The dangers of surfing are well known to all surfers. There is a lot of scope for getting injured while riding the waves on one’s surfboard. The most common injuries or fatalities are probably caused either by drowning or sharks. Unfortunately for a surfer, a shark attack left the man reeling from shock and whiplash.

The incident took place when the surfer was surfing on pepper park beach. The accident was bad enough for the surfer to require immediate medical attention. The male surfer was definitely lucky to have escaped the attack with his life intact.

Shark attack while surfing leaves a man shocked

Matthew Picarelli, a 36-year-old man, was surfing at Pepper Park Beach in St. Lucie County March 12, 2023, when something grabbed his foot. Wesh 2 reported that Picarelli recalled the incident saying, “It was a big animal next to me, coming towards me and then, once it bit me, it took a chomp out of my foot and it just immediately left and just flew away, like so quick.”

The attack happened so fast that for several moments Piacrelli could not believe exactly what had happened. “Everything happening so quickly, it didn’t feel real at all. It felt very surreal,” he said. Picarelly was taken to the hospital to get urgent care and treatment by a friend. Matthew Picarelly remembers the number of stitches he had to get because the bite was a severe one as the shark had taken off a chunk of his foot.

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He divulged that “Fifty stitches, broken tendon, chipped the bone. Yeah, it was – didn’t look good.” The attack was so severe that Picarelli started to have nightmares about the incident. Thankfully, Picarelli is on the mend now.

Surfers rally around their wounded comrade

Matthew Picarelli was fortunate enough that people saw him get injured and he had help and support. Fellow surfers and beach-goers came to his aid so that he would not bleed out because of the massive wound. He recalls, “It was bleeding everywhere. So, I had a bunch of strangers helping me out, giving me water and putting pressure on the wound.” Matt Picarelli also described the vivid nightmares he had after the incident.

He described his nightmares as, “I’ve been having nightmares about it with sharks coming towards me and biting me, attacking me.” While the accident must have been traumatic for him, and it clearly scared him enough to get nightmares, Picarelli is sure he is going to surf again. “I’ve surfed my entire life. I love the ocean. So, I don’t see myself not going back in after this,” Picarelli said.

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His love for the ocean seems to be greater than his fear of the shark. We hope he has a speedy recovery so that he can get back to doing what he loves-surfing in the ocean. Would you ever go back into the ocean after a shark bit off a chunk of your foot?