Amongst the news items this morning, an incident yesterday of the ‘all’s-well-that-ends-well’ genre after a 50-year-old surfer dude’s encounter with a great white shark — and in my old home waters.
Kevin Swanson was surfing off Montaña de Oro State Park, just north of San Luis Obispo, about half-way between LAX and SFO, ‘…when an 8- to 10-foot juvenile shark swam up underneath him and grazed his surfboard and right hip and thigh with its teeth.’
Swanson survived with injuries not life threatening.

Shark attacks ate supposedly rare, but also yesterday and a big-ocean away, a teen-ager, not so fortunate (from the Australia Broadcasting Corp.): ‘A 17-year-old boy has died after being attacked by a shark while spearfishing on Western Australia’s south coast.
Jay Muscat was bitten on the leg by a shark, thought to be a great white up to five-metres long, at Cheynes Beach, near Albany.’

(Illustration found here).

The kid had been with friends spearfishing, and apparently he, or one of the others, shot it:

Department of Fisheries spokesman Rick Fletcher said the shark may be injured as a spear was fired at it during the attack.
“They had been spearfishing and it’s our understanding they had already captured some fish,” he said.
“It appears the shark swam past one diver and bit the other on the leg.”
Drum lines have been deployed in the area to catch the shark.
Beaches were closed on Monday afternoon and were likely to remain closed on Tuesday as the search continued.
“It’s possible the shark was actually injured in the attack therefore we’ll do patrols along the beaches as well,” Dr Fletcher said.

Meanwhile, back to California’s Central Coast — Montaña de Oro State Park is just north of Morro Bay, and not that far from Pismo Beach, where I lived for almost-all of the 1990s, half-a-block from the Pacific Ocean. And a lot of shark attacks in those waters, from the park down to Santa Barbara to the south, where off the coast from Edwards Air Base is located some good surfing spots, and popular. I did some boogie-boarding in earlier days, but my son, and a daughter were good on a surfboard, and enjoyed it — my son surfed all over the area, including at Montaña de Oro, my daughter usually just the waters around Pismo.
Two years ago, a 39-year-old guy from up here in Humboldt County was killed by a great white while surfing in those particular waters off Edwards. A week later, coincidently, a local surfer was attacked in my now-home waters, but he survived, though, undeniably scared shitless.

In the attack yesterday, a bit of laid-back surreal.
From The Tribune in San Louis Obispo:

Andrew Walsh, who was surfing with Swanson at the time of the attack, said the shark swam from beneath Swanson’s board and dragged him under with no warning.
“It was really radical,” he said.
“I was about 10 feet from him, and it was absolutely quiet. … (The shark) came straight up out of the depths and got him and took him under the water. That was the amazing part: this big giant side of the shark just curving up out of the water.”
Walsh said Swanson was below the water for several seconds before he surfaced on his board, yelled “shark attack” and began paddling for shore.
Once he reached shore, Swanson used the leash cord from his surfboard to fashion a tourniquet for his leg where the shark bit him, Walsh said.
Two doctors who had been walking on the beach helped Swanson, as well, and determined that no major arteries had been hit, Walsh said.
“We’re really blessed that he was still able to get himself to shore,” Walsh said.
“I was a few feet behind him, and we grabbed him and got him out of the water, obviously, up on the sand, and very quickly these doctors where there, helping out and calling 911.”

Swanson was released from the hospital this afternoon, The Tribune updated.

A bit of a terrifying shark tale.