Shark Attack Survivor Takes On A Bear And Rattlesnake Too

After the offshore carnage taking place in West Oz last week it was safe to assume that things couldn’t get much worse for those who surf, but the young American, Dylan McWilliams proved us all wrong. Copping a rattlesnake bite, attack from a bear and then a Tiger shark mauling all within the space of just over three years. 

As the Honolulu Star Advertiser reported, three years ago Dylan was on the receiving end of a rattlesnake’s venomous fangs while hiking in Utah. It was a dry-bite meaning not much venom was released, but after copping a pair of fangs to your leg you would be forgiven for thinking your bad luck with Mother Nature might have run its course. 

But no, not for poor young Dylan. He had a hell of a lot more coming on his plate. 

Two years later, Dyl was face to face with a black bear in Colorado. And when you’re a skinny teenage kid up against a fully grown 280-pound bear you don’t stand a hell of a chance.

Sleeping on the ground when camping can be rough, but it’s even rougher when you wake up to the sound of getting your skull crunched by a bear and dragged a few metres through the forest in the process, all while trying to punch and poke out the bear’s eyes.

Miraculously though, Dylan also lived to tell this tale of lightning striking twice and got away from his bear encounter with a dozen stitches to his dome.  

Evidently, these couple of misfortunes weren’t going to turn the nature loving Yank away from his passion and what better place to pursue his outdoor passion then visiting the relatively untouched Hawaiian island that is Kauai. Unfortunately, for young Dylan, he picked a poor time to visit – smack bang in the middle of the Kauai floods.

The young gent helped throughout the cleanup process, but after a few days of staying out of the drink due to the murky, shark-ridden waters, Dylan punched it south to escape the dirt and hook into a couple of funnels on his sea biscuit. A few waves weren’t all Dylan got though, a 6-8 foot Tiger shark latched onto his calf on the paddle back

“At first I panicked, I didn’t know if I’d lost half my leg or what,” Dylan told the Star Advertiser. 

Luckily, a few swift kicks to the shark’s head and an adrenaline fueled paddle to shore were enough for Dylan to escape his third encounter with some of nature’s deadliest in three years.  

Dylan turned down the paramedics to save a buck on the sand and was fortunate enough (if you can call it that) to only receive seven stitches.  

Comparatively, maybe a shark attack isn’t that bad. Photos. Dylan McWilliams

If you’ve ever been the victim of an all out assault from Mother Nature and feel as if your bad luck has run out, or that lightning won’t strike you twice. Think again.

Some of the CT surfers might be scared of hungry predators swimming around the competition, but it turns out they should also be scared of just about everything on land too. You never know when you’re going to have a fanged serpent latching onto your calf or a bear breathing down your resting head.

The world ain’t a safe place and maybe a few sharks aren’t that scary after all. 

The silver lining for young Dylan though is that he’s managed to live to tell the tale all three times. And while you’re reading this, make sure to be careful of eating your lunch, because more people die each year choking on a hoagie than of shark attacks.