A man surfing in Florida was hit in the face by a spinning shark — and the encounter was caught on camera.
Surfer Darren Kaye said he was in waters off New Smyrna Beach, Florida, on Friday evening when the spinner shark knocked him off his board. Video shows the shark flying from the water and striking Kaye, knocking him off his board. In an Instagram post, Kaye said the shark’s nose hit him in the face and its pectoral fin hit him on the left arm.
Kaye identified the animal as a spinner shark. The species is known for the spinning leaps it takes while hunting prey, according to the Florida Fish And Wildlife Conservation Commission. The sharks often jump out of the water, the commission said. Adult spinner sharks grow to a maximum length of 7 to 8 feet, and can weigh up to 110 pounds.
Kaye said the shark hit him “like a truck.” In another video describing the event, Kaye said he and other surfers in the area had seen the shark “chilling” and “doing its thing” in the area, but had paid it no mind because the species is a common sight.
“Boom, all of a sudden, like crazy rocket ship, straight at my dome,” Kaye said in the video, which was recorded for Surfline, a company that uses remote cameras to monitor ocean conditions. A Surfline camera captured the video of the shark hitting him.
The encounter was “absolutely nuts,” Kaye said, but it didn’t rattle him — he surfed for another 45 minutes afterward, he said. Then, he looked up the video and sent it to friends and family.
“Just another day at the inlet!” he wrote on Instagram.
New Smyrna Beach is off Florida’s east coast. The city is about 15 miles south of Daytona Beach. The city has 17 miles of coastline and is known for good surfing conditions, according to its website.
