Steve Bruemmer heads home from Natividad on July 13, three weeks after he was hospitalized for injuries from a shark bite.
Steve Bruemmer heads home from Natividad on July 13, three weeks after he was hospitalized for injuries from a shark bite.
Three weeks ago, Steve Bruemmer, aka "Fast Steve" as he is known to his swimming friends, was out on a beautiful, sunny day at Lovers Point in Pacific Grove. He swam about a mile-and-a-half in unusually calm, clear water. When he just off the rocky point, about 150 yards from the beach where he was going to conclude his swim, a sudden collision took him up out of the water and into the air, then pulled him under for a moment.
He then looked to see a shark next to him. He pushed the animal with his hand, then kicked it with his foot, and it swam away. Bruemmer had been bitten—the shark's mouth around his abdomen and thighs—and he made it back to the surface, where he immediately started yelling for help.
Help came, and Bruemmer was at Natividad Medical Center, the county's designated trauma hospital, within 40 minutes.
Today, Wednesday, July 13—three weeks from the day he was bitten—Bruemmer was discharged from the hospital and heads home to continue his recovery in Monterey.
In a video statement released by Natividad, Bruemmer described the shark encounter, and his rescue—and expressed gratitude to the medical staff at Natividad, ambulance driver, the rescuers at the beach and the donors who gave blood that was a critical life-saving tool.
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"Turns out I was bit ferociously by a shark, right across my thighs and my abdomen…then of course it spit me out. I'm not a seal, it's looking for a seal, we're not their food," Bruemmer said. "It was looking at me, right next to me—I thought it could bite me again, so I pushed it with my hand."
He then described the rescue efforts that ensued immediately after he called for help. A couple on paddleboards came up, one police officer and one nurse. Surfer Heath Braddock, who was teaching an environmental stewardship/surfing class near shore, paddled over with an extra surfboard, and the trio loaded Bruemmer onto it to paddle him back to the beach.
"Heroes," Bruemmer said. "How do you get into the bloody water, with maybe a shark circling beneath you to save a stranger? They're amazing."
Sara Rubin loves long public meetings, red pens and reading (on newsprint). She has been editor of the Monterey County Weekly since 2016, and has been on staff since 2010.
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