'Fake Leg', Real Courage
The Kauai teen who lost
By Trish Moore
his foot to a shark still has
everything he needs
Star-BulletinLIHUE -- "So you got one fake leg?" asked a fifth-grade boy at the back of the classroom at Kapaa Elementary School.
Mike Coots, who had only just graduated from high school with dreams of a professional bodyboarding career when a tiger shark bit off his right foot last year, smiled as he lifted his leg to show the class:
"Yeah, it's a fake leg," he said matter-of-factly.
Coots' reply was typical of how the 19-year-old has taken in stride what others might consider a tragedy.After satisfying the curiosity of the fifth-graders, Coots wanted to give them the message that they should be happy with what they have.
"Even if you're living in a bad house, and it leaks, and you see someone who has it better, just be thankful and be nice to your parents," he said.
One year ago today, Coots was bodyboarding at Majors Bay on Kauai's west side when a shark with a head two feet wide came up out of the deep, grabbed his right leg and chewed it off at midcalf.After fighting off the shark Coots managed to paddle back out to catch an incoming wave to shore.
Those who were with him during and after the attack were blown away by his calm presence and unfazed attitude. In the emergency room, he was apologizing to the staff for getting sand all over.
Even today, sporting a prosthetic leg that is often painful, Coots doesn't see himself a victim -- just a guy caught in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"I was disturbing its (the shark's) feeding grounds," he says. "We were out on the first big swell after a rain, and a little stream carrying dead fish was coming into the salt water. I think I was in the middle of a feeding frenzy."It took several months to get used to the prosthetic, which he says felt robotic at first. He still experiences phantom pain, a tingling where his foot used to be.
He will likely have to go back for surgery to rebury a nerve in his stump that gets irritated by the prosthetic.
His friends and family say the accident hasn't changed him much."I've seen him just totally be a Christian example; he's totally thankful for being alive," says close friend and professional body boarder Kyle Maligro. "He's still a classic. If you get to know him, he's open and super friendly. He's a real comedian."
"I think he's stronger mentally than he was, more confident than before," says his sister Nicole.
Coots finds that being short a leg hasn't hampered his bodyboarding -- or much else in his life. If anything he's become more serious and focused.
"I really think about what I'm doing more, rather than just going through the motions," he says.The same applies to his life as a Christian.
"I used to go through the motions of being a Christian, too. But I think God is the reason for me doing things. And He's the reason I haven't got depressed about it," he says.
The last year has been hectic for Coots.
He continues to pursue his goal of breaking into the professional bodyboarding ranks. In early September, he finished fourth in the pro division of the Hawaii Amateur Bodyboarding Association contest on Kauai.
He's published several still photos -- including a cover shot -- in bodyboarding magazines, taken out a loan to buy a video camera and enrolled in two video production classes at Hawaii Pacific University. This week he starts an editing internship at Channel 9.Coots first went back in the water Jan. 1, about 200 yards from where he was attacked. He says he didn't think about the shark then, but "sometimes, when there's nobody else out there with me, it crosses my mind. It's just something you have to deal with, I guess."
