A 31-year-old surfer in Northern California is healing from severe bites on his right thigh and leg, which he sustained in a shark attack.
During a Sunday trip to Centerville Beach, Jared Trainor was pushed off his board, he told the Times-Standard in Humboldt County. He said that the beast had his right leg and board in its teeth.
Underwater, the seasoned surfer grasped the shark’s body with one hand and kicked its head with his free leg until the shark let him go and went away, according to him. Trainor returned to the shore, where he and another surfer with a mobile phone called for help.
“I don’t remember the initial contact,” he told the newspaper. “It kind of happened so quickly.”
The length of his open wounds was about 19 inches, or the length of the shark’s mouth. Photos of a recuperating Trainor and his injured leg are posted on the Instagram account of The Shop, an Arcata surf shop.
Haley Martino, his sister, said in a GoFundMe campaign that her brother was attacked by a great white shark.
“Jared is home recovering,” the GoFundMe account states. “He’s very fortunate. He’s in pain but in good spirits!”
The Sacramento Bee reported in 2017 that there had been 16 shark attacks in Humboldt County since 1960.
At the year 2020, a kayaker nearly dodged a big white shark in Shelter Cove, Humboldt County.
In a social media post, the Ferndale Volunteer Fire Department verified that the bite was caused by a shark.
“To our recollection of our membership, we have not had an incident like this. This is a reminder that there are many hazards to be aware of when you are at the beach,” the department said in its post.
Shark attacks are uncommon in California. Last Christmas Eve, Tomas Butterfield, 42, of Sacramento was killed by a shark near Morro Bay in central California.
In June of this year, another man was attacked by a great white shark off the coast of central California. Steve Bruemmer, 62, was discharged from Natividad Medical Center in Salinas three weeks after he was bitten by a shark while swimming between Pacific Grove and Monterey, according to the hospital.
Officials said in January that the number of worldwide shark attacks climbed in 2021, after three years of reduction. The United States recorded 47 verified occurrences of unprovoked shark attacks in 2021, accounting for 64 percent of the global total.