Photo: Rodrigo Friscione / Image Source / Getty Images
Darren Kaye, a surfer from Florida, experienced an unusual encounter with a spinner shark while surfing at New Smyrna Beach. The incident, captured on video, shows the shark leaping out of the water and colliding with Kaye, knocking him off his surfboard. New Smyrna Beach is known as the "shark bite capital of the world," but encounters typically involve smaller interactions with black tip and bull sharks.
Kaye was taken by surprise when the spinner shark, known for its spinning leaps while feeding, hit him in the head. "I was just really happy its mouth wasn’t open," Kaye said in an interview WFTV. Despite the shock, Kaye quickly got back on his board, his heart racing at 195 beats per minute, and paddled away from the area.
The impact, which Kaye compared to being hit by a car, left him uninjured but shaken. Spinner sharks, while not typically aggressive towards humans, can reach heights of up to 20 feet when leaping out of the water. The incident did not deter Kaye from continuing to surf at New Smyrna Beach. "We surfed there the rest of the weekend," he said.
A video of the incident was shared on Instagram, which you can watch below: