A young surfer from California has described a heart-stopping encounter with a shark that saw him thrown violently from his board and left stranded in the ocean.
A Sudden Impact in the Waves
Tommy Civik, aged 26, was paddling in the waters off Gualala, a coastal resort roughly 115 miles north of San Francisco, at approximately 8.30am on January 13. He had been in the water for a mere ten minutes when the peaceful morning session turned into a nightmare.
"It felt like being hit by a car," Civik later told the LA Times, describing the immense force that suddenly snapped his surfboard and sent him flying through the air. The surfer did not see the shark approaching. "The whole thing was so jarring, I was just trying to get away," he said.
Friend Witnesses the Thrashing Attack
His friend, Marco Guerrero, was watching from a nearby sandbar. Guerrero initially saw the commotion in the water and assumed a shark was attacking a seal. "I said, 'Oh that's a shark attack,'" Guerrero recounted. "I didn't realise it was Tommy."
After biting into Civik and the board, Guerrero stated the six-foot shark whipped its tail above the surface and vanished, taking half of the surfboard with it. Civik was left alone in the water, still an alarming 150 feet from the safety of the shore.
His only recourse was to put his head down and swim for his life. It was only when he reached the beach that he noticed the distinct, bloody teeth marks imprinted on his upper left thigh.
Incredible Escape and Swift Response
"I was unbelievably lucky. My board took all the impact, and the teeth just grazed me," a relieved Civik explained. The puncture wounds ultimately required stitches, but his quick thinking and the board's intervention prevented a far more serious outcome.
A bystander who witnessed the attack in Mendocino County promptly called 911. The South Coast Fire Protection District responded to the distress call at 8.45am, dispatching the Coast Life Support District and the fire department. By the time they arrived, Civik had already made it to land.
Fuelled by adrenaline, Civik made the decision to drive himself to hospital for treatment. His punctured wetsuit was handed over to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which will conduct tests to identify the specific type of shark involved.
Despite years of surfing and the occasional worry about sharks, Civik never imagined he would become a victim. Remarkably, the traumatic event has not deterred him from returning to the ocean. "Honestly, I would surf again," he told the Times. "If it's already unlikely to get attacked by a shark once, how could it happen twice? I don't think this will stop me."
This incident is reported to be the first recorded shark bite on a human in California this year, serving as a stark reminder of the unpredictable nature of the marine environment.
