Florida Kite Surfer Killed by Hundreds of Sharks
By Rocky Thompson on February 5th, 2010
An extremely rare shark attack in Florida ended a 38-year-old kite surfer’s life. The man was about 500 yards off-shore when a gang of juvenile great whites attacked him. It’s the first fatal shark attack in Florida in over five years. A lifeguard swam into the school and pulled the injured kite surfer out and paddled him back to shore. He was taken to a hospital where he later died.
You know how shark attacks are extremely rare, but people still worry about them all the time anyway? It’s because of these insanely freaky stories where the ocean turns turbid with dorsal fins. Sure, lightening kills way more people each year, but lightenting doesn’t creep up and try to eat you. It sounds like a freakin horror movie. Can you imagine being a lifeguard who paddled out to help the bitten kite surfer?
Tags: Surf
Love the West Side Story link.
Amazing courage from the lifeguard…humbling.
A tragedy for sure. Incredible bravery by the guard. And not to diminish either…it was 3 sharks not hundreds and they were tiger sharks (yes, deadly) not great whites.
Seriously, that’s wild. Did the guy actually swim into the school of attacking sharks and drag this guy out? If so, major courage.
Just heard about this story! Very sad. I was in Chatham, Mass on Cape Cod last summer when the Great Whites were there, and being interested n kite boarding myself, it definitely made me think twice…
that had to heart