Shark attacks surfer off jetties


By John Driscoll The Times-Standard

Longtime surfer Brian Kang was waiting for a wave about 200 yards off the North Jetty Thursday, at a spot called the Bunkers, when he was knocked from his surfboard by a shark.

"It just came out of the blue," the 38-year-old Arcata man said from St. Joseph Hospital in Eureka on Friday.

Unlike many shark attacks, it wasn't over after the first assault.

As Kang tried to mount his board again, the shark returned.

"I pushed it away with my hands," the Arcata geographic information systems specialist said.

Kang couldn't say how big the shark was and never got a good look at it. Another surfer, he said, claimed he saw a 3-foot dorsal fin. Kang strongly doubted that observation.

Almost certainly, a fin that size would belong to a great white shark, and a mighty big one at that.

With his knees and hip sliced deeply, and his thumb "filleted" open, Kang got atop his board again and began the long swim to shore. The water was flat, giving the shark ample opportunity for another attack.

"It pretty much left me alone," Kang said. He added, "It could easily have come back for more."

Kang clambered onto the beach, where a beach-goer used a cell phone to call the U.S. Coast Guard through a California Highway Patrol dispatch. Coast Guard personnel on Friday had no information on the shark.

An ambulance arrived shortly after 1 p.m. Thursday and whisked Kang to the hospital.

While Kang initially seemed to play down his wounds, he later agreed that the lacerations were serious enough to keep him in the hospital for two nights. He expected to be released today.

It was the latest of several shark attacks off the North Coast in recent years.

Fort Bragg sport fishing advocate Randall Fry in August was killed by a 17-foot great white shark. He was diving for abalone in 15 feet of water 150 feet off shore when the shark tore into Fry, ripping his head and upper torso from the rest of his body.

In 2002, surfer Reed Richards of McKinleyville had a close encounter with a 10- to 12-foot shark. The shark sank its teeth into Richards' surf board and thrashed it around. Richards believes he clubbed the shark with his fist, and then swam into shore unhurt.

Humboldt State University student Casey Stewman was bitten twice in the legs while surfing off Humboldt Bay in November 2000. He did a stint in the hospital, but returned to surf another day.

Down at Salty's Surf N Wear in Old Town, it was the talk of the day.

"It sounded really scary," said retail salesman Marcello Scacci. "A lot of people have been talking about it."

Especially worrisome is how the shark came back after the initial attack, Scacci said.

But Kang, still nursing gashes from the shark's teeth, sounded like he'd be back in the water tomorrow if he were able.

"I'll be going surfing again for sure," Kang said.

After all, in the 20 years he's been surfing the Bunkers, it was the first time something deadly had come out of the deep bound for him.