Photo: Oleksandr Sushko / Unsplash
Most shark attack victims don’t have the fortune of any kind of warning before they’re hit. Fortunately, one Cape Cod surfer had the benefit of a warning call from a friend on a SUP, otherwise he would have been another attack victim. They both came home unscathed with a wild story of their encounter.
“I took overnight to bring myself to write these words,” Ray Trautz wrote on Facebook over the weekend. “Yesterday on November 4th, 2023 at about noon, my cousin Pete Emond and I were surfing by ourselves over in front of the VIP house at Coast Guard beach. Pete was sitting on his board and I was standing on mine when I looked over my shoulder and a 10-foot great white shark was on track right at Pete’s legs. The shark even turned on its side as if to take a leg,” he explains.
And this is when things (literally) took a turn as Trautz made an effort to help his cousin. After yelling “SHARK” to get Emond’s attention, Trautz took his paddle and stabbed at the back of the shark.
“It violently turned at me, tail and head thrashing back and forth erupting the water,” he wrote. “The shark’s massive tail section almost hit Pete in the face. I was yelling for Pete to go and get to shore as the shark circled behind me very aggressive and agitated. As the shark circled I circled and kept him from being behind me. In that moment a small wave came across the bar and in two quick strokes I was flying towards the beach. We both escaped unharmed and a little shaken. I’ve seen a hundred white sharks while surfing but this takes the top of all my shark interactions. In closing, I will add that had I not been on a SUP, this event would have played out very differently.”
Editor’s Note: Learn how to minimize chances of an adverse shark encounter as well as critical information about shark behavior, shark personalities, shark language, what to do in the unlikely event a shark bites you, and more during 20-plus video lessons in Ocean Ramsey’s Guide to Sharks and Safety.
