‘I’m gonna lose my leg.’ Surfer recounts harrowing story of California shark attack

When a shark yanked him off his surfboard Sunday morning off the California coast, Eric Steinley at first didn’t know what was going on.

“The feeling was very heavy, like swimming with a bag of bricks on you,” Steinley told The Press Democrat about the attack off North Salmon Creek Beach in Bodega Bay. But then he reached down and felt the shark clamped on his leg.

“I hit him in the nose, the nose, this thing was huge,” Steinley told KNTV. The shark, confirmed to be a great white with the help of a DNA sample, let go of his leg and the 38-year-old climbed back on his surfboard.

Steinley began paddling for shore while calling for help, McClatchy News reported.

“I look back at my leg and I’m like ‘I’m gonna lose my leg,’” he told KNTV.

His friend, Jared Davis, and other nearby surfers heard Steinley yelling “shark” and rushed over to help. They helped him paddle to shore.

The journey to the beach seemed to take ages, Steinley told The Press Democrat.

“He asked me, ‘How does it look?’” Davis told the publication. “I said, ‘It looks OK. Don’t look back.’ And then I told him, ‘It’s going to be OK.’”

On the beach, Davis and other surfers improvised a tourniquet from two surfboard leashes to stem the bleeding from Steinley’s injured leg.

“The tourniquet was crucial. That’s what made the difference between a life-threatening injury and a stable patient,” Bodega Bay Fire Protection Division Capt. David Bynum told NBC News. “He’s fortunate. He had a lot of help right from the start.”

A helicopter flew Steinley to a Santa Rosa hospital. Authorities temporarily closed beaches within two miles of the attack.

Steinley will likely be recovering from the attack for at least a year, The Press Democrat reported. He told the publication that he hopes to surf again someday.

“I don’t know if I’ll physically be able to surf. I’m not sure if I can even walk,” he told KNTV.

At North Salmon Creek Beach, surfers returned to the waves after the beach reopened Tuesday, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.

“I pulled up this morning thinking I’m not going in,” Michael Leddy, 32, told the publication. “But I’m going in.”

There have been at least 199 shark incidents involving humans in California since 1950, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife reported.

Fourteen people have been killed by sharks, all of them involving great whites, the agency said.

“These incidents are extremely infrequent and it’s certainly unfortunate when they occur,” John Ugoretz, environmental program manager for the agency, told The San Francisco Chronicle. “When you do go into the ocean, you’re in their turf and you have to be aware.”

In May 2020, a shark attack killed surfer Ben Kelly, 26, off a Santa Cruz beach, McClatchy News reported.

This story was originally published October 7, 2021 at 8:09 AM with the headline "‘I’m gonna lose my leg.’ Surfer recounts harrowing story of California shark attack."