Shark attack leaves California surfer with critical injuries

‘It definitely wasn’t like a quick attack. It was nice and slow’

A surfer had an encounter with a great white in the same area several years ago (Getty Images)

A surfer in California has been left with ciritcal injuries following what appeared to be a shark attack off the coast near Bodega Bay.

The incident happened at around 9am on Monday at North Salmon Creek Beach, with the surfer airlifted to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital following the encounter with the shark.

Jonathon Bauer, a paramedic who attended the scene, told CBS Local:“I asked the patient, ‘did you get a chance to see it?’ And he did get a chance to see it and it was a pretty large shark that did bite him.

“He actually said he had a struggle with it, as well.”

One witness, Jared Davis, a friend of the surfer who was attacked, told KTVU: “I saw the dorsal fin of the shark and then I saw the tail fin of the shark.

“They were going down into the water. It definitely wasn’t like a quick attack. It was nice and slow. Kind of like a dolphin peaking up.

“He had kind of caught up to me and I saw his leg. It looked like he had a red stripe on his wetsuit, which is pretty common but that was actually blood.”

In 2019, a surfer was inolved in a non-fatal encounter by a great white shark at the same beach, although there is no word as yet about what kind of shark was involved in Monday’s attack. In fact, despite being home to numerous species of shark, attacks in the area are relatively rare.

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