I used to surf at the beach quite a bit- the waters of the Central Coast are cold and sharky- This is one very fortunate woman. What a huge bite of of her board. I think having a long board may have saved her life, a short board would have been a bigger crunch.
We've been trying all summer to get a GWS on GoPro cams while diving Catalina and the Oil Rigs. No love yet but the summer's not quite over -
HB Lifeguards are reporting a ton of em at Bolsa Chica - Tower 17 where the paddleboarders are :-)
The waters on the Central Coast, as along all of the CA coast, used to be A LOT LESS "sharky," before seals, sea otters, sea lions, etc. etc. etc. became protected and their populations EXPLODED to what they are now. My bros, who have fished the Central Coast for five decades now, say that they see oodles of critters now in the same fishing spots where 35 years ago, they never saw
any. Those sharks are there because there's more a whole helluva lot more food to attract them. Be ready for more Orca attacks on people, as well.