‘Giant teeth coming right at us.’ Shark shreds kayak from under father, son in Hawaii

Daniel Sullivan and his 15-year-old son, Tristan, had just paddled over to observe a whale calf Tuesday off the coast of Maui when a shark attacked their kayak, the father wrote on Instagram.

“When its mouth rose up and bit into the kayak, it was like a scene out of a movie,” Daniel told Hawaii News Now. “The water streaming off of it, these giant teeth coming right at us, and then the way it just pushed the entire boat up halfway and pulled us back down into the water.”

The shark attacked their kayak just before 2 p.m. in the 1000 Peaks area, the Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources reported on Facebook.

The attack flipped the craft, spilling Daniel and Tristan into the ocean, the department reported.

“I was like, we’re going to die,” Tristan told Hawaii News Now. “All of a sudden it just came out of nowhere and just flipped us with a lot of force.”

The father and son righted the kayak and climbed back in for protection from the shark, Daniel wrote on Instagram. But it wasn’t going to last.

“The kayak was sinking,” Daniel wrote. “It was now at water level. We (laid) on the kayak as it slowly sank. We knew we would have to make a decision to leave the kayak.”

They grabbed Daniel’s camera equipment and began swimming, he wrote.

“My dad hit the shark with his paddle so I’m pretty sure that scared it away long enough for us to get away,” Tristan Sullivan said, according to Hawaii News Now.

“Behind us we could hear the shark hitting the kayak over and over again,” Daniel wrote on Instagram. “The swim (to shore) took us 35 minutes.”

“I feared so much for (my) son,” Daniel wrote. “I’m alive and I’m not sure how or why, but grateful for my son’s life and mine.”

Officials believe they were attacked by a 10-foot tiger shark, the Department of Land and Natural Resources said. Shark warning signs have been posted on beaches one mile to either side of the attack.

Authorities recovered the kayak for further study, Hawaii News Now reported.

This story was originally published February 3, 2021 at 9:58 AM with the headline "‘Giant teeth coming right at us.’ Shark shreds kayak from under father, son in Hawaii."