An Oregon surfer who was nearly attacked by a shark near Newport credits his pre-surfing prayer with saving his life. "You know, I do my morning prayer every morning when I go in that water," Bobby Gumm told the website TowSurfer.com. "I grew up that way. That's what probably kept me alive."
Gumm was surfing at South Beach State Park on Thursday morning when he felt something brush against his legs. "Right under me, just felt something right under me. I kick it," Gumm said. "I thought it was a sea lion. It wasn't."Gumm then saw the shark, which he estimates was around 15 feet long, swim in front of his board.
"Then all of the sudden, it dips back down, grabs my board and ejects me out of the water," he said. Gumm escaped without a scratch, but a giant chunk of his surfboard is missing. He says the shark swam away after biting the surfboard, so the surfer and his friends swam back to shore.
He described the encounter as "the most intense feeling. I've went through car accidents. Thought I came close to dying. This was intense."A biologist at the Oregon Coast Aquarium says the shark was likely searching for a sea lion or fish when he encountered Gumm.