An Australian man suffered a freak injury recently, after part of a fish was left impaled through his nose while surfing in Indonesia.
Steven Kezic, from Perth, was attending a surf school with mates off the Mentawai Islands in Sumatra when the incident happened.
He told 9News he initially thought his mates were just messing around throwing seaweed at him when he felt something hit his face.
"I've looked around, everyone's looking at me like really intently.
"One of the surf instructor's came up to me and said 'you better stop, you've got a fish in your face,'" Kezic said.
It turns out a 30cm-long garfish had jumped out of the water and pierced the cartilage of his nose, missing his eyes by mere centimetres.
"It was really lucky I didn't lose my eyesight, because I just turned and the garfish came right across. If it was a fraction higher it would have taken my eyes out." he told 9News.
Fortunately, one of Kezic's fellow surfers Kyle Kophamel was a doctor and operated on Kezic for 45 minutes, removing the fish beak and stitching up Kezic's face on land.
"The wound itself had literally entered one side of his nose and come out the other," Kophamel said.
However, the accident won't stop Kezic from surfing and he "can't wait to get back in the water".
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