March 29, 2024
Shark takes a bite leaving a surfer shaken
MORRO BAY - Elinor Dempsey is still shaken after a great white shark chomped on her surfboard while she was waiting for a wave off Morro Strand State Beach.

“I’m still in shock but doing OK,” she said while taking it easy at her Los Osos home. “It was a pretty eventful morning.”

Dempsey, 54, wasn’t injured in the attack although her red surfboard now features a large half-moon hole edged in teeth markings. She joked, “I might sell it to the highest bidder.”

State Parks and Morro Bay Harbor Patrol posted 72-hour beach closure signs from Cayucos to Morro Rock shortly after the incident.

Dempsey said she had been in the water about 35 minutes when she saw the shark approach her about 2 feet underwater.

“First I thought it was a dolphin and I thought, ‘What the hell is he doing?’ ” she said. “And he kind of landed on my board. Then I realized he had taken a chunk. And I was, like, that’s not what dolphins do.”

Dempsey estimated the shark was 7 or 8 feet long and as big around as a stout man. (Source: San Luis Obispo Tribune)
Story Date: September 4, 2015
Real-Time Traffic
NBC
AQMD AQI
Habitat for Humanity
United Way of the Inland Valleys
Pink Ribbon Thrift