Shark bites surfer’s leg on Oahu’s North Shore
Lifeguards patrolled the ocean near the Leftovers surf break on the North Shore after a 25-year-old man was bitten by a shark this morning.
A surfer was taken to the hospital this morning from Leftovers on the North Shore in critical condition after a shark attack left him with an injury to his left leg. (Courtesy Google Maps)
Leftovers surf break on the North Shore was nearly empty after a shark attack left a surfer with an injury to his left leg this morning.
A 25-year-old surfer was hospitalized in critical condition this morning after he was attacked by a shark at a popular North Shore surf spot.
Paramedics responded to the attack at Leftovers, a surf break between Laniakea and Waimea Bay, at about 10:25 a.m.
Justin Baluch said he saw a paddleboarder and a surfer bringing the victim out of the water to Kamehameha Highway at about 10:20 a.m. and stopped his car to help.
The two people who brought him out of the water carried him out on a surfboard and used a surf leash as a tourniquet. “We were able to stop the bleeding,” Baluch said.
John “JC” Carper, a friend of the surfer, helped pull him out of the water and identified the victim as Colin Cook.
He said Cook lost his left leg above his knee and may have lost some fingers.
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He was “in and out of consciousness,” Baluch said. “I told him, ‘hey buddy, stay awake.’”
“A lot of people stopped to help,” Baluch said.
Carper said people on the beach and in the water did a “spectacular job” to help save Cook’s life.
An ambulance arrived within minutes and paramedics treated and took the victim away to a Honolulu trauma hospital.
Carper said Cook is from Rhode Island, but now lives near Leftovers and is a regular at the beach.
Witnesses reported a 10- to 12-foot shark in the area, but there is no confirmation on the type of shark involved, said Shayne Enright of the city’s Emergency Services Department.
Lifeguards were warning people to get out of the water along a 2-mile stretch of beach from Laniakea to Waimea Bay, Enright said.
The Fire Department helicopter also flew over the area.
Lifeguards will assess the situation Saturday morning to determine if warning signs will be taken down.
If confirmed, this would be the fifth shark attack in Hawaii waters this year, but the first on Oahu, according to the state Department of Land & Natural Resources. There have been two shark attacks off the Big Island this year and two off Maui, including one fatality. On April 29, Margaret “Margo” Cruse, 65, of Kihei, was swimming off South Maui when she was fatally bitten by a shark.
The last shark attack on Oahu was on July 29, 2013, when an estimated 10-foot tiger shark bit a 19-year-old man on the left leg as he was surfing about 20 yards offshore of White Plains Beach on the Leeward Coast, according to the DLNR. The surfer, Kiowa Gatewood of Kaneohe, had lacerations on his left leg that required surgery.
Today’s incident was not the first time a shark has bitten a surfer at the Leftovers break.
On April 3, 2012, a 10-foot shark bit Joshua Holley, then 28, of Wailua, in the foot while he was surfing at Leftovers at about 12:38 p.m. Holley fought off the shark with his board and suffered only minor injuries.
