Frightening Encounter at Sea: Shark Knocks Florida Man off Paddleboard
— -- It was probably not the thrill Maximo Trinidad was seeking when he took to the Florida waters off the Jupiter coast with a paddleboard on Thursday afternoon.
The longtime surfer turned paddleboarder was in for a rude awakening when he said he spotted a spinner shark moving toward him, and in the blink of an eye everything spun out of control.
It was all caught on a GoPro camera attached to the paddleboard.
Trinidad was knocked off his board as he collided with the fast-moving creature.
"I was shocked," his wife, Theresa, who was not there, told ABC News. "When I saw the video, I was like, 'Holy cow!'"
Trinidad told ABC News he jumped right back on his board. He suffered no injuries.
"It was awesome," Trinidad laughed. "I was not even scared."
The spinner shark is known to "spin around several times before dropping back into the sea," according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
That's something Trinidad said he has seen over and over again, but he has never had an encounter like the one captured on camera.
The commission reports that Florida's diverse shark population does not "see humans as a food source. Experts believe that most shark attacks are cases of mistaken identity, which explains why nearly all shark attacks that occur in Florida waters are of a bite-and-release nature."
There were 59 shark attacks in the United States in 2015, 30 of them in Florida alone, according to a report by the International Shark Attack File. Only one attack in the U.S. was fatal.
Trinidad said he doesn't plan on putting away his paddleboard anytime soon.
"Nothing's gonna ever stop that man from going into the water," his wife said.
