Shark kills Calif. surfer off Santa Barbara

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: USA Today

A shark attacked and killed a 20-year-old California student who was body surfing this morning off a beach at Vandenberg Air Force Base, according to news reports.

The University of California-Santa Barbara student bled to death after the shark bit off one of his legs, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told the Santa Maria Times. The surfer was from Orange County. His identity has not been released.

He and a friend, who was on a board, were in the water at Surf Beach between 9 and 9:30 a.m. when the shark attacked.

Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/10/shark-kills-calif-surfer-off-santa-barbara/1

[kgnu_fan]

1. oh no....

[Tikki]

2. This just is so horrible..

I hate very much that this happened.

Tikki

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Turbineguy]

6. I'll bet that's

what his Mother said too.:wtf:

[GSLevel9]

7. compassion of course... but maybe take responsibility fro the risk of your recreation. nt

[denbot]

11. As soon as the water temp drops a few more degrees I will start wearing my wetsuite.

I'm not dressing like a seal, or flopping around in the water to look like shark food. Like over a million other people I regularly go surfing.

I have been around here a very long time and I don't usually respond to asinine statements but yours was notably stupid and insensitive.

[Baclava]

15. If a big shark is hungry and mistakes you for prey, there's not much you can do about it

A shark's brain is about the size of a walnut. Just big enough to execute the programs of Swim, Eat, Make baby sharks.

This is what you look like from underwater.

[Cleita]

4. Actually it was near Vandenberg AFB in Santa Barbara

County very close to where I live actually. Scary considering the climate hasn't been that conducive to sharks being that close to shore.

[MineralMan]

5. Yeah, Surf beach is actually on VAFB. It's a pretty cool spot,

but very isolated. You have to hike to it.

[wtmusic]

8. If he was body surfing it must have happened very close to shore

Unusual.

[subject]

9. Body boarding

is using a boogey board to surf, so he was prolly out there. What I wanna know is if it was overcast or foggy that morning. That's when sharks usually come in close. Bad idea to be in the water when it's like that.

[wtmusic]

10. Didn't know, thanks for info. nt

[kestrel91316]

12. Sharks scare me so bad I won't go more than knee deep in our coastal waters

here in SoCal. I know the risk is minute. I don't care. I never got over "Jaws".

[yurbud]

13. It's not hard to believe the shark looked like Arne Duncan...

[Baclava]

14. Oceans = "Beware. You are now entering the food chain"

And we're not the top fish.

[WheelWalker]

17. +1

I couldn't agree with you more, comrade.

[FLSurfer]

16. Sorry to hear this. Condolences to his family.

Hate to hear/read stories like this. On the Central coast, this is the time of year when the bait moves close to the beach bringing alot of predators with them.