Before My Shark Encounter - Soul Choice Ministries

When I share my 23 Minutes In Hell experience, I compare the fear in hell with the shark attack I had when I was 17 years old. The shark bit my leg and pulled me down under the water.

I want to share this true account, an adventure I experienced when I was 17, driving across country. It will perhaps cause some young people to really think before making some life-changing decisions. It will also give people a glimpse of who I was in my younger days and I believe there are some lessons we can learn from my disobedience.

Now even though this true account has some funny and light-hearted aspects to it, I do not recommend this to anyone. It is rebellion and involved lying to my parents. But in addition, our world today is much more dangerous with violent crime. It was a lot safer when I was young. So this is to let you know up front, I do not condone this behavior in any way.

Many who know me, know that I have lived what would be considered a straight, clean and upright life, even before I was a Christian. As a child, my mom said it was extremely rare for me to ever do anything wrong or to disobey. But here is one event I did in rebellion to my parents, of which I truly regret.

I started surfing at the age of 13, and it became almost an obsession as a teen. Now my parents didn’t like me surfing, as they were concerned about sharks, and thought since we lived in Florida, the possibility of an attack was very possible. Even though that seems way over protective, and I thought it foolish then, they did turn out to be right. But that didn’t stop me. I’m not saying that no one should ever surf. My parents were being over protective. I figured the odds of getting attacked were rare. And this is factually and statistically true. Also, many other sports involve danger of some kind.

One summer, two of my friends wanted to drive all the way to California to spend the summer on the beach surfing. My one friend, Rene, just bought a Volkswagen bus, one of those that are worth a lot of money today. Well, the one he bought was in poor condition, as he only paid 75 dollars for it. So you can imagine how it looked. He painted it himself in an attempt to improve the outward appearance. The headlights did not function. It had no instruments at all on the instrument panel, just empty holes so you didn’t even know how much gas you had. The windshield wipers never worked, and its top speed was 35 or 40 mph. Here we are preparing to drive almost 3,000 miles across country in this exceptional vehicle. I couldn’t tell my parents, as they would never allow me to go.

My two buddies and I loaded up the van and headed out just after school let out for the summer. Rene and I had worked at a restaurant and saved enough money to last the summer. My other friend was well off and had money. When we were passing through Cocoa Beach, I did at least mail my parents a letter saying we were spending the summer there in Cocoa Beach – which was lying, but I didn’t want them to worry, nor face their wrath. This was wrong and selfish, but I was determined to go. What parent wouldn’t be upset that their young son just took off for three months! At 17 years old, I was under age. Both friends who were going with me were 18, so one of the friends would be my guardian.

I borrowed Rene’s brother’s driver’s license to show I was his brother, thinking that if we were stopped by the authorities, I would appear legal so my name became Carlos for the summer. Sometimes my two buddies would call me Bill, forgetting, but those we met in California knew me as Carlos.When people would question me, I told them Bill was my middle name. Carlos Bill sounds a bit odd, don’t you think? In 1969, a drivers license didn’t have a photo on so I was fine.

The van broke down several times on the way. We were pulled over by a police officer in Mississippi for going too slow, and had no turn signals. He also asked what are those wings on the roof? He was referring to our surfboards, but apparently he’d never seen one. He actually took us to the police station and made us pay a big fine. We really couldn’t afford that. After we were released, we were back on the road driving at night, so we tied flashlights to the side mirrors to try and see, as the headlights didn’t work. We ended up getting a ticket in every state for no lights, no turn signals, or going too slow. At one point, the fan belt broke in the desert in Arizona. Now what? We didn’t know how far a gas station would be. Remember, there were no cell phones then. Rene had the idea for all of us to cut the elastic waist band off our underwear, tie them all tightly together to try and make a fan belt. So we tied them all together, and stretched the one band over the shaft. It actually worked for about one minute and then went to pieces. Now we had to walk to the nearest gas station, which fortunately was about 5 miles away.

We finally made it to California and stopped to take a picture of the sign. Finally, we made it! It seemed to take forever at that speed. It took about 8 days, driving 24/7. We ended up at a campground at Cardiff by the sea, a well-known surfing spot in Southern California. W3 purchased a tent, set it up, and camped at the campground on the beach for most of the summer. The tent was a bit small for three people, but we didn’t care since we could surf all day every day.

The California surfers we met were into drugs, but we knew nothing about drugs. One asked if we wanted to buy some Kent, a certain drug. We thought he said tent, so Rene answered, “no thanks, we already bought a tent.” Another guy asked if we wanted some STP. We answered, “no the car is running fine.” STP is also an oil treatment. They thought us Floridians were stupid, corny, and out of touch. We were oblivious to drugs.

After two weeks, we had to move our camp as the campground rules stated there were time restrictions. So we drove out to the hills, and found a place next to a golf course. As we were sleeping, the parking brake broke, and somehow the van started rolling down the hill headed for the fence around the golf course. I woke up in a daze and saw Rene running along side the car trying to catch up to us. He had slept outside. By the time we were able to stop the car because the brakes were also in bad shape, we had run over the fence, and had been dragging it down. It was caught on the bottom of the van. We worked on it for an hour and finally got it released from the van and took off before we got into big trouble. We felt terrible for the damage to the fence.

