Shark takes a bite out of teen's surfboard
Max Keliikipi escaped uninjured but the same can't be said for his surfboard.
Max tells CNN he was waiting for a final wave before retiring for the evening Sunday when he spotted what he thought was a turtle fin about a hundred yards offshore.
He didn't realize it was a shark until it was beside him.
"It goes underneath the water, I put my feet on top of my board. I'm just sitting there, looking around for it," he says.
"And then boom, it comes underneath me, bites my board. It comes underneath me, bites my board."
He says the shark was "literally" a few centimetres away from his feet.
The force of the bite threw Max, who is a junior lifeguard, into the water.
"As soon as I hit the water, I just started swimming and I didn't ... think about where the shark was. I just had to get in," he says.
He made it to shore safely.
The attack comes just three months after a man was killed by a shark in Mauri.
Officials say there have been 7 shark attacks in Hawaii so far this year, up from 3 last year and 5 in 2017.
"Next time I'm just going to go in the daytime and with my friends, not surfing alone anymore," Max says.
