An 18-year-old surf instructor was rushed to the hospital on Friday after he was attacked by a shark at a Florida beach.
Sam Hollis said he was bitten on his foot while surfing off New Smyrna Beach, about 60 miles northeast of Orlando.
He told NBC affiliate WESH about his frightening experience.
Shark came out of nowhere
Hollis said he was instructing when a big wave washed over him. He said he got back on his board, letting his feet hang in the water, when he was attacked.
“It just grabbed me by my foot and just yanked me off my board and was like, yeah, I’m having you for a little snack man. And then I was like having none of that so I kicked it.” Hollis said.
Hollis said the kick knocked the shark away from his body, and he was able to swim away. He was taken to the hospital where he was treated for bite marks on his foot.
“So this is what it feels like. I was like, this is what feeling attacked by a shark feels like,” he said.
Vows to return to the water
Hollis said he’s been around the water since he was a little kid and knows the risks that come with surfing.
“There’s no reason to stop doing something you love just because something bad happened to you,” he said.
He said as soon as he recovers, he’ll be back out on the water.
“That’s the first thing I want, to get back out to doing because I think it’s important to not let something like this dictate doing things that you love,” Hollis said.
New Smyrna Beach, the “Shark Bite Capital of the World”
This is the third reported shark encounter off the coast of New Smyrna Beach in just over a month.
A surfer said an airborne spinner shark knocked him off his board in June.
In July, another surfer was bitten on the arm by a shark, saying he “felt it clamp down like a bear trap out of nowhere.”
New Smyrna Beach is known as the “Shark Bite Capital of the World.”
It’s been the site of more than 300 shark attacks since the 1980s, according to the International Shark Attack File in Gainesville.
