VIRGINIA BEACH – Caleb Kauchak was next to his surfboard in the water off Sandbridge Friday afternoon. The 18-year-old and his friend, Tyler Christopher, were waiting for a wave. Before they could catch that, they caught the attention of a shark."I've broken my wrist, and I've broken all my fingers and toes four or five times," says Kauchak. "This was, by far, the worst pain I've ever felt in my life."
The shark bit the Tallwood High School graduate twice in his left leg, grabbing Kauchak around the ankle, then the knee. Just before that, it had gotten its teeth into Christopher's board shorts.
"I felt something bump my leg, and I wasn't sure what it was at first, so I didn't move," Christopher tells 13News. "Then, it came back for a second shot, and I just swung down and hit it."
"When he grabbed my knee, I thought, 'Well, maybe if my board -- hopefully, I can get out of this, because, if not, I'm going right back under," says Kauchak who hopped on his surfboard. "I didn't turn around to look. I just went straight for the shore. That's the first thing I did."
Christopher was with him. The two got back to land where a friend of theirs was waiting.
"I stayed there and held pressure on his knee until the firefighters go there, 'cause I'm actually going to school for stuff like this, so it was kind of interesting. It kind of helped me out, learned some stuff at the same time," Christopher says. "Didn't really do anything else but hold there, because that was all I knew to do. That's all they taught us so far."
Paramedics arrived just after getting the call about the attack, which came at about 4:00 p.m. They took Kauchak to Sentara Virginia Beach General Hospital.
"We've had no shark sightings or any problems with sharks or anything all this season," Chief Bruce Nedelka with Virginia Beach Department of Emergency Medical Services explains. "This is very unique, very rare for us."
