Session Cut Short

Cut my right pinky and ring finger from knuckle to finger tip almost all the way down to the bone while surfing for about 2 hours. Didn't hurt that bad, but when I pulled my hand up, it was just gushing blood. I immediately got out, tried not to freak a bunch of kids off as blood poured off of me. Walked about 1/2 mile back to where I started cause I drifted. Got some gauze from a guard I passed by. It was bad and deep enough that I went to the ER. The nurse and everyone kept asking what I was doing when I got cut. Surfing I said. Every person would then ask: Shark Bite? No.... I am sitting in between two other people behind curtains. The guy hears me talking to the nurse. When the nurse walks away, the guys yells from next door: "Shark Bite"? No.... Then he continues asking me questions about sharks and if I ever see them and how many there are and if people every get bit.... In the middle of this conversation, a nurse walks up to the nurse that is working on me and says: "Get a room ready, we have a shark bite victim coming in any minute"... I look at the guy next to me's wife, like... Did they just say what I think they said? Then I see a father carrying his little 7-8 year old girl. Her foot was bandaged up so I couldn't see. A nurse comes out and the one with me says, was it a sting ray bite? The other nurse said, no definitely a shark. And it's not good. The nurse had been telling me how she taught both her sons how to surf here back in the 90s. We look at each other. "well that sucks"... "yes that does suck she says. Have a nice day".... I then peered around the curtain to the guy next to me and said, could have been worse. Good luck with the broken shoulder dude.

The skin was partially attached, so they were able to kind of glue it all back together with some crazy epoxy that burned like a mofo. They gave me a tetanus shot too for no apparent reason. But dang. I felt bad for the little girl coming in. It was just weird that everyone in the damn place wouldn't shut up about shark attacks and then they bring in a victim in mid conversation.... Ill be back in the water in a few days. But that was a sh**y morning.

P.S. dont know if any of yall have been to a hospital recently, but the Ebola stuff is nuts. There are signs everywhere. They were screening everyone that walked in. This black dude came in coughing on my way out and they straight rolled on him. Put a mask on him. Asking him if he had been to Africa. The guy is like, no man, hell no. Sh** is crazy man.

 

Squirrel fin vs. Zach. Fin won. Sharp like Kitana

 

Enter at your own risk brah. Just sucks that it was a little girl. Larger, adult bodies can withstand the little bit/tears. This girl was a tiny one. Hope she is okay. As a father, and one that spends a lot of time in the ocean with his daughter, it definitely brought an eerie feeling over me. I just don't know why everyone found the need to talk to me about sharks the whole time. Not that it mattered. But then after everyone saw the bite, they were like, so what beach were you at? I literally sprinted out of the water when I saw how much blood I was leaking. And I road in on my stomach at a 45 degree angle to stay as far away as all the kids in the water as I could. No one knew what happened, but all the parents saw me walk past them drenched in blood. Everyone just stared. All probably thinking the same thing....

 

She was definitely in shallow water. The thing that trips me out is the last few bites here this year have been on people feet, not legs. All of them were just standing out in shallow water. The lady that got it the worst lifted her foot up out of the water and punched the shark in the nose and it let go. Shredder her foot nicely. Witnesses and a lifeguard said it looked like a 4-5 bull because it had a wide, fat body and snout and lacked a blacktip fin...

But yes, there is no doubt that this girl was in less than 3 feet of water. And yes, whiteys like to attack from deep below, but there are TONS of animals that linger right up on the shoreline. I was in less than 5 feet of water and a manatee swam under us last week. I have had dolphins pop up next to me in chest high water. I have caught sharks surf fishing in about 2 feet of water.... So, I am not trying to sensationalize a minor incident. But it makes you think. Doesn't matter where you live. These things happen. DE had a bite recently. It happens everywhere. I have never seen bigger, scarier sharks then when I was in HI. Really humbling. And again, the worst one I saw was a juvenile tiger, about 10-12 feet long and it was 2-3 feet off the sand, in a little deep pocket. Right in Lahaina harbor.

 

Yeah, it was some skin safe spaceage epoxy they used on it. It took them 2 hours to actually work on it. They said since I saved the skin and kept it pressed down on top of the blood that it kept the skin alive and intact so they were able to use the glue. She bent the tube in half to mix it and it cracked and mixed inside a pen. She applied it. 30 seconds later, she said, does it burn? I said no... She walked away and then that sh** started burning like hell. It was a delayed pain, but yeah, it felt like the epoxy was searing the skin. I was very border line on a do-it yourself, but like I said, it was almost down to the bone. Since I pay for insurance and almost never use it, I figure, why not. Fingers are kind of important. Especially the ones on your dominant hand.