He was brought to Waitangi Wharf but died a short time later at the Chatham Islands Health Centre.

Kahukore-Dixon’s father, Jacky Dixon, said Stuff he had limited information about what had happened to his son, but had been told that he had been killed by a great white shark.

“I couldn’t believe it. I kept imagining it when I was little. I won’t have my son,” he said through tears.

Dixon said his son was a “very tough young guy” who “loved fishing and diving” from a young age.

“He would do anything to protect his family. He was an amazing boy, a much-loved member of the family.”

Kahukore-Dixon was a commercial diver who lived on the Chatham Islands and harvested paua and kina.

He often saw great white sharks, his father said, but he was not afraid of them.

“She thought she was one with the ocean,” he said.

Dixon, who lives in Hawke’s Bay, said if his son saw a shark while diving, he would hold his breath and hide behind rocks on the ocean floor.

“Then he would try to sneak back to the boat before the sharks saw him. He would do that every time,” he said.

About four years ago, Kahukore-Dixon had a near miss.

“His teammate was timing him and he thought, ‘nah, he’s been out there too long,'” Dixon said.

“His mate jumped in, swam down there and Jade’s leg got stuck under a rock.

“He couldn’t get out and his partner freed his leg and picked him up and saved his life.”

Kahukore-Dixon was the sole director and shareholder of the newly formed company Nomad Diving Limited, which was registered in June.

In 2018, he was listed as one of the outstanding young players in the Chatham Islands rugby team, which toured with various clubs in the South Islands.

He attended Hastings Boy’s High School and represented the school in a regional chess tournament. He and his brother Cayne were raised by Koru and “Nanny” Wayne and Donna Dixon.

Dixon said his son “wasn’t scared of anything.”

“When he used to play rugby when he was young, the whole touchline was shouting help Jade, somebody help Jade because he was in the middle of the whole maul fighting for that ball and he was getting that ball out of that maul by himself. and run.”

Chatham Islands Mayor Monique Croon said earlier Stuff she knew Kahukore-Dixon.

“He’s a local boy. He’s well-known, well-liked and this is going to be quite devastating for our commercial divers. It’s the biggest risk – the biggest fear,” Croon said.

“The community will be in total shock.”

A shark researcher who survived a great white shark attack while freediving off the Chatham Islands said Stuff the fatality was “incredibly tragic and incredibly sad.”

Kina Scollay said shark attacks in the waters around the islands are rare.

He said there has been a long history of shark sightings in the area since the blue cod fishing boom of the last century.

The death is the second tragedy in the island community this month after well-known farmer and Kaumātua George Te Nera Goomes, 70, died in a motorbike accident.