BLADE Magazine

Kite Surfer Glad He Brought A Knife To Shark Fight!

Reuters of Warsaw, Poland, reports that champion kite surfer Jan Lisewski, 42, used a knife to fight off 11 sharks and repeated shark attacks during a two-day battle of survival after becoming stranded in the Red Sea.

Lisewski, who became the first person to kite surf across the Baltic Sea last year, was two-thirds of the way across the Red Sea from Egypt to Saudi Arabia when he became stranded. His kite suddenly deflated after the wind stopped during the 124-mile crossing from the Egyptian town of El Gouna to Duba in Saudi Arabia.

As nightfall approached the Gdansk-born champ and instructor sent an SOS message from an emergency transmitter – but it took nearly 40 hours for Saudi coast guard officials to locate him.

During the first night, Lisewski fired a rescue flare towards a Red Sea fishing vessel but it did not alter course towards him, so he wrapped up his kite to make a raft on his board so he could catch some sleep.

His only sustenance was a small supply of water, energy drinks and two energy bars.

On the second night he said the surfboard drifted towards a reef where he was attacked by up to 11 sharks. He said he fought off the sharks, some apparently up to 18 feet long, using a knife during an all-night battle.

“I was stabbing them in the eyes, the nose and gills,” Lisewski told Reuters.

Lisewski, who only suffered exhaustion and dehydration during the ordeal, said he usually does not carry a knife but his brother Piotr urged him to take one.

“Maybe he had some kind of premonition,” he said.


BLADE® was unable to discern what kind of knife Lisewski carried during his ordeal.


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