A Maui paddler escaped injury Thursday morning after an encounter with an 8-foot shark that took a bite of his paddleboard.
Dave Peterson, owner of Maui Dawn Patrol, said he was 300 yards offshore at a surf break known as “Boneyard” at Kanaha Beach Park when a gray shark knocked him into the water.
“I was standing on my board waiting for a wave,” said Peterson, who shapes surfboards and paddleboards. “The water was clear. There was no wind.
“Something came up and knocked me off my board. I fell into the water and landed on the back of the shark. It was biting my board, so I hit it on the head with my paddle and it let it go and swam away.”
His paddleboard had a bite mark that was 9 to 10 inches wide, he said.
The shark was 6 to 8 feet long, gray and probably a reef shark, Peterson said.
Rod Antone, Maui County spokesman, said the stretch of beach from the mouth of Kahului Harbor to the Kahului side of Spreckelsville was closed after the shark attack was reported at 7:30 a.m.
Shark warning signs were posted on the beach. Ocean safety officials will re-evaluate the situation today and determine when the beach will reopen.
There were no other shark sightings at Kanaha Beach on Thursday.
Peterson said the bite marks are along the rail of the 9-foot-6-inch orange paddleboard, which he had just finished making.
“I had ridden only five times,” Peterson added.
Surfers said shark attacks in Central Maui are rare.
There have been several more critical attacks, including one that resulted in the death of 57-year-old Willis McInnis in 2004 in West Maui.
McInnis died at Pohaku Park after a shark bit his upper leg while he was paddling his surfboard to catch waves at “S-Turns.” The incident took place fronting the Hololani Resort.
Police said McInnis suffered severe lacerations to his upper right thigh and midcalf. The wound measured 12 to 14 inches long.
In June a 16-year-old California girl was bitten by a small reef shark while she and her father were in shallow waters at Kahana Beach in Pohaku Park.
The girl was bitten while sitting with her father in nearshore water about 2 to 3 feet deep. She did not see what bit her.
Other shark attacks along the coast of West Maui:
>> On Nov. 17, 2002, a woman was bitten on her right shoulder and nearly lost her right hand in an attack near Kaanapali, just south of Kahana.
>> On Jan. 1, 2002, a snorkeler was bitten on the buttocks by a tiger shark at Olowalu in West Maui.
>> On March 5, 1999, a woman swimming off Kaanapali was attacked by a large shark that left a 13-inch gash in one of her legs.
