Friend’s death failed to deter shark victim
Jaws survivor might not be as lucky when his mum gets to him
SHARK attack victim Cooper Allen has revealed the reason he didn’t want his mum to know he had been attacked by a great white is because she had asked him to stop surfing after his close friend was mauled to death last year.
The 17-year-old surfer, who narrowly escaped a 4m shark which sunk its teeth into his leg and thrashed him around as he surfed at Lighthouse beach on Monday, has told his furious mother he will get back in the ocean.
Marika Griffiths had warned him off surfing after his close friend Japanese surfer Tadashi Nakahara was killed by a shark at Shelly Beach last year and another friend was seriously injured in a separate attack months later.
Cooper suffered serious wounds but miraculously survived before calmly telling his rescuers: “Call an ambulance … but don’t tell my mum.”
His brother James Brown, 23, told News Corp Australia from Liverpool, England: “Mum was furious when she found out, she’s told him off so many times, she would have said ‘I told you’ but he’s mad keen and won’t listen.
“He loves surfing and mum gets angry whenever he goes out into the surf.
“She had a go at him and said he should stop now.
“But just because you have a car accident you don’t stop driving.”
Despite his seemingly carefree attitude, Cooper was left shaken when he became entangled in his leg
rope as he attempted to paddle away.
His leg was mauled by the great white which knocked him off his board on Monday while he was surfing with friends.
Fresh out of high school, Cooper, who lives across the road from the beach, needed stitches across four large gashes on his leg and is recovering at Lismore Base Hospital.
His brother said: “He didn’t punch the shark Mick Fanning style, or anything, his friends helped him get away.
“He’s a joker and really cheeky but he was scared. He was expecting it as it’s happened before; his mate Tadashi was killed and another friend was badly injured by a shark.
“There was a lot of thrashing around and a big struggle as his leg was caught in the rope.
“He’s still getting his head around it.’’
Mr Brown said Cooper had become an instant hit with the girls since his dramatic escape, having received 443 likes from female fans on Facebook.
“He told me ‘they’re going to be all over me when I get out (of hospital) ... It’s made me popular with the girls’,” Mr Brown joked about his brother.