This story is from Monty in this thread:
It was 1985 at the Daytona beach triathlon. I was off the front in the swim by about 150 yds., and I kept getting hit on the feet by the swimmer behind me. I finally stopped to yell at the person, and no one was there. About 5 seconds later I got hit in the back with a heavy blow. I then realized that a shark was hitting me. My life did’nt flash before my eyes, but the fear of dying in the mouth of a shark petrefied me. I was still 500 yds from shore, and there was no lead boat or kayak. The shark came in for another attack, and I put my hands in front of me and got ready to punch it on the nose, and maybe gouge an eye if it took hold of me. At the last second it did a u-turn right in front of me, and that’s when I knew what I had to do. I turned around and swam back into the main pack behind me. I figured that I would at least give this sucker a choice. There were about 4 or 5 swimmers in that group and I tucked right in the middle. They were wondering what the hell I was doing. They soon found out. Mike Garcia was the next to get hit, and then Wendy Ingrahm. As we were running up the beach Mike looked at me with eyes as big as silver dollars and screamed at me that he just got attacked by a hammerhead. I said, I know, why do you think I was swimming backwards. It was very scary, and kind of weird running towards the bikes. I had just escaped with my life, and all thought of the race had left my mind. I know Mike was feeling the same way, but soon we just got on the bikes and started riding. Later we were to find out that a fisherman had shot a 8 foot hammmerhead 2 days before the race in that exact area. The shark was just being territorial, as hammerheads are. Good for us it was’nt dinner time…True story