Vacation Gone Wrong: Surfer & Beachgoer Injured In Vicious Florida Shark Attacks
Jul. 29 2019, Updated 7:35 p.m. ET
Two separate shark attacks terrorized the beaches of Florida this weekend, injuring a surfer and an unsuspecting beachgoer along the cost.
Competitive surfer Frank O’Rourke, 23, told WJXX that he was surfing near Jacksonville Beach Pier around 3:30 p.m. this Saturday, July 28, when a shark bit his right arm.
One the same day, 110 miles away, Arizona native William Angell, 49, was bitten on the right thigh while boogie boarding at New Smyrna Beach.
Angell was treated at the scene and later drove himself to the hospital for treatment, Captain Andrew Ethridge of Volusia County Beach Safety told KNXV. His injuries are not serious. O’Rourke was also treated at the scene and did not go to the hospital for further medical attention.
The surfer told WJXX that he sees shark quite frequently but had never before been bitten.
Recalling the attack, he said: “I felt something jump out of the water and latch onto my arm by my elbow. It just grabbed onto me and thrashed in the water and swam away.”
While the incident was certainly scary, O’Rourke was hardly phased.
“If it’s your time, it’s your time. If the sharks want you, they want you,” he told the outlet. “You’re more likely to get struck by lightning than killed by a shark. I’m going to buy a lottery ticket.”
RadarOnline.com readers know this weekend’s attacks come weeks after a teen was bitten by a shark in Amelia Island, Florida, and after a father took an aerial drone shot of a shark swimming towards his children near the shore.
This June in the Bahamas, a California student was killed by a shark as her terrified parents watched.
According to Tracking Sharks, there have been 24 reported and verified shark attacks in the U.S. this year, eight of them in Florida.