Scott Stevens’ board showing the chunk bitten out of it by a shark. Stevens suffered lacerations to his left torso.
Scott Stevens, 25, suffered serious wounds to his left torso from a shark bite while he was surfing at North Jetty, Humboldt, Eureka, California, United States. The shark is thought to be a great white.
The incident occured on Tuesday 30 October 2012.
He said he was catching waves about 150 metres from fellow surfers at Bunkers, a popular surf spot near Humboldt Bay.
The shark dragged him under the water and shook him around a bit. Stevens then punched the shark several times in the head, which made it release its grip and swim away. He managed to retrieve his board and paddle back to shore, where other surfers helped stem the bleeding and wave down a truck which took him to hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery to stitch the wounds.
Stevens told the Lost Coast Outpost in a podcast interview:
“I went in the water for a surf about 10am. I had just caught a wave and was paddling back out when the shark came out of nowhere. It grabbed my torso from behind and dragged me underwater and shook me a couple of times.
“I opened my eyes underwater and saw the shark grabbing onto me. I punched it a couple of times in the head and it released me and swam off.
“I recovered my board (the shark had severed the leash) and managed to paddle to shore on my own.”
Scott Stevens shows where he was bitten by a shark.
He was shouting for help.
“The support of other surfers was amazing. They waved down a truck which took me to hospital. And they put pressure on the wound the whole time to stop bleeding.” One of the surfers actually lay across his torso to put pressure on the wound and stem the bleeding.
He told the Times Standard that when he opened his eyes under water he saw a lot of blood.
“When I reached the beach, I realised how injured I was and how much blood I was losing.”
“I was in shock. I really didn’t feel much, didn’t feel too much pain, until I woke up this morning,” he said.
He said from the time of attack to ER it took about 20 minutes – “An amazing response which helped a lot.”
”Those guys are heroes,” he said.
He said he received lacerations from the top of hip to his upper chest. The surgeon who stitched up the wounds said there were seven to eight deep lacerations, but fortunately the shark did not open the chest cavity and damage any internal organs.
“At the moment it happened I was truly scared for my life. I didn’t know if I was going to make it or not.
“Now I am a little bummed that my surfboard is damaged,” he said from his hospital bed at St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka, California.
Sources:
Lost Coast Outpost – podcast interview
Times Standard
Digital Journal
PIC Source:
Times Standard
Businesswire
Shark Attack Monitor 