Kawika Matsu had been paddleboarding off remote Ascension Island when he was attacked by not one, but two great white sharks. Now, five years later, his is story of survival.
Matsu, a Hawaiian who was 37 at the time, went to English Beach July 27, 2017, to enjoy the day. The beach had a swim platform and a Royal Air Force inflatable boat buoyed in the bay. Ascension is part of the British overseas territory of St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean.
The avid waterman went for a swim and then, a little after 5 p.m., he hopped on his inflatable 14.1-foot paddle board and paddled out.
He was about 30 yards off the beach in roughly 35-foot deep water when he was startled and thrown high into the air.
“It wasn’t like, oh, I slipped, and fell in real quick. I remember looking down and being like, whoa, “It wasn’t like, oh, I slipped, and fell in real quick. I remember looking down and, whoa, I was in the air, sh*t,” Matsu told Tracking Sharks in 2017.
The Hawaii native was thrown so high he had time to turn around and look at the water.
“I remember turning kind of a little bit and looking and seeing it (the shark) next to the board.”
Realizing there was no way to land on the board, he comically recalls thinking that he might get lucky and the shark wouldn’t bite him. As he was falling, his instincts kicked in and he tucked his arms around and in front of himself as he landed in the water.
“As soon as I hit the water. It latched onto my arm, and I remember looking, whoa! And it didn’t really fight at first.”
He said the shark just bit his arm as he made the decision not to pull his arm from its mouth. Then the shark relaxed its bite and reset its grip onto his shoulder before shaking him like a dog with a toy.
As the shark bit down deeper, Matsu looked to see the shark’s mouth curling as it drug him under the water.
The shark was taking him deeper into the water to a point where Matsu needed to pop his ears and he realized he was going to have to fight. When he hit the shark on the nose, it let him go
Matsu did a quick breaststroke to head to the surface, but had been pulled down so deep, it took a second stroke to reach air.
Once he was above the water, he looked to see his board floating away and started swimming toward it. As he was crawling his way through the water, he realized he was not going to make it.
“And then right after I thought that, not even two or three seconds, that’s when, I’m pretty sure there was a bigger one. Especially when you look at the wound, like got me right on the hip, my whole right thigh and then I was halfway to the board and I was (thinking), dude, you might actually make it to the board. Right after, not even two or three seconds, that’s when I’m pretty sure there was a bigger one (shark). Especially when you look at the wound, it got me right on the hip from my thigh, my whole right buttocks all way, basically, to my anus muscle. It missed my anus muscle by a millimeter.”
The second shark struck with enough velocity to pull Matsu’s upper body out of the water as it drug him away from the board. Thinking his life was over, Matsu said he broke down and wept for a few seconds until anger took over.
“I was like, dude, you’re gonna die. Like this is it. “I was (telling myself), dude, you’re gonna die. Like this is it. F*ck that, I’m gonna fight. And I was just hitting this f*cking thing in its nose for real, and I (kept) f*cking hitting it.”
After downward swatting the shark multiple times, it let go and Matsu swam to his board. Thankfully, he was able to pull himself up, but realized his paddle was floating 12 feet away. With his knees on the board, he stuck his arms in the water to pull himself toward the paddle.
The force of the stroke caused blood to shoot from his wounds. Thinking quickly, he used his broken surf leash as a makeshift tourniquet and decided to wait for help. When he made eye contact with a woman on the beach, he knew she would call for help.
He laid down on the board and bit onto the leash to make it tighter and then looked over to see shark fins approaching.
“I just closed my eyes because they kept bumping the board, and f*ck, I don’t want to see this because I’m going to get eaten alive.”
About five minutes later, sharks hit the board again with enough force to lift it out of the water. Luckily, he was able to hold onto the board even after being hit hard again.
Matsu looked up a few times as he began to drift offshore. He knew his rescuers would need to lower a boat in the water before he could be reached. While he was waiting, he tried to control his breathing which was becoming shallower.
“I started having the mirage effect where you are in the desert, and you think you see water, but there isn’t any. I started to hear the boat. I was like, oh, and there is no boat, but by the third time my breathing started to get really heavy.”
As his breathing grew more labored, he believes he was near death but then he heard a friend’s voice.
At first, he thought he might be dead. But one of the rescuers, John, reached down and grabbed Matsu’s arm.
“I broke down at that point and started crying.”
He told them, “they tried to f*cking eat me, bro. But I wouldn’t let them, I fought. I told him, you know, John, I’m not gonna make it though. I told him I lost so much blood, I do not think I’m gonna make it. At least I’m not gonna die alone. I told him I going to die with you guys, if you don’t mind.”
John told him he couldn’t die, but he was going to have to let him go so they could move the boat to pick him up. Once he was on board, Matsu again asked for permission to die, but his friends would not hear of it.
“My other friend was like, you can’t die here, bro. I can’t live with myself if you die. He said if you’re gonna die, you have to die with the doctors onshore. You can’t die on our boat. Don’t die with us. I’m not going to be able to live with myself. Don’t do this.”
I said, “Okay I won’t die on the boat.”
Matsu’s friends assured him people (on the island) were already donating blood as they zoomed to shore. Once they arrived at the beach where an ambulance was waiting a doctor sedated Matsu.
He was treated on the island, and although doctors debated amputating his right arm, but the severely injured shark-fighter said no. As long as he could move his fingers, he was fighting for his arm..
Eventually Matsu was flown to the United States and, finally, made it back to Hawaii.
He was treated on the island where doctors debated amputating his right arm, but the shark fighter said no. As long as he could move his fingers, he was fighting for his arm.
Eventually he was flown back to the United States and then finally made it back to Hawaii.
While he has some large scars, the shark attack has not kept him out of the water. He is still fishing, swimming and paddleboarding whenever he gets the chance.
