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Lucky surfer survives run-in with shark

06:51 PM PST on Wednesday, November 22, 2006

By CRAIG EDWARDS, kgw.com staff

LINCOLN CITY, Ore. -- It came from out of nowhere. A shark tried to take a bite out of surfer Tony Perez.

"I didn't see a thing," the 22-year-old told The News Guard newspaper based out of Lincoln City. "That's the scariest thing about it. You never know what's going to happen."

Garret Jaros/The News Guard (Lincoln City)

Surfer Tony Perez poses with a the surfboard he was riding when a shark attacked him. You can see teeth marks from the shark's bite.

Perez was out surfing with friends on Halloween. They had been in the waters near the mouth of the Siletz River four about two and a-half hours when it happened.

"I felt a violent blast on the back of the board," said Perez. Lucky for him, he was lying flat on his board with his legs bent and feet up in the air when the shark struck.

It pulled me back and down, but my head didn't go under water. My feet came down on top of it, and I felt this huge rock-hard body, just this big old beast below me."

He quickly swam back to shore, and originally thought a seal had attacked him, but found 2-inch teeth marks on his borrowed surfboard.

According to local surfers, shark activity has been on the rise at popular surf spots along the Oregon coast.

I just got lucky," Perez said. "I happened to have my legs up, and that's it. Otherwise I would have been a pirate for Halloween."