Matt Mason, 48, of Minnesota safe on shore after battling a 14-foot Tiger Shark. Photo: Matt Mason
As it turns out, binge-watching Shark Week for hours on end might actually pay off.
A Minnesota man used tactics learned from the Discovery Channel’s hit annual takeover when he was attacked by a 14-foot Tiger Shark while vacationing on Hawaii’s Maui. Matt Mason, 48, was thrown off his paddleboard by the shark, prompting him to resort to his instincts, ingrained in his brain by shows like Ninja Sharks and Return of the Great White Serial Killer, and punch the beast.
After the shark knocked him off the board, Mason’s wife, Beth, yelled: “Hit him, Mas, hit him!”
“I was giving him advice,” Beth Mason told the Twin Cities Pioneer Press. “Who hasn’t watched Shark Week?”
And Matt did just that, striking the large shark somewhere in the midsection before getting back on his board and paddling back to shore. The board was gnawed on by the beast, but Matt was allowed to take it home as a souvenir.
This marks the first reported shark attack for Hawaii of the year. Last year there were numerous attacks on the islands including one involving a 10-year-old boy and another with a nudist swimmer.
Luckily for Matt Mason, the shark never got its teeth on him. And he expressed his relief with a classic vacation-style attitude.
“Seriously, no one’s getting me a beer?” he asked when he got to shore. “I’d really like a beer.”
