Paul de Gelder: Navy diver, shark attack survivor, smoking hot swimwear model

silke stuckenbrock/the navy diver

 

Aimee Mullins meet Paul de Gelder. Much has been written – and broadcast - about de Gelder’s near brush with death on February 11, 2009, when the then 31 year-old Royal Australian Navy clearance diver and former paratrooper and East Timor peacekeeper came face-to-face with a three metre bull shark, which savaged his right hand and leg. A double amputation, extensive rehabilitation and two years later, de Gelder is back at work as a Royal Australian Navy diver trainer, with several brand new spinoff careers, including motivational speaker and conservationist, who has called on the United Nations to protect sharks from over fishing. Earlier this year he also became a published author, with the release of No time for fear: How a shark attack survivor beat the odds. But de Gelder has another new career that’s a little less well-documented: fashion model. To be precise, underwear and swimwear model for new Sydney-based brand The Navy Diver. 

I, Fashion Robot

Here is an inspiring video currently doing the rounds - of Aimee Mullins talking at last month’s TED conference. Mullins’ name is no doubt very familiar to many. Born without fibulae in both legs, Mullins had both of her legs amputated below the knee at age one. Twenty years later, in 1996, she made world headlines by setting Paralympic records in Atlanta in the 100m dash and long jump, whilst wearing a pair of spectacular carbon-fiber prostheses, whose design had been inspired by the hind legs of a cheetah. Highly photogenic, Mullins became the focus of a 10-page feature in Sports Illustrated and was swiftly adopted by the fashion world. She appeared in a score of fashion magazines and notably, on Alexander McQueen’s runway in 1999, wearing a pair of hand-carved wooden legs.

Mullins has since made a tentative foray into the acting business and, judging by this presentation, has developed into a charismatic and highly confident motivational speaker.

As Mullins talks in this video, a stage hand delivers to the podium some of her 12 pairs of prosthetic limbs, via which she says she is able to adjust her height from 5’8” to 6’1”.

As inspiring as Mullins and her story are, frockwriter can't help get the feeling that there's something strangely unsettling here - especially following the video of the Japanese "runway" robot which swept the net yesterday (see below).

Not to mention reports of elective surgery to increase height.

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