Courtesy Bess Press
Star-Bulletin artist Kevin Hand's drawing illustrates
Rod Orr's encounter with a great white shark.

Greg Ambrose has done it again. He has written another book that wonderfully reflects his greatest passion (other than his family), the ocean.

Readers of the Star-Bulletin already know that Greg is perhaps Hawaii's foremost surfing reporter. His knowledge is vast, he knows all the top surfers and all the best spots, he's an excellent surfer and his writing is outstanding.

Greg's previous book, which he co-wrote with Sandra Kimberley Hall, was about the great surfing pioneer and Olympian waterman Duke Kahanamoku. His first book was a guide to surf spots of Hawaii. His newest book is about the many sharks that frequently join surfers at those spots.

But more than a book about sharks, Greg's new "Shark Bites" is a look at more than a dozen fascinating and extremely lucky individuals who survived shark attacks both here and throughout the Pacific, vividly depicted by the Star-Bulletin's Kevin Hand and Bryant Fukutomi, who provided maps and illustrations.

It's pretty scary stuff.

Like the October 1985 attack near Hanalei Bay, Kauai, in which Joe Thomson lost his right hand to a tiger shark.

"One second he was happily anticipating another good ride, and in less than the blink of an eye, his hand had disappeared down the tooth-lined maw of Hawai'i's most deadly ocean predator."

Thomson somehow made it to shore; his life changed forever.

Then there was the March 1993 attack by a huge tiger shark on surfer Roddy Lewis near a Maui spot named, ironically, Paradise.

"Roddy felt something tear through the meat of his right calf and hit the leg bone. He bellowed in fear and pain, and looked over his should to see what in the hell had hit him. . . . The tiger had ambushed him from below, and with an unbearably painful hold on his leg, it was trying to pull Roddy underwater."

Incredibly, Roddy escaped, leg and all, and made it to shore, where later he needed five surgeries, more than 200 staples, and numerous internal sutures to repair the gaping cuts to his right and left legs.

One more story: Jonathan Mozo was paddling back out for another wave at Goat's off Oahu's Malaekahana State Park early one morning in June 1993 when suddenly he felt "a piercing pain and crushing pressure on his feet."

The surfer, Greg writes, "looked back and almost passed out in terror. A huge shark had clamped down on his feet, and as Jonathan watched in horror, clutching his surfboard with all his might, the shark opened its mouth and swam forward to bite again."

Yow!

The good news is Jonathan managed to escape and, with the help of friends, made it to Kahuku Hospital without bleeding to death. It took 30 stitches in each foot to close the wounds and repair a sliced tendon in his right foot.

Beyond the physical injuries, Ambrose explores the psychological damage the attacks imposed on their victims. How did Joe Thomson adapt to losing a hand? Does Roddy Lewis still surf at Paradise? Does he still surf at all? Did Jonathan Mozo or any of the others suffer nightmares?

Not surprisingly, coming from Greg, these horrifying tales yield inspirational lessons, intended to reinforce our love and respect for the ocean and its creatures.

And you can tell that Greg has deep respect for sharks. Not that he likes to hang out with them, but he does describe them as "splendid models of evolutionary efficiency, superbly suited for a life of active predation."

He also worries that "the slaughter of the ocean's apex predator could throw the underwater ecosystem out of balance," so naturally he's against the mindless elimination of sharks just to appease fearful humans.

In fact, he adds, "the fear of sharks is much greater than the actual danger of being attacked."

Even so, I'll be scanning the waters around me as I sit on my surfboard waiting for my next wave.

Especially after reading "Shark Bites."