prepare yourself that maybe everything you do mightn't be enough. And I said to the guys, if I don't make it, you know, you've tried your best and don't worry about it.
And I remember saying to my partner later on because it was – probably nearly an hour or so before ambulances even turned up at the beach. And I was laying there watching the sunset and I said, well, it's not a bad night to die anyway. So once again, just trying to lighten the situation a bit. And the paramedic, when she got there, she said, oh, let's see what you're like.
And she took my blood pressure and stuff and her face went white and I just told her when I met her afterwards not to play poker. She's not got a very good poker face.
So, yeah, she said I was pretty sick when she got there and they pumped fluids in me for the next hour or so before my heart would sort of get to some decent rhythm and slow down enough to throw me in a helicopter and send me off to Newcastle.
What do you remember about that trip? Were you still taking things in?
Yeah, they pumped me full of morphine by then. The pain had become significant, let me say, by then. I guess your body's trying to figure out what's going on with all that damage. And then after a while, I think it starts to figure it out. So they filled me up with morphine, which was a good and a bad thing. You know, I'm not one for... drugs and it sort of made me a bit weird.
But I do remember my daughter turning up. She had been 45 minutes away, so she turned up before the helicopter even got there. And, you know, I said goodbye to everyone and thanked them once again as they loaded me into the ambulance and then into the helicopter. But the helicopter pilot sat there and he said, do you mind if we say a prayer? And I'm not a religious man myself.
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Chapter 4: What challenges did Dave face during his recovery?
You know, we had her daughter was there as well. My daughter and her boyfriend were there. My brother and sister were also there. And mum and dad even come down after a day or so as well. So everybody that they started recognising as my family, they were hassling. So I said to the hospital, the hospital had a media section, and I said, look, can you just...
find out what they want and I'll give an interview to somebody and they can leave the hospital alone and let you get on with your job. So I did one interview and, yeah, I said, thank you, can we please have our privacy now and let's get on with what I need to do and that's get fixed up.
What was it like reading about your own story in the media like that? It's not an experience most of us have in our lives, right?
It's a bit of a buzz. I won't say it's not. Everyone loves reading about themselves, so it was interesting. Some of the stories were, I don't know whether, will I say the word made up, but I think not getting the full facts but in a hurry to go to print. They obviously got some things wrong. At one stage, I'd lost an arm and a leg.
And when I started looking at some of the news stories and reading the stories about me, and that's when I found that lovely section at the bottom which allows everybody to comment on a news story and pass their opinion and judgment as much as they want. And that's when I started reading stuff about me that I just knew wasn't true.
Like the TV cameras all had me coming into the hospital at 9.30 at night. So I was attacked at 5.30. So it was four hours by the time I got to the hospital. So the comments are, you know, what does this guy expect surfing at night? No wonder he got bit. It's his own fault. All these sort of things. I'm just answering it going, hey, this is the guy. And no, I wasn't surfing in the dark.
It was only 5.30 when I was attacked. Plenty of daylight left, at least two hours of daylight left. It just happened. I'm fine with it. You know, I accept responsibility. I was in the ocean. I got bit. That's okay. The answers were coming back, no, you don't. You blame the sharks. You want to kill them all. And it's just these stupid comments. And the more I try to...
I guess, diffused the situation, the worse it'd become. And I just went, wow. These people, and that was my last comment, I think, was nobody here knows me. You don't know me. You're making judgment of me from your own opinion, which is fine. But I don't need this in my life, so F you lot. And I slammed my computer down.
God, I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, you know, I had tears running down my face. I didn't deserve any of that and I got it. But it was quite, I guess, surreal to read about myself and how people can quickly form an opinion. I had no opinion on sharks and I still don't. We have people within our group with all sorts of opinions as well.
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Chapter 5: How did Dave establish Bite Club for shark attack survivors?
So don't be scared of it. And it's much better when things are not a surprise to you. So I reached out to the hospital, passed my message on. Obviously... if you're ringing a hospital cold and you're not a relative of someone, you got Buckley's chance of getting through. So I just started leaving my phone number and letting them know that I too had been attacked by a shark.
