Surfer pulled underwater by shark survives unscathed

Diamond Head resident Jonah Kogen of AccessSurf had been surfing since dawn Tuesday when he witnessed a shark encounter a few hours later that seemed like something out of the movies.

He was at least 300 yards out, sitting in the lineup at a Diamond Head surf break known as Brown’s, when a large, gray shark appeared out of nowhere targeting another surfer 10 feet away.

“I thought the shark had him in his mouth, and I thought the guy was gone,” he said. “I saw them disappear underwater and saw a big fin come out. Next thing I knew, the guy popped up and said, ‘I’m OK.’

“Miraculously he and the shark popped up, and it threw him up like an explosion,” he said. The other surfer, who he only knows as Michael, appeared to be in his 50s, “in very good shape, very fit, a local guy,” Kogen said. Michael had only been out surfing for about 20 minutes before the encounter, Kogen said.

He told Kogen the shark was roughly 8 feet long with a mouth two footballs wide, and it felt like he got hit by a Volkswagen.

From Kogen’s perspective, it appeared the shark knocked Michael off his board and landed on top of him.

He watched as the tail fin was “wiggling on top of him.”

Michael, Kogen and two others quickly paddled to shore. Kogen said there was no sign of the shark before or after the encounter.

Kogen said the shark looked big, but was gray and did not appear to be a tiger shark, Kogen said. He suspects it may have been a Galapagos or reef shark.

Kogen, a Philadelphia native who moved to Hawaii in part for the surfing, is also a board member of the nonprofit AccessSurf, which helps individuals with disabilities surf.

He speculates the shark overshot attempting to bite the man, or for whatever reason decided to let him go.

Kogen spotted Michael surfing Monday as well.

On Tuesday, the surf was roughly 5 feet and more manageable than Monday. Brown’s sits between Cliffs and Cromwell’s to the left, and rarely breaks, but when it does, it breaks farther out than most.

“It seemed like the shark must have come right by me and passed him, hit him, and bumped him up,” Kogen said. “I just feel very forunate, super fortunate, to come home to see my wife and kids.”