A 16-year-old from Georgia was bitten by a shark while he was surfing at Ponce Inlet near New Smyrna Beach in Florida. Doyle Nielson was paddling about 500 feet off the coast trying to catch a wave when a six-foot-long shark swam up and bit him on the arm.
"It felt like someone on their surfboard had come full speed directly at me and hit me super hard," Nielsen told Good Morning America. "And then after somebody had yelled, 'There's a shark, get out of there,' I realized what it was."
Photographer Sam Scribner was taking photos of the surfers and happened to catch the attack on camera. He uploaded the terrifying footage to Instagram.
"Doyle was right in the middle of my frame, and the shark just hit him," Scribner told Good Morning America. "It was over in a matter of seconds to it's crazy how quickly it happened."
Neilson was not seriously injured, suffering a large gash on his arm. He managed to paddle back to shore where he was treated by Ocean Rescue. Paramedics offered to take him to the hospital, but he refused. He said that the attack will not keep him from surfing in the future.
"I'll definitely be surfing again, but I know that it'll affect my mindset," Neilson said. "I'll be a little more cautious in the water."
The attack on Nielson was the 10th unprovoked shark bite of 2021 at New Smyrna Beach, which is considered the unofficial shark bite capital of the world.
"That is about normal for Volusia," Tyler Bowling, manager of the Florida Program for Shark Research told the Daytona Beach News-Journal in August. "We have seen even more bites in years past. So, this is just natural variation."