Shark attacks are surprisingly common on the east coast of Florida near the armpit of the state at a beach dubbed the shark bite capital of the world, a spot that has more shark attacks annually than any other spot on the planet. This is thanks to the many surfers playing at a spot known as shark feeding grounds. Every year most shark attacks happen during one month according to shark bite record keeping. Those attacks occur in the month of August.

This year one of our own have felt the pressure of a medium sized shark clamping down its jaws. Near the beginning of the month during a surf trip to New Smyrna Beach Riley Petrovich was attacked by the hungry predator. He had a lot to say about the experience.

According to Riley the bite happened quick. It wasn’t something he could see coming. The shark didn’t circle him, he didn’t see any fin swimming near him. He was standing in the water on the inside of the sand bar closer to the beach when suddenly something quickly clamped down. I asked, did you punch it in the nose like they say to do? It was just way to quick, he said. It bit then let go; it was just instantly gone as fast as it happened. It wasn’t a thrashing around where his life flashed before his eyes. It just quickly bit, and let go. It was like a taste test, and he wasn’t something the shark liked very much.

He was very fortunate, just a case of mistaken identity. He didn’t sustain any major injuries like torn muscles or missing toes. He says that he feels like this was a good experience, that instead of being afraid to get back in the water he feels confident that the fish in the water aren’t very dangerous, and that he knows what could happen, a mental preparedness. And after this experience, he’s not afraid of those little fishes that swim around at the beach.