Sharks Just Part of Risk for Surfers, Victims Say

More than a third of the world’s recorded shark attacks this year have occurred along a stretch of Florida’s Atlantic coast considered one of the finest surfing spots in the state, but dedicated wave-seekers are undeterred.

Two of the six surfers attacked last weekend said they won’t hesitate to go back in the water.

“It’s just a risk we’re all pretty much willing to take,” Jeff White, 20, told CBS’ “The Early Show.”

Jaison Valentin, 19, the most seriously injured of the six, agreed. “Whenever I get the chance to go back, I’m out there,” he told CBS.

White, Valentin and a third surfer, Dylan Feindt, 19, were bitten Saturday; three others were attacked Sunday. White and Feindt, both bitten on their feet, were in a surfing contest at the time.

While the area’s pristine beaches and good waves attract surfers, experts say the green waters teeming with baitfish are what draw the predators.

“It’s a smorgasbord of food coming back and forth,” said George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File in Gainesville.

The incidents boosted to 15 the number of attacks this year along more than 50 miles of Volusia County’s beaches, Burgess said. The Volusia County Beach Patrol has an even higher figure: 17.

Forty shark attacks have occurred worldwide since January, 29 of them in the United States.

Valentin suffered serious tendon damage when a shark bit his left hand and tried to pull him off his surfboard. He said it happened after he lost his board in a wave.

“I saw a dorsal fin, and I just tried to get to my board as quick as possible.” The fin had disappeared by the time he got back on his board, “so I thought I was cool.”

“And as I was paddling back out, I stuck my hand back in the water and it just grabbed my hand and started tugging and pulling. The next thing I know, I’m missing a nice chunk out of my skin,” he said.

Lifeguards on Monday temporarily closed a quarter-mile stretch of New Smyrna Beach, just south of Daytona Beach, for the third day in a row after a shark was spotted in the surf.

Surfer Sean Nolan, 24, saw one advantage to the shark attacks.

“It thins the line” of surfers, he said. “Usually it is so crowded. Maybe this will keep people away.”