Photo: Powerlines Productions // YouTube
On November 2, 2005, Tim West was attacked by a shark at Maverick’s. An unearthed interview from YouTube channel Powerlines Productions takes us back to the day after the harrowing event.
The story begins half an hour before sunset, when West decided to get just one more wave before dark. After informing fellow Maverick’s surfer Chris Loweswick of his intentions, he paddled off towards the main peak – but he wouldn’t arrive. “I dug for the outside, and 20 feet before I got to the peak, it nailed me like a train,” he recounts in the video.
“It” was a 12- to 15-foot great white shark.
“It threw me off to the right, and my board was up in the air, straight up, two feet off the water,” West continues, holding up the damaged board to demonstrate. In the turbulence that followed, West saw a massive grey shape in the water and quickly recognized the beast below.
After booking it back to shore, West discovered a shark tooth embedded in his board – physical evidence of what he had encountered out there in the dusk. In the rest of the interview, he gives a first-hand account of the event, and digs out the tooth from his still-dinged board for good measure.
Check out the full video below.