Southern California

Manhattan Beach Shark Bite Survivor Swims in Ocean Again

Steve Robles swam from Hermosa Pier to Manhattan Beach and back, his assistant said

A swimmer who survived a shark bite off a Southern California beach last month returned to the water Saturday for his first swim after the incident.

Fifty-year-old Lomita resident Steve Robles swam from Hermosa Pier to Manhattan Beach and back in a 55-minute trip, according to Robles' assistant.

The last time Robles was swimming was the morning of July 5 near Manhattan Beach Pier, where a seven-foot white shark caught on a fishing line bit him under his arm.

"You could feel the whole body shaking with the shark, the whole thing trying to gnaw in at me," the long-distance swimmer told NBC4 in July.

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Glenda Robles

Robles managed to pry the shark off his body before he was rescued by a paddleboarder and taken to the hospital.

He sustained chest lacerations and a broken artery in his thumb and spent eight hours in the emergency room.

Lifeguards said it was the first time over 100 years that someone had been bitten by a shark in LA County.

Robles said in July he planned to return to the ocean, but during the shark bite he thought he was going to die.

"For just a second I thought this was it," he said.

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