It’s a fin-tastical story of survival.
A Florida surfer feels lucky to be alive after being bitten by a shark — on the exact same beach where he survived a similar attack 11 years ago.
Cole Taschman, 28, was catching waves with his friends at Bathtub Beach in Stuart last week when a large shark clamped down on both his feet, he told WPTV.
“I looked behind me and he was kind of just like, ‘Ahhh,’ on the back of me, and I just looked and saw the last second of him,” Taschman said of the moment the shark attacked.
“Both feet were in the shark’s mouth at once,” he added to NBC.
“I looked back and I kind of got a glimpse of him, very wide nose, and I screamed… I was like, I’m dead.”
“It was a beast. It was a big one,” Taschman said, estimating that the shark had to be about 7- or 8-feet long.
Eleven years earlier, Taschman was nibbled on by another shark at the same beach, he said.
“The first one was a tiny reef pup,” he recalled, saying his injuries from that were “no comparison” to the latest, which left him with multiple severed tendons in his foot.
“It’s like comparing an Olympic athlete to a high school athlete. The amount of trauma, it was so hectic, the amount of force this one was,” Taschman said of the chaotic scene that unfolded when he finally got himself to shore.
“They said I walked and I have three cut tendons,” he told the outlet.
Taschman can be heard yelling “I got bit by a shark!” in a brief video clip captured by his girlfriend.
Taschman’s girlfriend, two friends and a food truck operator rallied him into a car and fashioned tourniquets out of the surfboard leashes as they sped to the hospital.
“I actually blacked out,” Taschman said. “Ana’s in the back slapping me. Zack’s driving like a mad man getting to the hospital, pouring cold water on my head, keeping me awake, thank God.”
Taschman was eventually transferred to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, where he underwent two surgeries and received a total of 93 stitches.
“The injury from the shark was very impressive, like the lacerations from the shark teeth are almost as clean from the knives, the surgical steel, we use to do our surgeries,” one of the surgeons on his team told NBC.
“I almost lost the whole part of my ankle, and then on this foot, I don’t even know how I still have toes, to tell you the truth,” Taschman added.
Taschman was discharged this week – though he still has months of rehab ahead of him.
He does not have insurance, and will be out from his job as a fishing charter captain for a couple months.
As of Friday morning, a GoFundMe to help with his medical expenses had raised almost $7,000 of its $30,000 goal.
Taschman said he hoped his double shark attacks were a reminder for people to never surf alone.
“Don’t surf alone, and have your knowledge of what you’re doing,” he cautioned.
“Know how to use a leash as a tourniquet, know how to be prepared to do these activities,” he said. “It’s proper prior planning, you know?”
