How can you not love Shark Week on Discovery Channel? Every year I look forward to watching it. My favorite is “Air Jaws.” My wife generally enjoys it as well, but we watched a show called “Summer of the Shark,” which was about the Summer of 2001 when the number of shark attacks rocketed. That summer was the last time she would swim in the ocean. I think she does overreact, but here is her story of witnessing a shark attack:
It was the Summer of 2001, I had only been surfing for about 3 years and only in the summer months. I went with a group of girl friends down to the San Diego area for beach camping in San Elijo. We got there Monday and we’re staying until Saturday. It was awesome waking up every morning and going out surfing. I felt I was doing really well, I was catching every wave and moved over to a short board. It was only about 5 feet long. We were out from sunrise to sunset each day.
On Friday on that week, we had been out since early that morning. At this point, my skin was clearly fried from being out in the sun for so long. It was just about lunchtime so most of my friends were in eating. It was just me and two other friends, for the girls being out in the water. There were a few other boys in the area, but it was actually quite empty around considering how busy the water had been all week. As I was debating if I wanted to continue surfing or go in, I laid on my board with all my limbs in the water staring out in the ocean. I looked down into the water, which was decently clear. I watched a dark blur swim slowly and under me. I immediately put all my limbs up on the board and got a deep chill. From how that was swimming under me, it had to be a shark easily larger than my board, probably 6 feet long. I watched it swim from under my board over to under my friends who were out to my left.
As I nervously scrunched myself on my board, trying not to fall into the water, but stay on my way too small board, I yelled to my friends, “I think there’s a shark, get out of the water!” Both my friends, who were much older and wiser, laughed at me. I’m sure how I was propped up on the board didn’t help. One said, “It’s probably a school of fish.” I yelled again, “I think it’s a shark!” The other surfers all looked at me, but continued on. My other friend said, “Just go in. You need to get out of the sun.” I took one last look at my friends to my left and the male surfers to my right.
I barely put my fingers in when trying to paddle in, but I paddled as fast as my fingers could. I was completely terrified by the time I got into shore. My friends were all laughing at how silly I was being and assured me of two things: 1) sharks don’t swim in warm waters, and 2) shark attacks are super rare. They fixed me a sandwich and I sat in the shade watching out at the water.
Immediately, as I sat down, I noticed that there was another surfer, helping the surfer who was right next to me come in. My friends were paddling in as fast as possible and most of the other surfers were as well. When they got to the breaking of the waves, I could see that the surfer who had been directly next to me on my right, had in fact had a bite taken out of him. Instantly, when he was on the sand, the lifeguard pulled him into the shade and lifted his leg up. There was blood trailing in from the water and that’s when I could clearly see what happened. As the lifeguard was attempted to apply pressure below the knee, I could see that the surfer had been bit in the ankle and had mostly broken the leg. It wasn’t quite straight and covered in blood.
We all crowded around, as we were told to get away. That’s when someone finally said, he was bit by a shark. I kept hearing it was a Tiger Shark, but now I think it could have been any kind. The lifeguard seemed very assertive and calm, which is how we knew nothing was fatally wrong. In the few minutes it took for the paramedics to arrive, the foot already looked as if the blood was stopping. The paramedics wrapped his leg up and carried him off on a stretcher.
I was sick to my stomach thinking that I must have actually seen a shark. We didn’t go out to the water again that day and left first thing in the morning. That summer was the Summer of the Shark and all I could see on television was shark attacks. Needless to say, I didn’t go into the water the rest of that year. The following summer, I still couldn’t. They say if you have an experience like that the best therapy is to get back into the water right away, but I guess I missed my chance. I haven’t surfed since and I rarely go deep enough that my belly button could get wet. I know it may be silly that I was so scarred from the event. I don’t know what ever happened to that surfer boy, but I know it wasn’t fatal. I like to think that he rested his ankle for a month and hit the waves again.
Yep, that’s my wife. For our honeymoon, we vacationed in the Caribbean. It was the first time in 7 years that she completely went under water in the ocean. If only I could get her surfing again!
No comments:
Post a Comment