A Saturday afternoon shark attack at San Mateo County’s Montara State Beach has left a surfboard ruined, but the surfer himself was able to avoid getting bitten, and the beach was closed off for the remainder of the weekend.

Albany resident and surfing enthusiast Jens Heller took his family to two Pacifica beaches Saturday, but left both quickly, because the conditions weren’t good for surfing. So he continued driving southward to Montara State Beach, a decision that nearly proved quite fateful. Because as the Chronicle reports, Heller had only been in the water for about 10 to 15 minutes, and was a mere 100 yards from the shore, when a shark attacked his surfboard and left several chomp marks on it.

“I was sitting on the board, actually, and I felt something under my foot,” Heller said in a video interview on the scene. “It kicked me off the board. I looked back and just saw this big-mouth just grabbing onto my board.”

“It kicked me completely off the board,” he continued. “I just remember being in the water looking back, seeing this black eye and the teeth of the shark. Then I just tried to grab my board as fast as possible and come back in. There were two other guys out that were close by that also pedaled back in, and one of them said it was about a ten-foot shark.”

You can see some of the photos of the collateral damage, and fortunately, only the surfboard took any of that damage. “I kind of panicked, obviously,” Heller added to the Chronicle. “I thought, ‘That’s it. I will not get away from this.’”

California state parks officials confirmed to KGO that they were closing the park for 48 hours after the incident was reported.

"At approximately 2 pm today, State Park lifeguards and peace officers responded to a non-injury shark incident that occurred approximately 100 yards offshore at Montara State Beach in San Mateo County,” park officials said in a statement to KGO. “A surfboard sustained damage consistent with that of a shark bite. Lifeguards immediately cleared the water and posted the beach with shark closure signage, effective for 48 hours from the time of the incident. California State Parks would like to remind visitors that sharks are an important part of the coastal ecosystem and that interactions between humans and sharks are rare."

KGO adds that the surfboard is beyond repair, and Heller plans to hang it on his wall as a memento.

According to KPIX, Montara State Beach was expected to reopen at 2 pm Monday.

Related: Humboldt Surfer Attacked By Shark, Survives After Kicking the Fish In the Head [SFist]

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