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]

patchouli oil?

Patchouli - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Patchouli oil and incense underwent a surge in popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, mostly among devotees of the free love and hippie lifestyles, as it covers up the scent of marijuana. "

[Global2010]

Howstuffworks "How Shark Attacks Work"
Address:http://science.howstuffworks.com/shark-attack2.htm

[Stoat]

Howstuffworks "How Shark Attacks Work"
 

Good page, thank you!  :-)

I think that I'll still put my faith in a bangstick, however.

[Charles Henrickson]

"We were like, 'No, dude, that's a porpoise'"

THE
PORPOISE
DRIVEN
Like

[martin_fierro]

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.

Where to begin.

[Niteranger68]

patchouli oil?

They’ve added more letters?

[mikrofon]

"Nobody's ever been attacked twice,"

"The Land Shark Always Knocks Twice"

[MAWG]

" They've added more letters?"

They have? Far out man! Which ones dude?

[Salvation]

Oregon Ping

Please notify me via FReepmail if you would like to be added to or taken off the Oregon Ping List.

[Grampa Dave]

Smoking that Oregon Weed must block the pain sites and most of the CNS.

[TruthWillWin]

Was it an accident or did the fish bite his foot on porpoise?

[Stoat]

Was it an accident or did the fish bite his foot on porpoise?

[Stoat]

Smoking that Oregon Weed must block the pain sites and most of the CNS.

[Grampa Dave]

Isn't that guy one of the parking attendants in downtown Portland?

[ItsForTheChildren]

THE PORPOISE DRIVEN Like

ROFLMAO!

[monkapotamus]

[Stoat]

Isn't that guy one of the parking attendants in downtown Portland?

Yes, he's a credit to his profession.