A South Carolina man was hospitalized after he was bit in the face by a shark during a surfing session in Florida. According to FOX 35 Orlando, the attack happened around 8 a.m. Tuesday (September 12) at an inlet on New Smyrna Beach -- the second attack within 24 hours in the region.
Volusia County Beach Safety officials confirmed the 38-year-old victim jumped off a surf when a shark bit him on the right side of his face above the cheek. The surfer was rushed to Halifax Health with non-life-threatening injuries and has since been released, the news station learned.
Then, there was an incident Monday afternoon in Satellite Beach, where another surfer decided to do another set as a pod of sharks came in.
"When I came up from the wave is when the shark kind of hit a glancing blow to my lower right back, and I knew I'd been hit," Bill Eveland, the surfer, told FOX 35. "I glanced to the right and I could see the back end of the shark coming off, like where my board [was] and enter back into the water."
After the vicious bite, Eveland waited patiently on his board before traveling back to shore. He ended up getting 25 stitches to close up his gnarly wound.
"I pushed my luck a little bit too far," Eveland said. "Chalk it up to a learning experience and a cool story."
Tuesday's incident marks the seventh attack at New Smyrna Beach this year. Two people were bitten by sharks over Labor Day weekend, including a 37-year-old woman who was wading in waist-deep water in Ponce Inlet. She claims she didn't see the shark when it chomped down on her fight. The second holiday victim, a man in his 30s, was in the inlet's jetty when a shark bit his hand.
New Smyrna Beach is a hot spot when it comes to shark bites, with seven attacks in 2022 and 16 attacks the year prior, according to the International Shark Attack File. Researchers have even dubbed Volusia County the "shark bite capital of the world."