The teenager had to get 9 stitches.
On September 9, 16-year-old Doyle Nielson was on vacation with his family, paddling on his surfboard off New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Suddenly, "It felt like someone on their surfboard had come full speed directly at me and hit me super hard,” Nielson told ABC News. “And then after somebody had yelled, ‘there’s a shark, get out of there,’ I realised [sic] what it was."
A six-foot-long shark swam up to Nielson and bit his right arm, but let go, and Nielson was able to get out of the water and to the hospital. He received nine stitches, but told ABC News, "I'll definitely be surfing again, but I know that it’ll affect my mindset. Like, I’ll be a little more cautious in the water."
Photographer Sam Scribner happened to catch the shark bite on video, and said in his Instagram post of the incident, "I certainly don’t want to villainise [sic] sharks, this is something that’s all too common in the waters around New Smyrna Beach. We are in their territory and sometimes those little (thankfully he was little) guys like to enact the stand your ground law. (No glocks, just teeth)"
ABC News pointed out that Hurricane Larry winds have been creating "strong surf," so "the beach was crowded with surfers and sharks."
George Burgess of the University of Florida told them, "You throw in surfers in the middle of that surf and you're going to have an unholy mix that almost inevitably results in a bite."
While this is the tenth bite this year in Volusia County, Florida, a county that averages 10 shark bites a year and is "the unofficial shark-bite capital of the world," according to the Independent; however, shark bites are actually still incredibly rare.
We're so glad Nielson's okay—and now instead of tragedy, he has one hell of a scar story. Tell us your thoughts in the comments!
