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Every day, Cole Taschman heads out to Bathtub Beach in Stuart, Florida.
The quiet reef on the Atlantic Coast got its name from the “bathtub effect” which breaks up waves, creates a shallow pool at low tide and reduces erosion. For Cole and the Taschman family, who consider the beach their backyard, it is known for something else.
It’s where Cole got the scar on his right hand when he was 16, courtesy of a blacktip reef shark, in an area known as the “shark pit.”
The encounter never slowed down the avid surfer. A month after the incident, he was back on the same beach.
“If there’s waves, I’m surfing. I don’t care what responsibility I have,” he said. “I don’t know, it’s like, something calls you.”
Back to the shark pit
A dozen years later, on October 25, Cole and his friends Hunter Roland and Zach Bucolo went to the beach in memory of a friend who had recently lost his life.
The three men said a prayer for their friend before Cole paddled further into the water, where sharks were notorious for lurking.
“I kind of paddled down into the shark pit and had a moment, and I was just sitting there,” he said.
His now-fiancee Ana Peci began recording video from the beach house of the sentimental scene, showing him far from the shore, away from his friends.
Suddenly, Cole felt his feet in the mouth of what he believed to be either a bull or tiger shark between seven and eight feet long.
“I got bit!” he is heard saying in the video. “I need to get out of the water!”
“I was just freaking out,” Peci said. “But I grabbed a towel and ran downstairs right away, because I had no idea what to expect or where he was bit … and then I saw what condition he was in.”
Peci recalled seeing a lot of blood. After he paddled himself back to shore and limped toward his friends, the group used the leashes of Cole’s surfboard to create a tourniquet around his thighs to stop the bleeding.
Not wanting to wait for 911, they decided to drive him to the nearest hospital.
“Even waiting five more minutes, (Bucolo) was like, it’s not worth it,” Peci said.
The frantic drive took less than 10 minutes, with Cole going in and out of consciousness. The surfer was repeatedly doused in water and lightly slapped in an effort to keep him awake.
“I saw just complete whiteness,” Cole recalled. “I could just see the sides of the road, and I was like, I’m passing out … I’m losing it. I can’t stay awake.”
“You’re good, stay with us,” he remembered Peci saying.
After repeated breathing exercises and slaps to the face, the group made it to Cleveland Clinic Martin North Hospital in Stuart, and then transferred to St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach.
Dr. Robert Borrego, a shark researcher, and Dr. Ibrahim Jabbour at St. Mary’s Medical Center treated Cole. He underwent two surgeries and received 93 stitches.
He suffered from severed tendons, bites to his foot tissue and muscle, and lost almost all the skin of his feet. Borrego told him recovery could take approximately six months, in addition to physical therapy, before he is able to surf again.
Borrego is known around the world for his research on sharks and his treatment of shark attack victims. He said Cole was his first patient to be bitten twice, but the first bite was nothing like the last.
“It’s the difference between a high school athlete and (an) Olympic athlete,” Cole said. “That’s the difference (from) 12 stitches to 93 stitches and 10 staples and almost losing a foot. It’s like night and day. But (it) doesn’t faze me. I’m going to be back out there.”
Cole believes the severity of the injury was less serious due to the guardian angel he had watching over him, his deceased friend who brought him out there in the first place.
“I didn’t lose any of my toes or anything, so he was looking over me,” Cole said. “But he was like, hey, dumb a**, like, don’t go surf in that area anymore.”
His mother described her feelings in one word: “mortified.” And if she had a say, he would never surf there again. But Cole said he can’t wait for the next time.
A notoriously dangerous backyard
The waters of Bathtub Beach have always been home for Cole, a fishing captain and competitive surfer.
He grew up watching surfers tread the shark-infested waters right outside his window, and one day, he decided to join them.
“Somehow I got meshed into that community and started surfing inside the reef, and eventually grew up to go outside the reef, and then competitively surfed,” he said. “And now I’ve traveled the world.”
Shark bites are nothing out of the ordinary for surfers in the area, or for his friends who surf the same reef.
“Every one of the boys has been bit,” Cole explained. “I could rattle off 20 guys right now that I’ve surfed with my whole life that have been bit, because it’s so dangerous.”
He emphasized they are “seasoned watermen” and does not recommend the location for those just starting out.
“If you’re a novice, we don’t want you there,” he said. “You’re gonna put yourself in danger.”
Cole’s advice to surfers who would prefer to forgo shark incidents is simple: “Surf beaches. Don’t surf reefs.”
A passion for the fearless and loved
Cole considers surfers to be people who care more about the euphoria of the sport than the risks it may come with.
“I wouldn’t care if I got my arm ripped off. You’re not getting me out of the water,” he said, then quickly apologized to his mom in the room.
“Sorry, mom. Chill out,” he laughed. “I’m not gonna … Everything’s fine.”
According to the Florida Museum, surfers and those participating in board sports accounted for 42% of shark attack incidents in 2023.
Cole’s chances of being bitten also increased by simply being in the state responsible for almost a quarter of unprovoked shark bites worldwide, according to the museum’s International Shark Attack File.
He looks up to surf icons like Bethany Hamilton, who, despite a shark attack resulting in the loss of her left arm in 2003, still surfs to this day.
“I don’t think you can find a surfer that’s ever been bit, that it’s ever stopped them,” Cole said. “I mean, you can look at Bethany Hamilton, and she had her arm bit off. She’s still one of the top girls in the world, (an) inspiration to women’s athletes across the world.”
Three days after the incident, Peci created a GoFundMe for Cole’s medical expenses. The page has since collected more than $8,000.
Ohana Surf Shop, where Cole is a member of the surf team, began a raffle fundraiser offering a new Thrash Craft Surfboard, a fishing trip with OH Boy Charters and another surfboard, with all proceeds going directly to his care.
“We have known Cole since he was 10 years old. We have watched him grow into a hardworking and respectable adult,” Jordan Schwartz, owner of Ohana Surf Shop, said in a statement to CNN. “He is always helping out with any fundraisers or community events with the shop, so we are happy to give back.”
Cole said it is nothing new for the community.
“It’s family. It’s Ohana, you know? Ohana means family,” he added. “No one gets left behind. It’s a beautiful thing.”
