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Most people know surfers tend to be the victims of a disproportionate number of shark attacks due to the boards that make them resemble the animal’s prey. One man trying to shred off the coast of California recently learned that the hard way and was left with a memento of the encounter thanks to the bite marks on his board.
The Florida Museum of Natural History is considered the worldwide authority when it comes to documenting shark attacks. In 2024, it chronicled 47 confirmed instances of what were classified as “unprovoked attacks” (down from 69 in 2023, a year where there were 10 fatalities in that category before that number improved to four).
28 of those incidents transpired in America, and Florida led the pack when it came to individual states with 14.
California ended up in fourth place with a grand total of three (Hawaii and Texas were tied at four apiece, with the former responsible for the nation’s only fatality). The Golden State still has a clean sheet in 2025 as far as attacks that cause bodily injury are concerned, but one surfer came uncomfortably close to becoming a statistic due to what went down at a beach south of San Francisco on Saturday.
50% of the victims who were attacked last year were either swimming or wading when they attracted the attention of a shark, while 38% were surfing or riding some other kind of board when they met the same fate.
According to SFGate, Jens Heller was attempting to catch some waves at Montara State Beach on May 31st when he was unexpectedly knocked into the water and found himself looking directly at the shark that bit down on the board he’d been on seconds before.
The 42-year-old said he “shoved the board towards the shark and tried to kick to get away” before it fled the scene, and he was able to hop back on it and make his way back to shore without incident before conducting an interview where he recapped the counter while showing off the damage that was done.
Heller said another surfer who witnessed what went down estimated the shark was approximately 10 feet in length, but it’s not clear what species was responsible (he told ABC7 the board isn’t worth repairing but thinks he might end up hanging it on a wall). The beach was temporarily closed for 48 days before reopening to the public.
In 2024, Australian scientists shared the results of a study that suggested installing bright lights on the bottom of surfboards could dramatically decrease the risk of an attack, and it seems like more surfers might want to put that theory to the test.
Content shared from brobible.com.