The encounter happened weds May 26 at my home beach Wilmington NC - Figure Eight Island. Thankfully 8 weeks later it seems there is no permanent damage and I will make a full recovery, 23+ stitches lots of steri-strips. The attached pic shows the bite two days after being stitched up.
I was wing foiling with a 4 M Ozone V2 wing in good wind (15-20) with a lift 250 surf foil. Unfortunately, I had gone way out from the beach, about a 1/2 mile. I was just riding along when suddenly the shark attacked my hydrofoil, I fell abruptly and flipped in the water, saw sharks eyes and my foot in his mouth fought/kicked thankfully it released after first strike.
There was blood everywhere, I was surrounded by deep red water; adrenaline and thirst to survive kicked in ........ within about 10-12 seconds of the strike I got on board, got it flying and made it in quickly. Had to .... could have been fatal. Thankfully, despite blood spurting out of my leg with my heartbeat my leg worked enough to quickly ride in and get to medical attention from friends on the beach within 5 minutes. My wounds were being irrigated and stitched up within 30 minutes. I took cipro and doxycycline together to fight infection.
It was an incredibly fortunate escape ........... It's been deemed very possible by a few shark experts that the reason the bite was not MUCH WORSE and I was physically able to get on the board and go was because the leash peg coming off the cuff was down in the sharks gullet. I was using a heavy duty Dakine leash (pic attached) to connect the board to my right ankle, as we all do I had it tight so the cord was facing out, thankfully that unusually long peg coming off the cuff was pointed straight down in the sharks mouth.
I must still have something left to do in this life
Cyrus Chipman
