Man In A Grey Suit

Description

'I caught a wave and paddled back out. I was just inside the crowd when I ducked a small wave and it left white water boiling around me. A lump of swell came from the north. It reared as it approached the sand bank. I changed direction, and paddled towards it. I didn't see it. It came from behind, and below.' Glenn Orgias was surfing at Bondi Beach at twilight when he was attacked by a shark - a 'man in a grey suit', as surfers call them. When it let him go, he thought his life was over. As the blood washed over his board, he looked to the shore 80 metres away - 80 metres to paddle with one hand, and a few minutes of strength, and a shark to avoid. All he could think about was his wife, Lisa, who was five months pregnant. But this is more than a story of a shark attack - it's Glenn's life as a surfer, his battle with anger and anxiety growing up, the love story of his meeting and marrying Lisa, his recovery from the attack, the birth of his beautiful daughter, and finally his determination to get back into surfing despite everything he'd been through.

Reviews

'Sometimes we all wonder if we could cope with the worst that life could throw at us. Glenn Orgias has been there, and has come through. His strength of character lies not in what he lost, but in what he's always had.' - Malcolm Knox. 'He frankly and fiercely taps into Australians' deepest fear.' - Robert Drewe