Passionate surfers live for the thrill of riding the waves.
They can be riding high before it all comes crashing down.
And a Florida surfer had a perfect wave until the worst happened in an instant.
Surfer finds something else other than sand beneath his feet
The stereotype of surfers is that they have a laidback personality and live an easygoing lifestyle.
“Gnarly” Charley Hajek, 62, is an 18-time surfing champion on the East Coast and runs the Gnarly Charley Surf Series.
Hajek lives to go surfing.
He was surfing the Ponce Inlet in New Smyrna Beach, Florida where he spent a relaxing Sunday looking for the perfect wave.
“Nobody’s out, the waves are firing, it’s pumping, I’m surfing for two hours, having the best time of my life,” Hajek told the Dayton Beach News-Journal.
He had just rode a wave to the shore and stepped off of his board in waist-deep water expecting to feel some sand.
Hajek stepped directly onto a bull shark.
“I could tell I was on top of something,” Hajek recalled. That split second I go ‘Oh (expletive) I bet I’m on a shark.’ By the time I even thought of that, it bit me so fast. It was so quick, and the thrust was so powerful that when I was in his mouth for that split second, it bit down on me and let me go.”
Surfer has an incredible reaction to surviving a shark attack
“And then I said ‘Oh (expletive)’ so I jumped up on my board and the shark must have hauled a** ’cause he was scared,” Hajek said.
Hajek made a beeline for the shore.
He did not want to look at his leg to see how much damage the shark bite did.
“But I gotta look at it. So, I looked at it, and I didn’t see nothing like, ‘Oh my God, I got lucky. Just bumped into me or something,” Hajek stated.
But when he stood up in the sand on the beach it was a different story.
“I went to stand up. When I put the pressure on my leg: boom,” Hajek said with a laugh.
He instantly started to lose blood from his leg.
Hajek used the leash on his surfboard as a tourniquet and drove himself to a local hospital.
The hospital’s staff was shocked that he was able to drive himself there.
“You drove yourself?” WESH 2 reporter Pamela Comme exclaimed.
“I know, that’s what they said at the hospital,” Hajeck responded.
The veteran surfer received stitches and is expected to make a full recovery.
For Hajek, the worst part of the experience was that his streak of surfing 148 days in a row came to an end.
A shark attack is not going to slow him down.
“I’m anxious to get back out there,” Hajek admitted. “I’m going to surf harder than ever.”
Hajek is not bitter at the shark who bit him.
“I’m not mad. I’m not pissed off. I stepped on a shark. What’s gonna happen?” Hajek asked.
And he even gave the shark a name.
“That was Henry. Henry don’t like me because I don’t give him enough attention,” Hajek said.
New Smyrna Beach is nicknamed the Shark Bite Capital of the World.
But the threat of sharks will not stop “Gnarly” Charley Hajek from getting back out on the waves.
DeSantis Daily will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