And, you know, I'm here to talk to you if you want to go through my experience and I can tell you what's going on in my head. Obviously, anybody who's been attacked prior to me is further ahead in their journey than I am. So I'm keen to listen to them. So hopefully someone else would be keen to listen to me. And that's basically how it started. And I would...
Reach out to any hospital, any news story I did, I would say, can you please put me in touch with anyone else you're speaking with? I would like to talk with them. I was fortunate that I had a meeting with the Department of Prime Industries and they came and identified the species of shark and the size.
And it was part of a documentary that they were doing due to bull shark attacks in Sydney Harbour. So my attack being by a bull shark was on their radar and they came and had a chat with me. So straight away, I formed a relationship with the head scientist from the Department of Prime Industries. And I guess originally it was a...
a love hate relationship that they're all excited about catching and tagging sharks and finding out what they're doing. And one of their tag sharks was off Crowdy the day I was attacked. And, um, so I had that originally was like, wow, you know, here's a shark that's being caught that possibly could have been the one that bit me.
If they took it out of the equation back then, would I still be all right? So, you know, straight away you start thinking things like that. And, um, It was, you know, obviously I'm not happy if you've caught the thing and then let it go and it bit me. But honestly, that doesn't bother me anymore, that sort of thing. And we meet quite regular and he's a lovely guy.
So through these connections and phone calls, you started to meet other survivors of attacks. How did Bite Club expand to survivors of other kinds of animal attacks, not just sharks?
The first one we got was a young lady in WA who'd been attacked by a crocodile. And, yeah, she got in touch and said, look, you know, I've got no one who's been able to talk to. Can I join up with you guys? And I just went, of course you can. And then from then, you know, later on we had a girl who'd been attacked by a lion, same situation. She said, you're the only...
animal attack support group I can find anywhere in the world. And I said, well, come on board. And yeah, we've had dingo attacks, crocodiles, alligators, hippopotamus, bears, lions, wolves. So just about anything that's going to attack someone, I think we've got in our group now.
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Chapter 6: What is the impact of community support for shark attack survivors?
And I've done that with a number of people and it's so special. Number one for a surfer to actually be able to go back in the ocean and have a surf is great because if you've been out for any length of time for whatever injury you've got, it gets frustrating and you miss that mental health treatment that you get from in the ocean. So To be part of someone's return to the ocean is great.
And we've had many events where, you know, you paddle out with someone, you take them out for their first surf and then you have a barbie on the beach and a cup of coffee or a couple of beers and just celebrate that life's got some normality back in it again. And they're pretty special.
We've done a few events where we've, you know, we brought a young guy down from far north Queensland who'd lost his leg and We brought a guy up from South Australia who'd also lost his leg a couple of years prior. And there was about, I think, 20-odd of us turned up and we all went out in the ocean together to take him for his first trip back in the water.
And we just sat in the ocean and all in a circle and had a conversation about how the ocean means so much to us and that's why we're here supporting each other. And to see the change in his life, not only from that, but from another few great things that happened within... the group helping him out with other things and just giving him the drive to move on and move forward with his life.
And you just get so much from it and you go, wow, we had a tiny bit to play in this guy's success going forward. And now he's got a life that means something to him and he's got his family and they're all happier. And yeah, just to be part of that is great. And yeah, if somebody says, I want to go for a surf and I'll say, yep, I'm in on it.
It's 13 years since you survived that attack. How did you spend your very first anniversary?
My plan was to turn up at the same time as my attack and paddle out the same spot and hopefully have a good surf. And when I got to the beach, you know, all my mates who were there the evening that I was attacked, plus all my other surfing mates were there as well. And they were all out in the ocean when I got there. And my son was home. My daughter was there. So we were all out in the surf.
I paddled back out. And before I even got away, there was this big disturbance on the water and a bull shark come to the surface. I could see its head as it came up and then it just whipped its tail. What?
A bull shark in the water on that day?
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