A Florida paddleboarder was chased by a hammerhead shark more than 55 miles off the coast of Palm Beach County but escaped unscathed.
Malia Tribble said: Fox 35 At first, she ignored the “thump” she felt at the bottom of the board. Her husband Ricky, who was on a boat near her, first spotted the shark.
“From his reaction I knew it was a shark,” Tribble told the police station about 30 feet from the boat when he spotted the shark. “I didn’t know how big it was or exactly where it was.”
My husband calmly guided me to the boat.
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Marea Tribble said she didn’t realize how close the shark was to her board until she saw the video later. (Jason Brasherber)
Someone in the boat could be heard saying to Tribble in a video that showed someone in the boat rowing towards Tribble, with the shark chasing close behind.
Tribble and her husband were on the relay team in a charity race from the Bahamas to Lake Worth.
“I never thought I had this power of calm within me,” Tribble added. “It’s really crazy to think about it after the fact.”
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Tribble said she didn’t realize how close the shark was until she saw the video later.
“I was surprised that it was much bigger and much closer than I first thought,” she said. “At one point in the video, the shark was completely under my board. He seemed just interested in what he was doing.”
The shark eventually swam away and the team decided it was safe to finish the race.
Travis Suits, executive director of the Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis charity race in which the Tribbles competed, said in a statement: “We are grateful that Marea was not injured and the Tribbles paddled. I am proud of my calm and disciplined response in the rowing situation,” he said in a statement. “The leaders of this event gave us a great example of how to deal with close encounters like this. It is to be expected.”
A 12-year-old girl survived a shark bite while swimming in Cocoa Beach on Monday.
“As soon as I got out of the water I knew it wasn’t good and I started screaming,” Magnolia Woodhead, who had 50 stitches, told Fox 35.
Woodhead said he was visiting from Pennsylvania and had no plans to return to the ocean anytime soon.
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Volusia County, Florida, north of Worth Lake and Cocoa Beach, is known as the “Sharkbite Capital of the World.”
