This surfer has to be the calmest person in the world. I've been diving with sharks a few times but still don't think I'd remain quite as calm after meeting the toothy end of one. Even after the encounter, he continued surfing for 45 minutes.
It's a ride Jim Rawlinson will never forget. Rawlinson, 68, was catching waves at the point in Hanalei Bay, Kauai Monday at about 4 p.m. when as quick as greased lightning his peaceful afternoon turned into every surfer's nightmare. "All of a sudden I felt this strike on the back of my board and it lifted me kind of up in the air," he said. Rawlinson's surfboard had just been attacked by a large tiger shark.
As he slid backwards what happened next is as frightening as it is unimaginable. Rawlinson ended up on the back of the ocean's most feared predator.
"I was onto the shark's back...anywhere from about five to ten seconds. It was so strange that everything was so slow and yet again so fast."
