Surfer bitten, board snapped by shark off Northern California: reports

This week in Northern California, a surfer was bitten by a shark that broke his board in the state’s first shark incident of the year.

“It was like being hit by a car,” Tommy Civik told Bay City News about the incident in Mendocino County, north of San Francisco, according to SFGate. “All of a sudden I was hit out of the water.”

South Coast Fire Protection District Chief Jason Warner told SFGate that his team responded to a beach in Gualala, Calif., before 9 a.m. on Tuesday, where bystanders told him a “large” shark “striked the surfer and the surfboard, throwing the surfer slightly into the air and breaking the board in half.”

“It’s locked to half the board and [was] It kind of spreads it around.”

THE SWIMMER WAS MISSING AFTER A POSSIBLE SHARK ENCOUNTER OFF THE CALIFORNIA COAST DURING A GROUP TRIP.

Civik told the Los Angeles Times that he never saw the shark.

“My board split in half upon impact,” he said. “My friend who was watching said I was flying through the air. I’m still trying to piece together what happened. Everything was so shocking I was just trying to escape.”

Peter Tira of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told SFGate that Civik needed stitches and DNA from his wound will be used to determine the type of shark that attacked him.

“I was incredibly lucky,” Civik told The Times. “My board took all the impact and my teeth grazed me,” Civik said. “I had quite a bit of adrenaline and took myself to the hospital because I could walk.”

“It was like getting hit by a car,” Tommy Civik said. “All of a sudden I was hit out of the water.” (South Shore Fire Protection District)

His friend Marco Guerrero told the Times he saw the shark attack what he initially thought was a seal.

A MINNESOTA WOMAN KILLED IN A SHARK ATTACK IN THE VIRGIN ISLANDS OF THE USA

“I remember Tommy saying, ‘I’ll meet you there’ and getting dressed. I was looking at the waves when I saw the crash,” he explained. “I said, ‘Oh, that’s a shark attack,’ thinking he was attacking a seal. I didn’t realize it was Tommy.”

After the attack, Civik said, “I just put it down.” [his] “He swam upside down and quickly.”

The sun sets in Gualala, California. (George Rose/Getty Images)

“I didn’t know where the shark was, so I just focused on getting away,” he told The Times. “After a minute I realized that if the shark [had] If he wanted to bite me again he would do it. “It all happened so fast.”

CLICK TO DOWNLOAD FOX NEWS APPLICATION

Civik’s attack comes less than a month after an open ocean swimmer was killed by a shark in Santa Cruz County and follows a record year for shark incidents in 2025.

“However, there were only 3 injury incidents last year, which was well below the peak year of 1974, when 7 injuries were confirmed,” Tira told SFGate.