I yelled; I heard Justy yell, and in a split second, I was underwater. I didn't know if my legs were in its mouth or gone altogether. A million thoughts were racing through my head. I pushed my hands up and felt the shark above me. I thought about undoing my leash and swimming away. Then, I came up and saw the side of the shark submerge. I saw the tail of my surfboard and Justy's eyes bulging out of his head. I knew I still had my arms, so I started swimming toward shore while Justy sprinted in. A wave came, and Justy was in the spot, caught it and made it in. I, on the other hand, was left out there. I thought I was toast. I thought the shark would see me swimming and not make the same mistake twice. I figured the thing was just getting ready to grab me with its jaws, gnaw on me for a while, then swallow me whole.
Another wave came and broke on my head. I cursed that wave. I kept swimming, and soon another wave started to break outside. I grabbed the tail end of my surfboard that I'd been dragging, put it under me and caught the whitewater in to thigh-deep water. Then, I let out a huge sigh of relief.
I had made it. I knelt down and checked out my legs and couldn't find a scratch. The front end of my board washed up on shore with some teeth marks. The 14- to 16-inch mouth had missed me by about an inch, and had I been lying down, the shark would have definitely gotten a hold of me. I was lucky.
Something to think about the next time in the water: you are not at the top of the food chain, and if you're unlucky, you just might end up as a meal.
Jack Wolf
Santa Cruz, California
TIGER SHARK
One more wave, and Jesse Spencer would have headed to shore without a second thought. After surfing until dusk in fun, 2-foot surf at Old Airport, just north ofKailua-Kona on Hawaii's Big Island, the 5' 5", 112-pound high school junior facedshoreward with intentions of catching one last set. Then it hit
Something large, powerful and determined slammed into the right side of Spencer's AlMerrick thruster, tipping it up and over on the left rail. Spencer quickly turned tosee what had rammed him and was face-to-jaw with a 10-foot tiger shark. The fishlunged so far out of the water that its nose hit Spencer near his right temple,leaving a bruise and a circular scrape. "The shark was right next to me," Spencersaid three weeks and three surgeries after the attack.
"It had so much momentum thatit lifted me out of the water and off my board while it grabbed my [right] shoulderand arm. I could almost see the whole shark when he was on me. I couldn't see theteeth because his mouth was closed around my arm. My elbow was down its throat."
The shark took only one bite out of Spencer's arm and a small chunk of his board,but damage to his arm was extensive. The bite severed muscles, tendons, ligaments,veins, nerves and arteries in his bicep, slashing to the bone in a 360-degreepattern. Injuries to the forearm weren't as severe but still cut two-thirds of theway to the bone. Spencer, who's been surfing for about two years, felt neither painnor fear during the "two-second" attack. "The shark started shaking my arm back andforth. I could feel the teeth sort of sawing against the [arm] bone."
The shark disappeared as fast as it had attacked. Spencer tried to paddle with botharms, but his right arm was "just flopping around," so he held it up with his lefthand while kicking the 250 feet to shore. "Blood was spurting out into the water,"said surfing buddy Bala Clark, who helped paddle Spencer in while he yelled topeople on shore to call 911. A wave crashed behind Spencer, causing him to pearl andknocking him off his board again.
"I was worried about making it to shore because Iwas bleeding a lot and feeling dizzy," he said. 
On shore, Jesse flopped onto his back as several people ran to help him. An ambulance rushed him to Kona Hospital where he underwent four hours of surgery to reattach the severed artery and get blood circulating through the arm again. Spencer was flown to Honolulu the day after the attack to undergo two additional operations. He suffered severe infection, so reattaching the rest of the mangled limb has been left until that condition improves. The fourth--and, he hopes, final--operation is scheduled for late November. Spencer says he plans to continue surfing once he recovers but not at the same spot or, understandably, at dawn or dusk.
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