California Surfer Bitten During Shark Attack Before Being Rescued by Fellow Surfers

A surfer who was bitten by a shark off the California Coast said he “struggled with it” before being rescued, according to a published report.

"I asked the patient, 'did you get a chance to see it?'" paramedic Jonathan Bauer said, CBS News reported. "And he did get a chance to see it and it was a pretty large shark that did bite him."

The man, whose name had not been released, had been attacked shortly after 9 a.m. in the surf off North Salmon Creek Beach near Bodega Bay, a popular local surfing destination.

Jared Davis, who was in the water at the time paddling with a friend, told CBS San Francisco that he saw “the dorsal fin of the shark and the tail fin of the shark going down into the water.”

The surfer, who was in his 30s, had yelled for help and called out “shark,” when he saw he was in danger. Davis said he began paddling in with the injured surfer as blood appeared on his wetsuit.

Once at the shore, fellow surfers made a tourniquet out of surfboard leashes to help stop the bleeding and carried him on a surfboard to the parking lot before emergency personnel arrived. 

The man, who suffered a serious leg injury including arterial damage, was airlifted by California Highway Patrol Air Operation, one of the responding crews, to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital, CBS News reported.

The man is now recovering and is in stable condition, a report said.

After the attack, the park district closed the surf to the public and patrolled the beach to keep visitors out of the water, a report said.  

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