Twenty-four years ago, Shannon Ainslie was involved in a shark attack. Not just one shark attack, though. Ainslie was attacked by two great white sharks at once. Although his story has been told before, he decided he’d like to tell it in his own words.
It was July 17 2000. Ainslie was barely into his teenage years. South Africa was home, and Nahoon Reef was his local spot. Since his father was a single dad, he’d often find himself at the beach while his dad was at work. Bananas, bread, and a surfboard were the tools he and his siblings were left with to pass the time, and the surfboard came in particularly handy.
Nahoon Reef, like many spots in South Africa, is a notoriously sharky part of the ocean, but shark attacks are still rare no matter how sharky a spot might be. But July 17 would prove to be a fateful one for Ainslie.
There was a lot of action in the water that day — schools of fish everywhere and birds were dropping like stones in their attempts to catch some of those fish. Something else was in the water too, though: sharks.
From the outset, Ainslie felt a little off. “I had this feeling,” he said. “Like, I’m gonna die today. Today’s my last day.”
He shook off the feeling and continued surfing, as he had many times in the past. He should have listened to his gut, but hindsight is 20/20. Suddenly, his life changed.
“All of a sudden, bam!” Ainslie said. “I got hit so hard by this white shark from the left. It flipped me around, and dragged me underwater with it. While that was happening, the other shark hit my right, and missed me, because the other shark got me first.”
Still not quite understanding what was happening, the shark dragged Ainslie under the surface.
“I thought I was dreaming,” he said. “Even when the shark grabbed me, and bit me, and pulled me underwater, I felt no fear and no pain whatsoever. It all happened so quickly.”
Thankfully, Ainslie was able to escape with his life. He was not unscathed, though, not by any means. His right arm was a mess. His pinkie finger was hanging by a threat. He had a variety of broken bones, and he was bleeding profusely. He managed to make it to shore, where bystanders stopped the bleeding by using a surfboard leash as a tourniquet. Then he headed to the hospital, where doctors sewed him back together as well as they could.
Now, Ainslie calls Norway home. It’s markedly different than South Africa, but he lives there with a new outlook on life.
“I realized how blessed and fortunate I am to be alive,” he said. “I was given a second chance. I was given joy, peace, purpose, and abundant life.”
