Surfer tells of standing on shark off US coast

Doug Niblack was trying to catch another wave before going to work, when his longboard hit something hard as rock off the Oregon Coast and he suddenly found himself standing on the back of a thrashing great white shark.    

"It was pretty terrifying just seeing the shape emerge out of nothing and just being under me," he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "And the fin coming out of the water. It was just like the movies."    

The several seconds Niblack spent on the back of the great white Monday off Seaside, Oregon, was a rare encounter, though not unprecedented, according to Ralph Collier, president of the Shark Research Committee in Canoga Park, Calif., and director of the Global Shark Attack File in Princeton, New Jersey.     

Jake Marks, the Coast Guard member, said he never saw the shark, but witnessed Niblack suddenly standing up, with water churning around him. He said he joined Niblack in paddling as fast as he could for shore after seeing a large shape swimming off between them just beneath the surface.   

"I have no reason to doubt there was a shark out there," said Marks. "With the damage to his board, the way he was yelling and trembling afterwards there is no other explanation for that."            

Niblack figures he was standing on the shark no more than three or four seconds, when the shark went out from beneath him. The dorsal fin caught his board, dragged him three or four feet (a meter) by his ankle tether.     

"I'll definitely go back out," he said. "It's just the surf sucks right now. I'll wait 'til that gets better, then go back out."