A surfer did not let a shark bite – or Hurricane Milton – stop him from doing what he loves.
Charley Hajek, 62, nicknamed ‘Charley Hajek’ by locals, was on his 148th straight day of surfing on September 22 when a shark attacked him.
Hajek said he stepped off his surfboard and landed right on top of the predator.
‘As soon as I stepped on it, we both freaked out,’ he said.
‘I felt this intense pressure just clamp down on my ankle and foot, and I knew it was a shark.’
Hajek said his whole foot was in the animal’s mouth for about a second, and then it let go.
He paddled to shore, and that was when he first noticed he was bleeding.
‘As soon as I got to the beach and took that first step, the blood started squirting out,’ he said. ‘That’s when I knew it was bad.’
Hajek wrapped his board leash around his wound as a tourniquet and drove himself to a hospital, where he received 10 stiches.
Just five days later, he was back out on the waves in New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
And last weekend, he secured the furniture in his home as Milton approached and took his dogs with him to South Florida to chase the storm surge and perfect waves.
‘I just put that whole shark thing out of my mind and focused on surfing Hurricane Milton,’ he said.
Since surviving the attack, Hajek said he has seen 11 sharks in the water, but was not scared.
‘I was never afraid and I never will be because sharks are more scared of us than we are of them,’ he said. ‘But step on one, and it’s going to bite you, no question.’
His philosophy in continuing to pursue his passion?
‘You just have to respect the ocean, respect sharks, and respect hurricanes,’ he said.
‘Be prepared, not scared.’
The force of nature that did give Hajek a bit of a scare were the tornadoes that Milton triggered, including ones that formed behind a home he was staying at in Jensen Beach.
‘It was kind of scary, man,’ he admitted.
‘These huge funnels, water in the air, just touching down everywhere. It was pretty heavy.
‘When the storm passed, the waves were firing.’
Hajek is not the only man who was unafraid of Hurricane Milton, which made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Sarasota on October 9.
A one-legged man dubbed ‘Lieutenant Dan’ braved Milton in a 20-foot yacht in Tampa Bay despite evacuation orders and withstood it.
‘I have no concerns, God’s got me,’ he had said. ‘I’m gonna hunker down and do my TikTok.’
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