Dale Kittow: Albany surfer tells of terrifying moment bronze whaler shark attacked him off Cheynes Beach

An Albany surfer who narrowly escaped a shark attack has recalled the terrifying moment the predator circled and charged him. Dale Kittow was surfing alone about 100m off Cheynes Beach — 70km east of Albany — on Wednesday afternoon when he noticed a 3m bronze whaler circling him. “I paddled over to a wave and I could see there was a shark about 10m away from me and it just started to circle me,” the 37-year-old told The West Australian. “I just sat on my board and kept facing it ... then it charged at me, so I jumped off the back of my board and swung into it.” The father of a three-year-old son said he became tangled in his leg rope and was dragged underwater after the shark took a bite out of his surfboard. “I got dragged under for a little bit and I hit it a couple of times and undid my leg rope and got free,” Mr Kittow said. “I managed to swim back to my board and get the next wave in.” Mr Kittow, who escaped without injury, said the ordeal lasted between 10 and 15 seconds. “I just didn’t want to leave my son. He’s going to be four in March and I just thought, ‘No, I’m not going yet’,” he said. “My partner was on the beach and I signalled to her, ‘Shark’, and then she saw my board and we had bit of a hug.” The veteran surfer — who has been involved in the sport for about 15 years — said the attack was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time and it had not deterred him from getting back in the water. “There’s lots of dangerous activities and sports out there — and I love surfing,” Mr Kittow said. “I was in the wrong place at the wrong time and I was lucky ... there’s lots of people that haven’t been that lucky so I’m thinking of them.” The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development issued a shark warning for the popular beach in the wake of the near miss. The beach is not closed but those in the Cheynes Beach area have been urged to take additional caution. In December 2017, Jay Muscat, 17, was spearfishing at Cheynes Beach when he was fatally attacked by what it thought to be a 5m great white.