By Kate Jacobson
The Sun Sentinel
The waves in the Fort Pierce Inlet jetty were picking up on Saturday, so Ryan Shapiro and his friends decided to make a move on their surfboards.
The 18-year-old paddled out, but suddenly found himself alone after his friends had gone off in a different direction. He saw a ray jump out of the water a few feet from him. Not thinking anything of it, he paddled out further.
That’s when he felt it: a 4-foot shark had bitten into his right arm, tearing through it, but not ripping it off completely.
He looked down and could see the bite marks in his skin.
“I knew for sure it was a shark,” he said. “I was in complete shock.”
Shapiro, a Boca Raton resident, was attacked at about 4:30 p.m. while at the park. He was transported to the Lawnwood Regional Medical Center, where he underwent surgery later that day. While the experience has physically scarred him, three days later he said he refuses to let this attack lessen his passion for surfing and the sea.
“I don’t ever want to stop surfing because something bad happened to me,” he said. “It’s not that this won’t affect me, it’s going to make me more aware of my surroundings.”
He was at the beach that day with his surfer buddies and his little sister, Amanda Shapiro, who was taking photos of her brother with her two friends.
Amanda Shapiro, 14, said it was the first time she had brought friends to see her brother surf. Ryan Shapiro has been on a board for most of his life, he said, and for the past few years he worked as a surf instructor.
On Saturday, his sister was pointing her camera out to the jetty. Suddenly she heard screaming and calls for help — something about 911 and an ambulance — when she asked someone else on the beach what was going on.
Someone’s been bitten by a shark, he told her.
“Who?” she asked.
She saw her brother being escorted from the water by five or six other surfers. His arm was above his head and people were rushing over with T-shirts, towels and sweaters to make tourniquets. It would take 10 minutes for the ambulance to arrive, but it seemed like it took longer.
“Everything was going so slow,” Ryan Shapiro said.
Amanda Shapiro stood over her brother as he lay there on the sand shaking and bleeding. She tried to remain calm and started to pray that God would protect her brother.
“To see my brother — he surfs so much, he’s in the water almost every day,” she said. “I would never think that something like that would happen. To see him screaming in pain; it hurt to see him like that.”
Together, the siblings rode to the hospital in an ambulance. Paramedics assured Amanda that her brother would be OK. Don’t be worried, they told her. Your brother is in good hands now.
Amanda Shapiro was suddenly the one in charge of helping her brother get signed in to the hospital. She tried calling their mom, Holly Robillard, but couldn’t immediately reach her.
“When she finally called me I was checking in,” to the hospital, Amanda Shapiro said. “I had to tell her what happened, and it was hard because I didn’t want her to freak out.”
Don’t be worried, she told their mom, my brother is in good hands now.
Robillard got into her car in Boca Raton and headed north. She said he daughter described her son’s injuries as relatively minor, a stitch or two maybe.
But then, she thought, why was she making the drive? The 90 minutes from Boca Raton to Fort Pierce seemed like a long way to go for just a few stitches. In her heart she said she knew it was something much more serious.
“When you’re traveling that long, you know, things are already going through your head,” she said. “I know I’m not driving up there because he’s getting a couple of stitches.”
She thought of her son’s other surfing accidents. A couple of deep cuts here and there. Once a staple in the head after he hit it hard on his board.
Ryan Shapiro has surfed the Treasure Coast since he was 4, she said. He’d traveled all over to surf. He was experienced. She started wondering what could’ve happened, but didn’t picture it was a shark attack.
“You don’t think this is ever going to happen,” she said. “You always say, ‘What are the odds?’”
Ryan Shapiro doesn’t remember much after getting to the hospital, but the agonizing 10 minutes on the beach were crystal clear.
His pain was excruciating, he said, and all he could think about was whether he would be able to surf again.
“I didn’t think I was going to die, I was more thinking, ‘Will I ever be able to use my arm again?’” he said.
He was giving silent prayer to God, and suddenly felt a wave of relief and ease wash over him.
“I felt that. I was praying, I remember. I was bleeding and lying on the sand, and I was just praying to God that everything was going to be OK,” he said. “I knew I was going to be OK.”
On Tuesday, Ryan Shapiro found himself on the beach in Boca Raton. He knew he couldn’t stay away for long.
Instead of surfing he was sitting in a comfy chair, watching his friends surf and taking video. In six weeks his cast will come off, and soon after that he thinks he will have regained enough strength in his arms and hands.
He can’t wait to go surfing again.
“I’m not scared,” he said. “It wasn’t the shark’s fault or anything. I’m just trying to get more people to be aware of the water.”
Amanda Shapiro said she’s happy to see her older brother at home recovering, surrounded by friends and family.
“He loves the sport,” she said. “I know he’s not going to give it up for something like that. I’m not really surprised he’s going to go back in the water again.”
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©2014 the Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Fla.)