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This week in Northern California, a surfer was bitten by a shark and his board was destroyed, making it the first such incident in the state. shark incident This year.
“It felt like I was hit by a car,” Tommy Sibick told Bay City News about the incident in Mendocino County, north of San Francisco, according to SF Gate. “Suddenly I was shot out of the water.”
South Coast Fire Protection District Chief Jason Warner told SF Gate that his team was dispatched to the beach in Gualala, Calif., just before 9 a.m. Tuesday and was told by bystanders that a “large” shark “hit the surfer and the surfboard, throwing the surfer a little bit into the air and breaking the board in half.”
He said it “caught half of the board; [was] In a sense, it’s like throwing it around. ”
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This week, a surfer in Northern California was bitten by a shark and his board was destroyed, marking the state’s first shark incident of the year. (South Coast Fire Protection District)
Civic told the Los Angeles Times he had never seen the shark.
“The impact broke the board in two,” he said. “My friend who was watching said I flew through the air. I’m just now trying to piece together what happened. … The whole thing was so unpleasant that I just wanted to get away.”
Peter Tira and the California Department of Fish and Game and wild animals Civic required stitches and told SFGate that DNA taken from the wound will be used to determine what type of shark attacked him.
“I’ve been incredibly lucky,” Sibick told the Times. “The board took all the impact and the teeth just grazed me,” Civic said. “I had so much adrenaline going that I could walk, so I drove myself to the hospital.”
“It was like being hit by a car,” Tommy Civic said. “All of a sudden I was shot out of the water.” (South Coast Fire Protection District)
A friend, Marco Guerrero, told the Times he saw the shark attack what he first thought was a seal.
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“I just remember Tommy saying, ‘I’ll meet you outside,’ and putting on his suit. I was looking out at the waves and I heard a thump,” he explained. “I thought it was attacking a seal and I said, ‘Oh, it’s a shark attack.’ I didn’t realize it was Tommy.”
After the attack, Civic said, “I just… [his] Keep your head down and swim fast. ”
The sun sets over Gualala, California. (George Rose/Getty Images)
“I didn’t know where the shark was, so I just focused on getting away,” he told the Times. “After a minute, if a shark [had] You wanted to bite me again, you would. Everything happened so quickly. ”
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The Civic attack comes less than a month after an open ocean swimmer was killed by a shark. santa cruz countyand 2025 follows a record year for shark incidents.
“However, there were only three injury accidents last year, far below the previous record set in 1974, when seven injuries were confirmed,” Tira told SF Gate.
