California surfer bitten by shark in state’s first 2026 attack: ‘Like being hit by a car’

A California surfer was bitten by a shark Tuesday, suffering gruesome “puncture wounds,” in the first such attack in the state this year, according to the Coast Guard.

Tommy Civik, 26, was chewed up by the beast just 150 feet from the shoreline near the beach resort of Gualala, on California’s northern coast, on Tuesday at around 8:45 a.m., officials and reports said.

“It was like being hit by a car. All of a sudden, I was shot out of the water,” the Point Arena, California resident Civik told SF Gate.

A friend saw Civik get hit and thrown in the air by the shark, before the creature took a huge bite out of his surfboard, snapping it in half, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

Pictures of the jagged remaining half of the surfboard were shared by the South Coast Fire Protection District.

The surfer was able to get out of the ocean by himself, and emergency services responded to the beach in Mendocino County, around 115 miles north of San Francisco.

“It’s not a popular swimming beach because it’s known to have undertows, but surfers are known to frequent the area,” the area’s Fire Protection District Chief Jason Warner told USA Today.

Civik suffered three puncture wounds to his upper left thigh which required stitches, while the force of the shark bite pierced his wetsuit, SF Gate reported.

Wetsuit and wound dressings have been sent to a wildlife forensic lab in Sacramento to confirm the species of shark involved in the attack.

Civik was the first shark attack victim in the state this year.

A series of shark encounters were reported in northern California last month.

Triathlete Erica Fox was killed in a shark attack in Monterey Bay on Dec. 21.

The following day, a surfer in Marin County had a lucky escape after a suspected great white shark bumped into his board.

And earlier in December, a shark bit a surfer off a North Bay beach, leaving them requiring hospital treatment for the wounds on their hand.