A 16-year-old surfer, and former finalist in the South African Grommet Games in the U-16 Division Zama Ndamase (right) died after being hit by a Tiger Shark at Port St. Johns, South Africa’s Second Beach on Saturday, January 15, 2011, according to a story on IOL.co.za.
“We ran down there as soon as we saw it. After the shark had bit him he caught a wave and headed for shore, but he couldn’t stand on one leg and the wave faded on him. . . “He lost consciousness and some of the other surfers tried to rescue him before the lifeguards came. He was in the water a good 10 minutes before we got to him. . . “We checked for a pulse and all the vital signs, but he was already gone. The shark had bitten a big chunk off his right leg.”
Maui’s Kai Barger and Tanner Hendrickson towed a 15-year-old shark bite victim to shore at Ledges last week, according to a story in the Star Advertiser.
Barger said he heard one of the bodyboarders scream but couldn’t believe that there was a shark nearby. He watched as the two bodyboarders paddled slowly back toward him and his friends. . . “I asked them if they had seen a shark and he said that he had been bitten by one,” Barger said. “He lifted his leg and his fin was gone and all of the skin on his shin was off. It was really gnarly.” . . “We just told him that he was O.K., that he still had a foot, and that he was going to survive this,” Barger said. “We just did whatever we could to keep him calm.”
Barger and Hendrickson towed the boy to shore and then reportedly used their leashes as tourniquets on the boy’s leg until EMS arrived. Nice work.
On Tuesday night (October 26, 2010) a group of surfers in the lineup at San Clemente, California’s Riviera Beach saw a small great white shark jump out of the water just outside the line up, according to a story in the Orange County Register.
About half of the 10 or so surfers in the lineup left the water, said Dave Schulte, a veteran surfer and former pro surf-contest judge who had just finished surfing at Riviera Beach when the shark, maybe 6 feet long, was sighted at about 6 p.m. Tuesday. . . Schulte was heading for his car when a young surfer came up to say a shark had just breeched. Schulte said he watched the water for 15 minutes “and all of a sudden it jumped again. We’re talking maybe 75 yards off the beach.”
We liked it better when the great whites stayed way, way off shore and kept their heads down.
“I have to get out of here,” Heald said he immediately thought. . . Heald guessed the fin was from a 5- to 6-foot blacktip shark. The blacktip is probably to blame for most reported human attacks in Florida, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, but never a fatality. . . The fin disappeared below the surface, and Heald figured it was his chance to try to catch a wave in. Then it hit him, hard. . . “I heard a big splash, and it felt like I was being tackled,” he said.
Heald, unlike California’s Lucas Ransom, survived with a few stitches and is already back in the water.
Lucas McKaine Ransom, 19, of Romoland, California died Friday morning October 22, 2010 after being attacked by what witnesses say was an 18 foot long shark at Surf Beach at Vandenberg Air Force Base, according to a story in the Lompoc Record.
The friend, Matthew Garcia, told The Associated Press that he was two feet from Ransom, who was wearing a wet suit, when the shark rose out of the water without warning and bit into Ransom’s leg. . . . Garcia says his friend cried ‘Help me, dude!’ before he disappeared under the water in a cloud of red. . . .Garcia was pounded by waves as he looked for Ransom. He estimates the shark was 18 feet long.
Garcia (who was on a surfboard at the time) found Ransom and pulled him to shore, but Ransom died on the beach. Ransom was junior at UCSB majoring in chemical engineering. Our thoughts are with his family and friends.
Paul de Gelder, the Royal Australian Navy diver who lost a hand and leg to a bull shark during training exercises in Sydney Harbour, is back on a surfboard thanks to his new leg, according to a story from Washington Today.
Once he had recovered from his wounds, Mr de Gelder returned to the waves on the northern beaches close to his Collaroy home. . . “I love being in the water. I wasn’t going to let the shark attack keep me out of the water,” said Mr de Gelder, who recently returned from New York where he and other shark attack victims lobbied the United Nations to curtail fishing practices that threaten sharks with extinction.
A teenage surfer at South Africa’s Melkbaai beach was bitten on the foot Friday (October 1, 2010), according to a story on iAfrica.com.
However, the surfer, who appeared to be a teenager, had relatively minor injuries to his foot. . . He had three deep lacerations, penetrating to the bone, and had lost blood. . . He was treated on the spot and en route to hospital, Visser said.
Sharks appear to come closer to shore around the Cape this time of year, according to the story. This time a little too close.
Caleb Kauchak, 18, was surfing Sandbridge in Virginia beach on Friday, September 24, 2010, when he got hit by a shark, not once, but twice according to a story on WITN.com
Kauchak says the shark grabbed his ankle and he felt it thrashing. Kauchak jumped on his surf board to escape and says he was bitten again on the knee. . . Rescue crews say Kauchak was attacked by a shark, but officials aren’t sure what kind of shark was involved.
The nibbles left Kauchak with 51 stitches for his trouble.
Volusia Country Florida, the shark bite capital of the world, logged two more bites this weekend as two surfers felt the teeth at New Smyrna’s Inlet, according to My Fox Orlando.
One surfer was bitten in the hand by a shark while he was paddling out south of the Inlet. The second shark bite was also a surfer who was bitten on his left thigh. . . Both men were taken to Bert Fish hospital for stitches to close up those bite wounds, lifeguards say were caused by sharks.
Lifeguards reportedly flew the purple flag, which in Florida “indications hazardous marine life.” We never knew.
A 16-year-old surfer, and former finalist in the South African Grommet Games in the U-16 Division Zama Ndamase (right) died after being hit by a Tiger Shark at Port St. Johns, South Africa’s Second Beach on Saturday, January 15, 2011, according to a story on IOL.co.za.
