Teen Surfer Survives Shark Attack: 'I Felt Something Grab My Leg'

A teenage surfer survived a shark attack in North Carolina on Monday afternoon, leaving him with a gruesome shark bite on his foot.

Brunswick County Dispatch said it received a call shortly after 2 p.m. from Ocean Isle Beach along the west end of the island noting that a shark had attacked someone, WWAY reported.

The teenager, Austin Reed, 19, said he was surfing in the ocean when he noticed deep bite marks in his foot.

Medics transported Reed to a local hospital, where he is expected to recover.

“I remember I told my friend, ‘If there was any time to get bit by a shark, it’d be today.’ I don’t know why I said that. And then, like I just felt something grab onto my leg and I was just like, ‘Oh my gosh,’” Reed told WSOC while recovering from his hospital bed.

Reed is expected to be out of the hospital in a few days, adding that the shark attack would not prohibit him from going back into the ocean.

Although Reed survived his ordeal with a shark, others have not been as lucky. A Massachusetts man attacked by a shark while boogie boarding in Cape Cod died from his injuries in 2018.