Surfer Celebrates Anniversary of Shark Attack

The 20th anniversary celebration at Arroyo Verde Park on Saturday was in honor of no ordinary milestone.

On Oct. 18, 1976, Bill Kennedy was attacked by a white shark while surfing off the coast of Humboldt County in Northern California.

On Saturday, his wife, Carlyn Hanson, invited some of the couple’s closest friends to eat cake and celebrate the 20th anniversary of the attack.

The afternoon get-together gave the 45-year-old Kennedy, who now works in the film industry, a chance to relive one of the scariest days of his life.

“It was my favorite spot to surf,” Kennedy said of Moonstone Beach at the mouth of Little River. The 25-year-old former botany student at Humboldt State University often went to the river mouth to catch the perfect wave.

On the day of the attack, Kennedy had been in the water for about two hours. He said the theme from “Jaws,” which came out in 1975, played over and over in his head. When a flock of about 100 ducks suddenly took flight, a feeling of danger came over the lone surfer.

“I got a premonition that I should follow my instinct to get out of the water, but I didn’t follow my instinct,” Kennedy said.

At 12:30 p.m., as Kennedy lay on his board, a 10-foot white shark attacked from behind. The impact of the attack tilted Kennedy and his board at a 20-degree-angle, and he believes that is what saved him, because his leg slid out of the shark’s mouth.

The shark pulled back and swam away. Kennedy waited for a moment and then caught a wave back into shore. “I never felt pain,” he said. “When I got back to the beach I picked up my board and started running.” He ended up with 35 stitches.

Ralph Collier, president of the Shark Research Committee in Van Nuys and one of those who attended Kennedy’s party, said the attack, like most, was probably due to a curious shark rather than a shark going after what it thought was food.

“The majority of attacks are not what you would call mistaken identity. The shark is testing something it is unfamiliar with,” Collier said.

There have been 98 shark attacks off the coast from British Columbia to northern Mexico since 1900, and eight of those attacks have been fatal, said Collier, who founded the research committee in 1962.

Hanson, an aspiring screenwriter who met Kennedy in a gym in 1984, said she is pleased that he is one of the living statistics.

“The scars were nauseating when I first saw them. But after awhile I realized what an incredible story this is. My sweetheart was attacked by a shark,” she said.