May 1, 2008 -- During the swim leg of a Daytona Beach, Fla. Triathlon in 1989, Mark Montgomery felt several hard taps on his feet. After the third tap, he turned over to yell at the person tapping his toes—but nobody was there. After an even harder knock on his back, he realized the tapping wasn’t coming from a competitor, but a shark.
“My brain began working a million times faster. The shore was 500 yards away and there were no lead boats or lifeguards nearby,” said Montgomery, a former professional triathlete and Los Angeles County lifeguard. “My experience and instinct kicked in. I need to give this shark a choice, so I swam back to the pack and got in the middle and stayed there.” He later found out the shark bumped two other racers, former pro Wendy Ingram and Mike Garcia.

Ingram remembers seeing a shadow to her side, then feeling something bump her feet. She turned around, and like Montgomery, didn’t see anyone, so she continued swimming towards the next buoy. Just moments later, she felt a second, much harder thump on her leg. “I began to freak out, then a nearby paddler told me to go back to the pack,” she said.