Eric Tarantino, a Monterey, California surfer, who was attacked by a shark in October while surfing at Marina State Beach is now reliving the story for the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
“The first few seconds seem to happen in slow motion,” recounted Tarantino, who had only been in the water for a few minutes when he was attacked about 150 yards offshore at about 7 a.m. on Oct. 29. “I was still half asleep because I literally had just rolled out of bed about 20 minutes earlier. When it happened, when the shark hit me, it was kind of surreal, but I didn’t really feel scared.”
The shark pulled him under and when he finally got free and saw all the blood in the water, that’s when he got scared.
“I managed to get back on my board and started paddling, and that’s when I noticed my arm was bleeding,” he said. “I wasn’t feeling any pain at that point — I’m sure I was already in shock and probably gone into overdrive a little bit. I started paddling in, moving slowly, seeing all the blood in the water and realizing that if he decided to come back and get me, there would be nothing I could do about it. That’s when it became really scary.”
We have to admit–stories of escaping from the jaws of a shark are our favorite shark attack stories and we’re glad Tarantino is still around to tell it. Click the link to read the rest.
[Link: Santa Cruz Sentinel]
