“Mercury was my life, my right hand man. Words cannot describe the bond we had together growing up.”
On a pretty spring Saturday afternoon, the eve of Father’s Day, the well-known northern beaches ripper Mercury Psillakis died in the sort of Great White attack that has become a grim feature of Australian beaches.
Mercury Psillakis, was fifty-seven, and the twin-brother of the noted shaper Mike Psillakis, a man whose high-performance surfboards have long been a staple of the area’s best surfers.
Police described the attack as “rare” but it’s only rare if you have no sense of what has passed and what life in the ocean was like prior to the Great White becoming a protected species in 1999.
And, unlike southern California, where the Great White appears to co-exist in harmony with surfers and swimmers, the relationship is anything but benign in Australian waters, north, east, south and west.
RIP, Zac, Paul Tadashi, Rob, Mani, Mark, Tim, Simon, Nick, Cameron, Jevon, Paul, Nick, Jarrod, Peter, Sam, Simon, Tod, Khai, Lance, Ken, Bradley, Geoffrey, Brian, Nicholas, Kyle, Bryn, George, Peter, Ben, Chris, Jay, Ben, Doreen, Laeticia, Gary, Andrew, Paul, Steven and, now, Mercury.
A couple of weeks earlier, a little further north at Cabarita, a surfer was in waist-deep water when his mid-length was bitten in half by a fifteen-foot Great White. His story had a happy ending.
A who’s who of surfing paid tribute to Mercury Psillakis, including Tom Carroll, Barton Lynch, Ronnie Blakey and Toby Martin.
His twin Mike Psillakis, meanwhile, wrote:
This is the hardest moment of my life
He was my Ying, I was his Yang ☯️
He was my mirror, my blood, my DNA.
We were telepathic.
We share the same soul.
Mercury was my life, my right hand man.
Words cannot describe the bond we had together growing up. We had our own language and shared the same dreams, literally.
The experiences we had together ❤️ were truly amazing.
His message to all is to live life with pure passion.
Express ALL emotions, whether they are happy sad angry or mad
Tell your loved one’s that you love them. Hold them tight.
Get rid of the filter that hides who you really are.
He was passionate about being REAL !
He would be the life at every party. The pure energy from him could be felt in every corner ✨️
In later years he developed a passion for exotic palmsand one of the best at palm seedling germination in which nurseries admired and bought. @plantmadtropicals
He loved his wife Maria and Freedom so very much. Please send them support in any way you can @avemariaap
Thank you all for the heart felt message of support. I love ❤️ you all
❤️❤️❤️❤️
I LOVE YOU BRO
YOU ARE FOREVER WITH ME, THROUGH ME
“It’s the right thing to do,” NSW premier Chris Minns said.