Jake Brown's body was found after a desperate search.
Jake Brown's body was found after a desperate search.
A witness has revealed the final words of an Australian man who died after jumping over a shark net at a popular Gold Coast beach.
Emergency services attended the scene at the Paradise Point Parklands on Sunday afternoon after the man failed to resurface.
The man’s body was recovered after police searched for four hours from the air, by boat, and with divers.
The Daily Mail reported 29-year-old Jake Brown made the fateful decision to jump over the barrier, which sits close to the beach and forms a swimming enclosure at the recreation area, which is popular with families.
Hundreds had gathered at the beach to beat the heat on Sunday and witnessed the frantic search.
One witness told the Courier Mail he saw Brown and a friend sitting on the net’s float before Brown told his mate “Hold my beer” and jumped over the edge.
“I said ‘stop’, you could see what was going to happen,” he said.
The witness said Brown was quickly taken by the current, surfacing briefly before being dragged under the net.
“It’s so sad,” he said, adding that the consequences of the man’s actions were “f***ing obvious”.
The swimming enclosure at Paradise Point Parklands is popular with families.
The Daily Mail reported online tributes from Brown’s distraught partner, who paid tribute to a “very, very loved friend, partner, father, brother, son, grandson, [and] uncle.”
“He was a beautiful man whose smile lit up every room he walked in [and] unfortunately we lost a beautiful human,” Kama Robinson wrote online.
“The city is aware of the incident that occurred this afternoon within the swimming enclosure at Paradise Point Parklands,” the City of Gold Coast council said in a statement.
“We are actively cooperating with authorities to understand the cause of the incident.
“The city will provide any assistance it can to emergency services to assist in this matter.”
