OR: Surfer fights off shark attack near Florence jetty("We were like, No, dude, that's a porpoise")

KATU 2 TV News (ABC) ^ | August 31, 2006

[Stoat]

Surfer fights off shark attack near Florence jetty

 

VIDEO

FLORENCE, Ore. - A surfer says he will return to the ocean after he was attacked by a shark that bit his foot, requiring more than 30 stitches.

Tom Larson was surfing Tuesday with a small group off the South Jetty when his buddy, Keenan Keeley, thought he saw a dorsal fin.

"We were like, 'No, dude, that's a porpoise,"' the 23-year-old welder from Eugene said. "We'd seen some porpoises in the water earlier."

Larson said conditions appeared safe - no wind, no ominous overcast skies, no sea lions barking, no dead fish on shore - and it was a calm, idyllic day for surfing.

He was trying to catch some waves still breaking clean as dusk approached when he suddenly felt something grab him by the foot, yanking him off his board. He looked down and saw a two-foot fin and an eight- to 10-foot long shark circling him.

"It clamped down and started shaking my foot," Larson said.

Instinct kicked in. Larson screamed "Shark!" and reached for his board.

"I heard him screaming," said Larson's brother Sam, 21. "I looked and saw him splashing, holding on to his board, half in the water. He had a complete look of terror on his face. All the color had left his face. I guess we were both in shock."

Sam Larson said he saw a black dorsal fin swimming around his brother before the shark lashed out with its tail and threw a bunch of spray. "That's when it grabbed him again," Sam Larson said.

His brother, pulled down to his chest in the water, says he stabbed at the shark with the tip of his surfboard three times, then missed. By the fifth stab, the big fish was gone.

"It just felt like a vice, a bear trap clamping down," the older Larson said. "There wasn't any pain probably because my adrenaline was going. The scariest thing was paddling in."

On shore, he surveyed his injuries. The bites had torn the toe off the surf bootie on his right foot, and he'd begun to bleed through his wet suit.

He wrapped a shirt around his wounds and limped to the car, shrugging off an ambulance called by a passer-by in favor of a free ride to Peace Harbor Hospital in Florence.

More than 30 stitches later on the eight lacerations on his right foot, Larson was recovering at his mother's house in Eugene on Wednesday. He pledged to get back in the water in a week or two.

"Nobody's ever been attacked twice," he said.

Shark attacks in Oregon remain quite rare. Since 2000, only three shark attacks have been recorded in state waters, according to West Coast shark researcher Ralph Collier.

None was fatal.

 

[Stoat]

Giving credit where it's due...I found this article because it was linked at Orbusmax

Orbusmax ™ Northwest News - 'Around The World In 80K'

[llevrok]

"Dude. Where's my foot?"

[Red Badger]

Dang, that porpoise sure has big teeth!.........

[johnny7]

"Nobody's ever been attacked twice," he said.

I believe he's quoting Jeff Spicoli...

[Jack Black]

Any marine mammels near the shore are a bad sign. Sharks like to eat sea lions and dolphins and sea otters. When you see them in the line up it's time to go.

I used to surf at Anno Nuevo State Park in Santa Cruz, and when the ocean got full of the smiley happy critters you could litterally see the sharks circling. Creepy.

[Stoat]

Dang, that porpoise sure has big teeth!.........

[Red Badger]

Don't wanna be the "weakest link" in the food chain........

[italianquaker]

rodney something from aus, attacked by great white twice

[humblegunner]

Gnarly!

[Niteranger68]

Sharks gag on petruli oil.

[johnny7]

Possibly... but the distressed gums hint of Italian ancestry...

[Stoat]

"Dude. Where's my foot?"

It looks like it's still attached....for the moment.  Perhaps the shark will want to finish his meal when this guy returns to the beach?

[xarmydog]

Like,Dude,they don't look like dolphins.Like,Dude,Dude?Where did he go,Like.

[skeeter]

Flossing might help with those gums.

[Vision]

25!

[Stoat]

25!

???

<<<scratching furry stoat head, perplexed expression on face

[reagan_fanatic]

"Dude - you're getting a shark!"

[Vision]

Mayor Vaughn: [to reporter] I'm pleased and happy to repeat the news that we have, in fact, caught and killed a large predator that supposedly injured some bathers. But, as you see, it's a beautiful day, the beaches are open and people are having a wonderful time. Amity, as you know, means "friendship".

[MAWG]

patchouli oil?

[Global2010]

Oregon Ping! The article stated that shark attacks on the Oregon coast are rare.

We have some nasty aggressive lil sharks and a great white (rare) attacked a few months ago further North.

I am guessing the rare attacks are only because the ocean up here is to flippin' cold and wild for frolicking in unless you are out surfing in a wet suit.

Whale migration is "on" right now and us locals are always waiting for a repeat of an incident many years ago.

That was on the Bay Front a few tourist had gathered over looking a rail on the pier enjoying the Sea Lion when a killer whale jetted up out of the water while chomping down on the sea lion in his jaws.

For the tourists it was a gut wrenching experience.