BREVARD COUNTY, Florida (WESH) -- A Brevard County teen is recovering after a shark bit his arm while he was surfing last week.
"Just out of nowhere, it got the inside of my arm and (snaps finger) just like that," Teddy Wittemann said.
'So gnarly': Florida surfer bit by shark uses leash to make tourniquet, drives to hospital
The 16-year-old was catching waves stirred up by recent storms when he fell off his board and into the water.
"And then I looked over because I felt this pressure on my arm, and I saw it along the side of my body. I knew exactly what was going on," he said.
Wittemann believes the shark was a bull shark, about 6 feet long, which left him after one bite.
He paddled back to shore, where he said friends helped stop the bleeding and called 911.
"They kind of held my arm up like this and got me off the beach. They tied a shirt around my shoulder," he said.
Despite the frightening encounter, Wittemann, who has been surfing for most of his life, says he will return to the ocean.
"Because it's what I love to do, I love surfing. I do it every day it's my passion to become a pro surfer someday," he said. "I don't want a little... well it's not a little, I mean not a little bite, but a little hiccup to throw me off."
His father, Ted Wittemann, is grateful his son will surf again.
"I just know that it's such a big part of Teddy's life," Ted Wittemann said. "It's no hesitation really, I actually encourage him to go face those fears."
Teddy Wittemann is thankful he survived and wants to encourage others going through difficult moments.
"I think it's important that people know to be there for somebody if they're going through this kind of incident because something that helped me was having friends and family around," the teen said.
“You threw my son under the bus. You didn't take care of him.”
The State of Florida and the VA are under scrutiny after the Baker Act was used incorrectly on a young veteran who went to a Florida VA hospital for help.
