As Ray Mac Pigott was paddling into shore Friday following his morning surf session at Davidson’s on Kauai, a newly arriving surfer with a French accent politely asked him about the area’s rock hazards.

Pigott, a longtime veteran at the Kekaha Beach surf spot, gave him the lowdown before heading to shore.

A few minutes later, much to his horror, Pigott witnessed that same surfer being thrashed around in a vortex of violent splashing and swirling water.

“Only a large animal could have caused swirling like that,” Pigott said. “My heart just sank.”

After Pigott called 911 and another surfer applied a tourniquet using a surfboard leash, emergency crews transported the 28-year-old French visitor to Wilcox Medical Center in Lihue shortly after 9 a.m. with severe injuries to his lower leg.

Lifeguards closed a 6-mile stretch of Kekaha Beach and posted “no swimming” signs warning the public of a tiger shark estimated at 12 feet in length.

County officials said lifeguards would reassess conditions this morning before reopening the coastal region.

The incident is the first reported shark bite in Hawaii this year and the first in the islands in five months. It is the first serious shark attack along Kauai’s shores since December 2012, when a surfer sustained foot injuries at nearby Pakala.

Hawaii saw 10 shark incidents in 2016, including two minor encounters on Kauai: a surfer who suffered a minor puncture wound in June at Kalapaki Beach in Lihue, and a surfer who was cut on both hands at Hanalei Bay in January.

The last fatal shark attack in the islands was in April 2015, when a woman was killed while snorkeling 200 yards from Maui’s Ahihi Bay on the South Shore.

According to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, the chances of being bitten by a shark in Hawaii are less than 1 in a million, and the chances of being seriously injured by a shark are much less than that.

Historically, Hawaii averaged between two and three shark attacks a year going back to the 1980s and three to four shark attacks a year during the past two decades. Recent years have seen even more, with most of them occurring off Maui.

Pigott, a longtime wrestling coach from Kekaha, said he felt uneasy in the water during his three previous sessions at Davidson’s, when the surf wasn’t pumping as much. He said he felt compelled to cut those sessions short because of that feeling.

But on Friday, with the surf rolling in twice as high, he was not alone in the water, and he felt good. He said he was happy to assist the visitor.

“He was such a nice guy, so polite and respectful,” Pigott recalled.

Only a few minutes later, Pigott, still dripping and sitting in his car, looked up from his cellphone to see the man struggling for his life and screaming for help 100 yards offshore. The surfer seemed to recover but was paddling in while leaving a trail of blood.

While Pigott called the authorities, the handful of surfers in the water came to the man’s aid on the beach, working to calm him down and applying a tourniquet to stop the bleeding, he said.

Emergency crews arrived fairly quickly.

“It was unreal,” he said. “They took really good care of the guy.”

Pigott said he’d never seen a confirmed shark while surfing for more than 40 years on Kauai, although he did see a similar shark bite incident in the early 1980s from the shore at a spot called Major’s Bay near the Pacific Missile Range Facility up the coast.

“Every time something like this happens, it makes you think,” he said. “The fact is, sharks are around us all the time. You just don’t see them.”

He added that he’s going to return to the surf at Davidson’s as soon as he can.