13 Year Old Gets 19 Stitches From Shark Bite While Surfing

Logan Radd, a surfing enthusiast, was bitten by a two-foot shark on Tuesday while out paddling in the ocean waves near the "Old Buccaneer" at the end of Grant Avenue.

According to the 13-year-old, it began when he felt something snag on his foot.

He said he was coming in and the shark bit his foot repeatedly. It was allegedly a 2-foot shark as the teen recalled how he made it to the beach in the knee-high surf.

By the time he got to safety, he had two gaping wounds on the left heel of his left foot.

His mother, Jennifer Radd, was watching when she saw her son jerk his feet from the water before seeing a back tipped shark nearby.

She took him to a hospital in Melbourne immediately to treat the wounds.

The circumstances of the incident were harrowing though the boy was the one reassuring his mother not to cry. He kept telling her he was going to be okay.

Jennifer claimed the bites looked very bad and they did require 19 stitches. Logan was not in pain until the middle of the night. She described it as the worst thing a mother could experience.

Sharks tend to frequent Florida’s beaches and cruise along the shoreline in search of baitfish. Some of the time they cause temporary closure within some places, particularly during the summer.

That being said, it was the first reported shark bite of the year at the county beach. The Brevard County Ocean Lifeguard Division Chief, Elsen Witcher said they had not had shark-related problems within the guarded areas previously.

Florida, though, has proven to be a hot spot for shark attacks.

According to the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File, there were 66 reported shark attacks in 2018. Thirty-two of these where in the united states and half of that number were in Florida.

Logan has traveled before to participate in surfing contests and recently finished in third place within the Boys Under 14 Competition at the ESA Easterns Surfing Championship in North Carolina.

He has since been restricted from water activities as he recovers from his injury. Doctors took x-rays of his heel to make sure the ligaments were not damaged. Thankfully, no shark tooth fragments were found.

The teen has taken a carefree attitude to the incident. He claimed it was his time to be bitten because it is a part of the ocean experience when swimming in shark territory.