Close Call: Teen Speaks Out After Terrifying Shark Attack

It was a perfect storm recently at New Smyrna Beach in Florida after Hurricane Larry whipped up a strong surf. The same phenomenon that brought good waves for surfing also created a smorgasbord for local sharks.

“There’s a feeding frenzy that occurs on the beaches in the fall and as mullet and eventually other species of fish is moved out for the winter,” George Burgess, who works with the shark research program at the University of Florida, told Good Morning America.

“Of course, you throw in surfers in the middle of that surf and you’re going to have an unholy mix that most inevitably results in a bite.”

Enter 16-year-old surfer Doyle Nielsen, who experienced that inevitable result while on vacation in a video shared earlier this week.

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As he paddled, waiting for a wave, a shark approached him and bit his arm. At first, Nielsen didn’t even realize it was a shark that had hit him.

“It felt like someone on their surfboard had come full speed directly at me and hit me super hard,” Nielsen said.

“And then after somebody had yelled, ‘There’s a shark, get out of there,’ I realized what it was.”

Former surfer Sam Scribner, who suffered a spinal cord injury years ago and is now a photographer, was on site when the bite happened. Even more amazing, his camera happened to be trained on Nielsen the moment the shark tried to take a chunk out of him.