40-Year-Old Hawaiian Surfer Attacked By Shark
Date: September 9, 2008 Afternoon
Location: Kaaawa, Oahu
Shark: 12 foot Tiger Shark
I guess he didn’t like the way I tasted, said Todd Murashige, a 40-year-old surfer in describing his recent encounter with what authorities believe to be a Tiger shark. “I didn’t see it at all. It just seemed so surreal, like it wasn’t real, just head of a shark right there in my lap.”
“I stuck my fingers into his mouth to try to pry him off, but I didn’t feel any teeth. I think I was grabbing onto his gums or the lip part.”
Although Murashige didn’t feel any teeth with his hands, he certainly felt them sinking into his thigh. The shark bit once and after the surfer pried the jaws from his leg. He felt like the shark just took a “test bite”, because he wasn’t that aggressive after the initial attack.
“You never think that you’re going to be the one,” he said.
A stranger, Aren Souza of Punalu’u, who also had been surfing at Crouching Lion, came to Murashige’s aid, and the two paddled to shore, leaving a trail of blood in the water from “the chunk of flesh just hanging there” that used to be Murashige’s healthy thigh.
“While I was lying on the shore, I thought I was going to black out,” Murashige said. “I told myself if I black out, I’m going to die. That’s what I really felt in my gut.”
And this is where, he thought, that his life might end. Lying on the beach with a large piece of thigh muscle missing and bleeding profusely, he tried to call his wife and his mom. He said that he didn’t want to leave a message, but his wife called back.
“Its bad,” he said, “really bad.”
Murashige spent Tuesday night in Queen’s Medical Center in serious condition, having surgery to treat the deep wound in his thigh. Dr Kevin Christensen reported that Todd had lost a significant amount of blood, but the the prognosis is good.
Since then, Todd has been reliving the attack repeatedly in his mind and isn’t sure if he’ll try and surf again.
“I want to get back to walking first.”
