LAKE WORTH, Fla. — A paddleboarder was almost to the halfway point of her relay race from the Bahamas to Florida when something bumped her board and a fin popped out of the water.
Malea Tribble never saw the shark that Sunday until she was back with her crew and husband on her support boat where she watched a video of the close encounter.
Tribble and her husband were out on the water participating in the Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis competition event from Bimini, Bahamas to Lake Worth, Florida when the encounter happened. They had been taking turns on the board every 30 minutes.
Tribble said she was maybe 5 to 10 minutes into her turn before she felt the shark.
"I felt a bump on my board, but I really didn't think anything of it. I thought I had ran over something. Seaweed. That sometimes gets caught in your fin." Tribble told 10 Tampa Bay. " I continued going."
But Tribble said she saw her husband's face and knew something was wrong.
"My husband looked right at me ... and his face just dropped. And the moment his face dropped and I saw him touch the captain and say 'Put the engine in neutral, don't say a word,' I knew. I looked right at him and said 'Shark?' He said yes."
Tribble said she was guided back to her support boat by her husband and was able to safely get back on board. But said she never actually saw the shark.
"I knew something was behind me. The crazy part is that I never, I didn't see it. So, that's probably a good thing," she said.
Tribble said that she regrouped and they decided to continue the race once the shark left. She said this encounter didn't deter her.
She plans to join the race again next year, because of its mission.