Woman Attacked By Shark At Churches

When driving north on the Coast Highway in Southern California, it’s customary to crank one’s neck 90-degrees to the left (or the right, if you’re driving south) to check Churches, or Church, the first break of the Trestles cluster and the only viewable wave from the road. Today, everyone hoping to get a quick glimpse of the surf while in sitting in traffic viewed a much more confusing, and somber scene.

A surfer was reportedly attacked while surfing Churches in the late afternoon. As can be heard being stated by California state lifeguards in the below video: “Close the beach in two miles in either direction. There was a shark attack in the area and we need all surfers to come ashore.”

According to state park aide Travis Lara, four women were in relatively shallow water when they encountered the shark, which bit one of the women, a 36-year-old, on her, “Glute and down her thigh,” Lara told The Orange County Register.

Two surfers reportedly pulled the woman out of the water and used a leash as a makeshift tourniquet before she was airlifted out to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, down in south San Diego county.

There was a great white sighting off the coast of Dana Point earlier this week; just a short drive north of Churches. And San Onofre has been a favourite hangout for the men in grey suits, with one seen breaching at the Lowers lineup a little more than two weeks ago. But despite these sightings, actual attacks in the area are rare to the point their numbers are almost rendered null. Unfortunately, until now.

This attack came on the same day bodyboarder Adrien Dubosc was killed by a shark off Reunion Island, just two months after his best friends died in almost identical circumstances. The 28-year-old was bitten on the leg in the waters off Pointe au Sel on Saturday morning. Adrien was a trained shark spotter on the island and a member of the Shark Watch Patrol and lover of the animals, regularly posting photos of sharks on his Facebook. He was in the water with two of his friends when he was attacked, and died within a half hour of being bitten. It’s the ninth fatal attack in six years on Reunion.