A South Florida surfer says he’s thankful to be alive after being attacked by a shark not once, but twice now in his lifetime. NBC6’s Bri Buckley reports.
A Florida surfer says he's thankful to be alive after being attacked by a shark not once, but twice now in his lifetime in the same area.
Both bites happened in the same waters, on Bathtub Beach in Martin County, a decade apart.
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Charter boat captain and former competitive surfer Cole Taschman said he was paddling just past the reef when what he thinks was shark 7 or 8 feet long hit him from behind.
He described the shark as a “beast” to NBC affiliated WPTV, and thought it was a tiger or bull shark.
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"Both feet were in the shark's mouth at once," he said. "I looked back and I kind of got a glimpse of him, very wide nose, and I screamed... I was like, I’m dead."
Taschman said his friends, also surfers, immediately came to his aid. His girlfriend even captured the dramatic moments from the shore.
"I got bit by a shark!" he yells in the video.
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On the beach, his friends used their surf leashes to form a tourniquet and stop the bleeding as they raced to the nearest hospital.
From there, Taschman was transferred to St. Mary's Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
"The injury from the shark was very impressive, like the lacerations from the shark teeth are almost as clean from the knives, the surgical steel, we use to do our surgeries," one of the surgeons on his team said.
This incident, Taschman said, was much more serious than the first time he was bitten. He told WPTV that he has had two surgeries to repair three tendons and received 93 stitches.
"The difference between a high school athlete and an Olympic athlete are the difference between the two bites--very different," he said.
The first time was in 2013, when Taschman was just 16 years old.
"It just happens so quickly that it’s a big adrenaline rush and it’s a lot of shock, and you do just kind of have a moment where it's like, 'OK I'm dead,'" he said.
And even though the chances of ever being attacked by a shark, let alone twice, are extremely low, Taschman said he doesn't feel unlucky.
"Don’t surf alone, and have your knowledge of what you're doing. Know how to use a leash as a tourniquet, know how to be prepared to do these activities," he said. "It's proper prior planning, you know?"
