WA’s Sean Pollard was given his first surfboard at the age of 8 and quickly became obsessed with catching that next ‘big wave’. While attending Bunbury Senior High and with beach views from nearly every classroom window, Sean’s memories of his teenage years are deeply intertwined with his passion and love of the ocean. These days, Sean is an elite Snowboarder, with his focus firmly set on the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy in 2026. But aside from the talent and dedication involved in representing Australia on an international stage, what makes this young father’s achievement truly remarkable is that Sean nearly lost his life to a terrifying shark attack, back in 2014. In an extraordinary episode #131 of the Flying Doctor Podcast, Sean clearly recalls the exact moment that a 3.5 metre Great White Shark first ‘bumped’ his leg. Seconds later, while trying to use his surfboard as a shield, Sean saw the shark once again charging him - ‘like a torpedo’ - from 20 metres away, before it completely bit off his left arm, along with his entire right hand. Somehow, with his family and waiting girlfriend (and future wife) Claire firmly front of mind, Sean rolled onto his back and began desperately swimming to shore. Feeling himself fading from blood loss and shock and confronted by the unfathomable sight of his torn and damaged arms, Sean just hoped to reach the beach before he lost consciousness.
Despite his horrific predicament, some crucial luck was on Sean’s side that day. There were a number of trained ‘first responders’ standing close enough on the beach to immediately render life-saving first aid. Sean quickly had a torniquet on every limb and his girlfriend’s surfboard was used as a makeshift stretcher. With those on scene working as an adrenaline fueld team, he was quickly loaded into a 4WD to take him off the beach, to meet an approaching ambulance. Sean arrived at Esperance hospital within 45 minutes of his attacked – but more blood was needed to address Sean’s catastrophic blood loss. An RFDS flight quickly delivered the life-saving blood directly from Perth, before then transferring a stabilised Sean back to Royal Perth hospital for two surgeries and a long stint in intensive care. His next stop would be as one of the very first rehab patients at the brand-new Fiona Stanley hospital, as this resilient young surfer learned to walk with full leg splints and split hook prosthetic on his right arm.
But this by no means the end of Sean’s story. After being fitted with a prosthetic aluminium hook, Sean quickly learnt to efficiently manipulate his new ‘limb’, using a cable attached to his left shoulder muscle. Sean quickly impressed his Doctors and family with his stubborn determination to cleverly adapt to a totally different way of life. He didn’t wear shoes for six months, until he could finally put his own socks on un-assisted and using his new hook hand. These days, Sean has effectively swapped his surfboard for a snow board, after randomly heading off with a group of his surfing buddies at Mt Buller in Victoria, around one year after his shark attack. After catching the snowboard ‘bug’, he soon qualified to represent Australia at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in South Korea- just four, remarkable years after his shark attack. Today, Sean is now considered one of the best para-snow boarders in the world. And over a decade after his life-changing encounter with one of the world’s deadliest creatures, Sean’s life philosophy is as unique as he is. “I figure (my shark attack) was just one bad day after enjoying over twenty years in the ocean – so that’s a pretty good risk vs reward. I just hope I have at least another 20 ‘lucky’ years ahead.
