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US surfer who slugged shark recovering
(AP)
Updated: 2005-12-27 16:32
A surfer who fended off a great white shark by punching it in the nose said
he learned the tactic by watching television shows such as the Discovery
Channel's "Shark Week."
Brian Anderson, of
Seaside, Ore., holds up the fist he used to beat off a great white shark
attack, as he lays in the trauma unit of a hospital in Portland, Ore.,
Monday, Dec. 26, 2005. Anderson beat off the attack on Saturday, Dec. 24,
as he surfed off Tillamook Head on the Oregon Coast.
[AP] | Brian Anderson, 36, remained hospitalized
Monday but was expected to make a full recovery from lacerations on his ankle
and calf.
"It's like your worst nightmare," Anderson said by phone from his Portland
hospital bed, though he also called the attack "an adventure which has made life
that much more precious and interesting."
Anderson was at a popular surfing spot near Tillamook Head, south of the
community of Seaside, on Saturday when something grabbed his leg. Realizing it
was a shark, he slugged the predator repeatedly in the nose to get it to loosen
its grip.
He said he learned from television shows, including the Discovery Channel's
"Shark Week," that a shark's nose is its most sensitive area.
When the shark finally let go, Anderson swam back to shore, dragging his
badly wounded leg behind him. Other surfers called 911 after he pulled himself
onto the rocks near his home in Seaside, about 80 miles northwest of Portland.
"It felt like getting clamped in a bear trap," he said. "It was a piercing
pain and then it went numb."
Anderson was hospitalized Saturday, then released Christmas Day in time to
open presents with his wife and 10-year-old son. When he returned for a checkup
that evening, doctors in Seaside became troubled by the depth of the wound and
the possibility of bone damage, as well as infection, and instructed him to
check himself into a hospital in Portland.
Anderson's wife, who is also a surfer, believes her husband will soon be back
in the water, but she is less thrilled at the thought of their son taking to the
waves.
"We all went through some real trauma," said Lynnet Anderson, 42. "Brian,
he's always going to be the one far out there waiting for that perfect set to
come in. But I'm not sure I'll ever let my 10-year-old back in the
water."
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