A group of kayakers near Point Conception, California, say they were attacked by a great white shark on Friday afternoon. As CBS Los Angeles , the kayakers were rescued after a nearby fishing boat responded to their distress calls.
Lou and Charles Christman were fishing for sea bass when they heard the mayday on their ship’s radio. Responding to the call, they came upon a kayaker clinging to the side of his badly damaged vessel.
The Christmans rescued the man and two of his friends and dropped them off at Vandenberg Air Force Base. An hour later, the Christmans responded to another plea for help from kayakers who were also part of the group but had stayed on the water.
Once again, the Christmans found a man on a damaged kayak and proceeded to rescue him and his friends.
“The shark had knocked this guy out of the water, probably eight or nine feet through the air,” Charles Christman told CBS Los Angeles. “It came out of the water, and it punched about six or eight holes in the kayak. The kayak was sinking.”
The attacks came one day after a surfer just north of nearby Wall Beach. The surfer suffered non-life-threatening injuries to his knee.
The latter incident prompted Vandenberg Air Force Base to close three Santa Barbara County beaches late last week, though the beaches were reopened on Monday, October 6.