A spearfisherman had a surprise reaction to being attacked by a bull shark. It turns out that you can almost kill him, but nothing can take away his smile.
Chance Armand, a Florida-based spearfisherman, was attacked by an 8-foot bull shark off Pensacola Pass on August 2. Speaking with WALA, he said the shark swam straight towards him. The spearfisherman never stood a chance.
"By the time I acknowledged he wasn't gonna turn around, it was too late," he told WALA. "I didn't really have time to react otherwise, besides put my knee between myself and the shark, and thankfully, once he got a bite of my knee and realized that's not what he was after, he turned around and swam back down."
Spearfisherman Talks Attack
"We were able to fashion a make-shift tourniquet out of a T-shirt, a speargun band and a fillet knife," he recalled.
Despite surviving a shark attack and bleeding everywhere, the spearfisherman posed for a photo and was all smiles. He even stuck his tongue out for the photo. He ended up being hospitalized at Baptist Hospital in Pensacola. Armand was still smiling in the hospital
"By the grace of God, there was no tendon damage, no bone damage, no artery damage — it's just one giant, gnarly flesh wound," he told WALA. He doesn't plan to let the incident stop him from getting in the water. He'll just be better prepared in case he is attacked again.
"I love seeing sharks, I've always been the kid since I was young watching Shark Week, geeking out about it, and telling everybody, 'I want to be a marine biologist,' " he said. He said he'll include a tourniquet and first aid kit on his boat moving forward.