The next night we found a place to park near a farm in the hills. The next morning at daylight, we could now see, and we needed to go down this steep hill and come back up the other side to get back, but we knew the van wouldn’t have the power to make it up the hill. So we went as fast as we could down the hill, hoping to gain some speed, but at the bottom were a bunch of chickens. We hit them because we couldn’t stop or we’d never make it back up the hill. Someone fired gunshots at us and one hit the van. I’m sure it was the owner. We got away and when we got back to the beach, a chicken was hanging off our bumper. It was crazy, and embarrassing, and hard to explain to anyone.

So now we were back at the campground. We met three girls who were also staying there with their families. One girl liked me a lot as we saw each other for about two weeks a little each day after surfing. She wanted to write letters to me when she left. She asked to see my driver’s license, so I showed it to her, but remember it was Carlos. She wrote down the address. About a week later, the real Carlos started getting these letters from a girl in California saying how much she missed him. Carlos didn’t know what was going on. He also didn’t know we were in California.

A few days later, we were all out all day surfing, having a great time. The surf was good but got bigger later that day. It was too big for us Floridians. The guys we met earlier who offered us the drugs, came and robbed our tent taking most of our money. We were sure it was them. They had all left the campground. We only had enough for gas to get back to Florida. Gasoline was only about 19 to 23 cents a gallon. A few days later, we met some guys who had a car Rene liked. I think it was a Chevy Nova. Well, they liked our van and wanted to trade. They thought the bullet hole was cool. So Rene just decided to trade vehicles right there on the beach. No paperwork. If that isn’t crazy. But the car was in worse shape than the van! It was a three-speed shift on the column. The first gear wouldn’t work so Rene had to pop the hood each time at a stoplight to manually push the linkage into first gear.

All the way back across country, we had to pop the hood and get it back into first. If we started in second gear, it would usually stall. Needless to say, it took us a long time to get back to Florida. We were two weeks late for school, and of course, my parents didn’t know what had happened to us, never hearing from me. We were in so much trouble. The principal of the school wanted to know where we were. We told him we were sick yet here we were all tan and healthy looking. That is me, young Bill.

My parents were so furious that they wouldn’t allow me to come home. I had to live at Rene’s parents house for three months before they allowed me back. My parents are both in heaven now, so I feel it’s safe to tell this story. If they were still here, I think it would remind them of how mad they were with me.

As I had said, I was always a model kid, hated evil, never partied, didn’t drink or do drugs, didn’t sleep with girls, or anything that would cause trouble. This was very unlike me, but it was all due to an obsession with surfing. Obsessions can be harmful, and are never good. Even though this was a great adventure for a teen, it was so foolish, and there would be consequences.

First, I really dishonored my parents and had no regard for their feelings and concern for where we were. I lied to them. My grades at school really suffered. We killed a chicken, and we destroyed a fence. The obsession of surfing caused me to put anything else last. I dropped out of karate school, which I loved and wished I had continued. Surfing took priority.

After we returned, we were surfing just south of Cocoa Beach. That was the day I was attacked by a tiger shark. It was at least 10 feet long, and grabbed my leg and pulled me down under the water. This was probably the most fearful thing that a person could ever experience. But a miracle happened in that, not only did it let me go, I didn’t have a mark in my leg. That is impossible once a shark bites down, especially a Tiger shark. But I had a grandmother who was a Christian, and prayed for us kids every day. I know it was because of her prayers the shark let me go. Because I disobeyed my parents, who were concerned that I might get bitten by a shark, I ended up almost dying.

I would have been killed, or had no leg if it weren’t for the prayers, and God’s great mercy that spared me. I am very grateful to still have my leg.

An obsession is always wrong. There is a difference between a passion and an obsession. Become passionate about Jesus, and you won’t ever have to be concerned about developing a harmful obsession.

This is how I felt back then:

Jeremiah 3:25, “We lie down in our shame, And our reproach covers us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God, From our youth even to this day, And have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

As for my sins back then, thank God for this verse:

Psalms 25:7, “Do not remember the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions; According to Your mercy remember me, For Your goodness’ sake, O Lord.”

Obeying this next instruction is wisdom for anyone:

Ephesians 6:2, “Honour thy father and mother; which is the first commandment with promise; That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.”

I was not honoring them, but after this incident, I always have.

These next two verses are a warning;

Ecclesiastes 12:1, “Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not.”

When you are young we usually don’t experience much evil, and we usually don’t think about God or consequences Yet we are told to be aware of God, even at a young age.

Ecclesiastes 11:9, “Rejoice, O young man, in your youth, And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth; Walk in the ways of your heart, And in the sight of your eyes; But know that for all these God will bring you into judgment.”

In other words, be careful how you enjoy yourself when you are young, because you will give account one day. The bottom line is that there are consequences for our decisions. Some decisions are harmful and cannot be changed (apart from God’s intervention) or could even lead to a premature death.

When you are young, it’s easy to be deceived and think you are invincible. Many who perform extreme sports do not realize they could die in a moment and end up for all eternity in hell. When you are young, you don’t think about the afterlife, but we should.

I was saved at the age of 17, because I knew God had rescued me from the shark. I have been serving Him ever since, and He has blessed my life so much and has spared me over and over from destruction. If I were to tell you about it, you would think I’m exaggerating. Seek God for His plan for your life while you are young, turn from sin, and receive Him as your Lord and Savior, and you will be forever grateful.