WAIALUA, Oahu — The surfer bitten by a 10-foot shark off the North Shore won’t let the ordeal keep him out of the water.
WAIALUA, Oahu — The surfer bitten by a 10-foot shark off the North Shore won’t let the ordeal keep him out of the water.
Joshua Holley got 42 stitches on his left foot and will need surgery to repair severed tendons after a shark chomped on his foot as he surfed off Oahu’s North Shore on Tuesday. But he said he plans to return to the waves as soon as doctors say it’s OK.
Holley believes he was attacked by a tiger shark.
Tuesday’s attack was the first on the island this year and the first one confirmed statewide this year, Randy Honebrink, education coordinator and shark specialist for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said.
Warning signs were posted at several North Shore beaches.
On Kauai, a shark sighting was reported off Haena Beach on Tuesday morning, fire officials said, but there were no subsequent sightings.
“I’m doing OK. Thank you God that I’m alive, lucky to be alive,” he said from his bed at Wahiawa General Hospital as medical staff cleaned his wounds. “I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty terrified.”
Holley was recovering at home Wednesday. He recalled punching the shark and paddling to shore with help from two surfers. He was about 30 to 40 yards from shore when he felt the weight of the shark.
“I’m not afraid to go back in the water,” he said. “I’m not mad at the shark at all because one thing we gotta remember when we’re surfers, we’re going out in their domain.”