1988/06/01 Etienne Decora - Florida -

[sharkbait]

Shark Attack on Etienne Decora

Written by Etienne Decora for SharkAttackSurvivors.com

Attacked June 1st, 1988

Daytona Beach – Volusia County - FL - U.S.A.

8 am

Water Temperature about 85 degrees - F

Clear Sunny Day

Clothes - Bright multi colored surfing shorts - no wetsuit or shirt

Riding white surfboard with black and white logo on bottom (town and country Hawaii) - 6'4"long board with no leash.

Waves - Small 1-3 foot clean surf

I was surfing next to the Main St Pier in Daytona Beach Fl in 3-6 feet of water.

The shark was a bull shark about 6-7 feet long.

I rode a wave in and was paddling back out.

The shark was spotted on the other side of the pier and took an aggressive immediate U turn and attacked me, (According to some of my friends fishing on the pier).

My friends were yelling but I couldn’t hear them in the surf.

I never saw it coming until it hit me.

The shark hit me at a high rate of speed with great force.

I was grabbed by the foot and the shark shook its head.

The shark then went to bite again and I was able to remove my foot.

At this point I was turned around on my surfboard.

The shark came at me again and I hit it on the snout and it went away.

I then paddled in with my foot in the air .Luckily the lifeguards were running drills that morning and were on hand to dress the wounds.

I had two operations and 275 stitches to repair tendon damage.

It took about six months to get back to normal.

I continued surfing and have surfed the same spot many times since.

My guess would be that the attack was a territorial attack not mistaken identity because of the aggressive U turn and lack of baitfish.


Etienne Decora