Winter weather may be in full effect on the East Coast, but out on the West Coast it's always surfing weather. While enjoying some after-Christmas waves this past Sunday, a 50-year-old man surfing near San Luis Obispo was attacked by an 8- to 10-foot juvenile shark that ripped into his thigh and hip area. Luckily, the man, identified by eyewitnesses as Kevin Swanson, was able to reach shore by his own strength after he was dragged underwater for several seconds.

“It was really radical. I was about 10 feet from him, and it was absolutely quiet,” Andrew Walsh, who was surfing alongside Swanson just before the attack took place, told The San Luis Obispo Tribune. “(The shark) came straight up out of the depths and got him and took him under the water. That was the amazing part: this big giant side of the shark just curving up out of the water.”

Fellow surfers and beachgoers who witnessed the attack in the waters off Sand Spit Beach in Montaña de Oro State Park said Swanson seemed composed during the terrifying experience. He was treated by medics at the scene before being airlifted to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries for further treatment. After examining his surfboard, which took the brunt of the attack, local officials confirmed the shark was a young great white, which is often found in the colder waters of northern California.