An Oregon surfer who survived a shark attack is reliving the frightening encounter from his hospital bed, saying he never saw the apex predator that shredded his leg and mangled his board.
Cole Herrington, 20, recalled the moment the shark – likely a great white up to 12 feet long – latched onto his surfboard Sunday while searching for the next big wave with friends south of his Seaside home, The Oregonian reported.
The shark approached Herrington from behind before latching onto his leg and surfboard, immediately bloodying the water and causing searing pain in his foot, he said.
“Before I knew it, I got hit really hard,” Herrington told the outlet from his bed at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland, where he remained Wednesday with serious injuries to his lower left leg.
“The next thing I remember is grabbing my board.”
Herrington, an aspiring electrician, said he instantly called out for help with one thought racing through his mind: “I didn’t want to die.”
“I knew something was pretty bad,” Herrington continued. “I was just praying that it wasn’t coming back to try to bite me again, which luckily it didn’t.”
Herrington, who underwent two surgeries for his wounds, said he was about a half-mile offshore in roughly 10 feet of water when the shark pounced.
Herrington’s mother, Amy Powell, who said Cole was “still in shock” Tuesday, said one of his wounds ran from pinky toe to his heel, while a second was on his calf.
Herrington’s surfing buddies whom he met at the beach helped get him to shore, where they applied a tourniquet using a T-shirt and a stick to stanch the blood flow.
Marine biologists and shark experts, meanwhile, have told The Oregonian that Herrington likely crossed paths with a great white based on the details and location of the attack.
“They are quite adept at knowing what their target prey is, which is why this type of interaction is incredibly rare,” shark expert and Oregon State University professor Taylor Chapple wrote the outlet in an email.
“This type of interaction is often a case of mistaken identity.”
The shark likely realized Herrington wasn’t its “natural target” – such as a seal – and swam off, Chapple said.
The harrowing experience won’t keep Herrington out of the water once his wounds are healed, but it will delay his planned start of an electrician apprenticeship next month, NBC News reported.
“I love surfing,” Herrington told NBC News. “That’s probably the only thing I care about in this life – surfing and God. As soon as I can be healed up, everybody is supporting me to get back in the water.”
