Great White Shark Attack At Manhattan Beach Left Swimmer With ‘Freddy Krueger Scars’

A great white shark attack at Manhattan Beach Pier has distance swimmer Steve Robles feeling nervous, even after four months after the incident. The “Freddy Krueger scars” that run alongside his right side are a constant reminder of what may lurk beneath the waves and he feels a constant jitter at the idea of swimming.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, the threat of a great white shark attack did not scare one Australian man who was dared to go “surfing” on a floating whale carcass. The whole incident was caught on video from multiple angles and now he’s internationally known as someone who his own mother calls an “idiot.”

Just the other day a great white shark was spotted near Manhattan Beach. Sightings like these have 50-year-old Robles feeling a little nervous since his own shark attack left him struggling for his life with the help of friends. Although doctors were able to piece him back together, it’s hard to imagine going back to long distance swimming.

“Before the incident, it was a very enjoyable activity,” says Robles. “You’d be getting a good workout and paying attention to the ocean conditions. I’m really not sure what I want to do now.”

On Saturday mornings he meets up with a swim club to go on a two-mile swim without the benefit of wet suits or swimming fins. But ever since the great white shark attack, Robles admits, “it is scary going out there.”

In the case of Robles, the great white shark attack occurred shortly after a fisherman had managed to hook the shark from the Manhattan Beach Pier. The distressed shark lashed out at Robles as he swam past.

But Christopher G. Lowe, marine biology professor at Long Beach State and director of the school’s shark lab, notes that great white shark populations have been growing rapidly in the area during the past 15 years and claims that the “incident that happened with Steve should be a wake-up call.” At the same time, Lowe says the shark attack could have easily been caused by a different type of animal based upon the circumstances.

“We classify shark attacks as provoked and unprovoked,” said Lowe. “If you [mess with] with a shark, it’s going to bite you… but any large animal would. In that same situation, a sea lion would’ve done exactly what that shark did.”

In the end, Steve Robles says he won’t let the great white shark attack hold him back.

“The payoff is absolutely the satisfaction of doing what you put your mind to doing,” Robles told the Los Angeles Times. “To push forward to see how mentally strong you are. The self-satisfaction of that is like nothing else. You know, the rest of my life I’ll be Steve Robles, the guy who swam Catalina.”