Page 16 - AUATRAVELLER1AUG

2nd Australian A SECOND Australian surfer has warded off a shark attack by
punching the predator after it bit his leg, police in New South Wales
surfer FIGHTS said Friday. The 52-year-old man -- named in local media as Craig
Ison -- was one of two people surfing around 100 yards off Main
OFF shark attack Beach, in Evans Head, northern New South Wales early Friday.
The man -- reportedly a former boxer -- spotted what he thought
was a shark and warned his friend to get out of the water. But as
he paddled toward shore, the shark struck, biting his left leg and
knocking him off his surfboard, police said.
“The man punched the shark in an attempt to scare it away; during
the struggle, the shark also bit his left arm,” the police statement
said.
When he eventually made it to shore, bleeding heavily, his friend
and passersby tied a tourniquet around his injured leg before he was
taken to an area hospital for surgery.
The man’s struggle with the shark -- thought to be a great white --
was similar to that of champion Australian surfer Mick Fanning ear-
lier this month off the coast of South Africa, according to his friend
and fellow surfer.
“It grabbed him as he turned around ... he managed to get himself
on his board,” the friend, named by local media as Geoff Hill, told
the Northern Star newspaper. “It was like watching a Mick Fanning
replay.”Hill also described his friend’s tussle with the shark. “He
was just about to sit up on his board then there’s been, his board’s
flipped up, he’s gone in the water, a tail’s been thrashing,” he said.
“He’s got a couple of punches in, and he’s got damage to his hand as
a result of that.”
The shark left a 40 centimeter (nearly 16 inches) bite mark across
Ison’s board and thigh, Channel 7 reported.

Dark fin approaching
Fanning’s dramatic confrontation with a shark took place on live
TV, and video showing the dark fin approaching the surfer from be-
hind went viral at lightning speed.
Fanning, a professional surfer, was competing at the time in the J-
Bay Open, the sixth stop on the 2015 World Surf League Champion-
ship Tour, in Jeffrey’s Bay on South Africa’s eastern Cape.
“All of a sudden, I sort of sensed something behind me,” he said a
day after the attack. “And then all of a sudden I just jumped on my
board and I was, OK, something’s going on.”

Game of Thrones IT’S official: Game of Thrones won’t only go for
seven seasons.
WILL LAST at Least Even though Thrones showrunners have
repeatedly declared they only want to
Another 3 Seasons make seven seasons of the fantasy hit, HBO
programming president Michael Lombardo for
“That’s what we’re looking at right now” the first time firmly announced the series will go
at least eight seasons.
16 INTERNATIONAL
“Seven-seasons-and-out has never been the
[internal] conversation,” Lombardo said to
critics at the Television Critics Association’s
press tour Thursday. “The question is how
much beyond seven are we going to do.
[Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are]
feel like there’s two more years after six. I would
always love for them to change their minds.
That’s what we’re looking at right now.”
And what about a prequel series?

“I would be open to anything Dan and David want
to do,” Lombardo said. “It really would depend
fully on what they want to do. I think you’re right,
there’s enormous storytelling to be mined in a
prequel. We haven’t had any conversations.”

Saturday, August 01 2015 - ARUBA TRAVELLER