A harrowing encounter unfolded off the coast of South Australia, where a young surfer found himself in a terrifying clash with a shark. Oliver Tokic-Bensley, a 16-year-old surfing enthusiast, recounted the chilling moment when a shark seized his foot, sending him tumbling off his board.

Oliver was surfing alone in the turbid waters near the popular tourist destination of Middleton when the sudden attack occurred. He was positioned approximately 100 metres from the shore, desperately paddling back to safety with the hope that the shark would not make a second assault.

Recalling the frightening ordeal, Oliver explained, “I was sitting on my board, waiting for a wave, when something suddenly grabbed my foot.” The unexpected encounter threw him into the water, and just a few meters ahead, a small fin emerged from the depths. “I quickly jumped back on my board and raced towards the beach,” he added.

With the fin vanishing beneath the waves, Oliver faced the daunting uncertainty of whether the predator would return, a scenario that strikes fear into the heart of any surfer. Despite the scare, Oliver’s quick reflexes and determination helped him make it safely back to shore, leaving him with a story of survival and resilience.

“I fell into the water with it and then maybe five metres in front of me there was a little fin that popped up, and I just hopped on my board and legged it back to the beach.”

When the fin disappeared below the surface, Oliver faced every surfer’s worst nightmare, not knowing if the predator would strike again.

“It was pretty frantic,” he said.

“There were no waves to catch at the time it got me so I just had to paddle.”

His father, Andrew Bensley, had been watching his son from their holiday home but didn’t see the attack.

“I think the movement of his foot and maybe the murky water, the shark mistimed the hit. If it was a little bit up he definitely would have lost his foot,” he said.

“Based on the size of the teeth it was a reasonable-sized shark.”

When Oliver finally made it to shore and reached his phone he called his sister to raise the alarm.

“I just said ‘I just got attacked by a shark’. I didn’t word it very well so she thought it was a lot worse than it was. So she sort of started stressing out,” he said.

While Oliver has quite the tale to tell – he says the attack won’t keep him out of the water.

He’s planning to be out catching waves again as soon as his foot is healed.

“He said to me, ‘the chances of getting attacked by a shark is one in 3 million and what are the chances of getting attacked twice right?’” Bensley said.

Judging by the colour of the fin, Oliver believes the shark might have been a bronze whaler, which struck his foot about 4.30pm on Good Friday.

“We were talking around having a religious presence in your life and I said ‘your guardian angel’s definitely working overtime for you today,” his father said.

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