Whatever
Happened...
Bodyboarder injured Question: What ever happened to Michael Coots, the bodyboarder who lost his right foot to a shark attack on Kauai several years ago?
by shark returns
to the water
by Lisa Asato.
lasato@starbulletin.comAnswer: Now 22, the Hanapepe resident said he harbors no fears about hitting the waves. He bodyboards four or five times a week, and "if the waves are flat, spearfishing," he said.
"It's just so much fun. It's just something I grew up with," said Coots, a champion bodyboarder. "I can't imagine myself not being in the water all the time."
In 1997, Coots had recently graduated from Kapaa High School and was training with the Kauai Classic Pro-Am Christian bodyboarding team at Majors Bay when a tiger shark chewed off his right leg at midcalf.
He's used a plastic prosthesis for several years. "I can't run or anything, but they have really nice ones with shocks that you can run with," he said. "Hopefully, someday I can have something like that."
Coots studies full time at Kauai Community College and flies to Honolulu on weekends to edit videos at Ohana Foundations, a worldwide educational resource.
Besides the daily grind, though, Coots recently had a touch of stardom. "I was in Chicago a week and a half ago on some talk show, 'Jenny Jones.' Have you heard about that?"
The topic of the show? Medical miracles.
"This guy had this 2-by-4 go through his stomach in an accident. It was pretty gnarly," he said. "This lady got stung by 500 bees. It was pretty nasty."
Jones even staged a surprise appearance by Coots' friend in California, Kyle Maligro, who saved Coots' life by tying a Boogieboard leash around his thigh to stem the bleeding.
It was Coots' first trip to the Windy City, he said, and he had a good time taping the show. It wasn't like the "Jerry Springer" talk show -- "all fighting and stuff."
Coots said the show is expected to air at the end of this month.
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