There’s an image that strikes fear into the heart of any diver: the unmistakable shape of a shark emerging from the underwater gloom. There’s only one thing that’s worse than encountering a curious shark, however – having to fend off three at once.
That’s exactly what happened to spearfisherman Matthew Piendak. The 35-year-old originally hails from Newington, Connecticut, but has made Destin, Florida his home since 2022. He’s been diving and spearfishing for about a year, but on Saturday, July 11, he was 12 miles southeast of the Destin jetties when he had an encounter unlike anything he’d ever seen before.
“We do multiple dives throughout the day to spearfish and it was definitely different compared to other days,” he told The Inertia. “There was a shark on each dive, and I noticed they were more interested in me than normal.”
The incident, as seen in a video posted to Piendak’s social media, happened on the last dive of the day. He had just speared a fish and sent it up with a float and decided to head for the surface as well. To do that, he had to perform a three-minute “safety stop,” a precautionary measure in which divers pause partway on their ascent in order to get rid of the extra nitrogen that can lead to the bends. “During the stop, I saw a shark underneath me, and didn’t care too much about it,” he described. “I thought ‘As long as it stays down there, I don’t have to worry about it.'”
But it didn’t stay down there. Out of the dark blue, he saw the unmistakable white chin of a bull shark heading straight for him.
“Immediately I said to myself, ‘Well, here we go.’ knowing he was going to come up to me,” recounted Piendak. But it was still unclear what exactly the creature’s intentions were – whether it was just curiosity or an actual attack. Then, from the periphery he saw another chin, and it became clear what was happening. “I realized they were trying to set an attack on me,” he wrote. “And all I had was my rhino speargun to keep myself from the bull sharks.”
He immediately set about trying to protect himself. “When the first bullshark moved to my left and continued getting closer, the second shark was then out of my eyesight, so I decided I needed to make a defensive move,” he explained. “I poked the first shark with my speargun and knew I needed to get eyes on the second one, along with my protective gun. Once I moved my head and gun, I saw him speeding up at me, and used the same technique to get the second one away.”
The third shark, which was the first he had originally seen on the way up, was less aggressive – turning quickly on its own, without prompting from the spear. However, Piendak still had to find a way to get out of the water.
“After that, I realized they were swimming away, probably to regroup, so it gave me the time to get to the surface let the boat know I was dealing with sharks,” he continued. “I yelled for them once, and knew I had to get my head back in the water. As soon as I put my head back in, I saw one shark again trying to attack me, and put my speargun in between the shark and I. The shark turned and swam away. Again I yelled for the boat, and put my head back in the water. At that point I could see them retreating, but still visible, so I swam down a few feet to try to show them dominance. They then retreated for good and the boat quickly showed up. I resurfaced and told them ‘Watch my six!’ as I quickly tore off my fins to get back on the boat.”
Though the ordeal was almost over, Piendak says that these final moments as he climbed up the ladder were the most stressful. “I couldn’t protect myself anymore,” he said. “I had to use my hands and feet to get back on the boat, leaving me shark bait if they wanted one last attempt. I quickly climbed back on the boat and felt safe. Finally.”
In the end, he emerged without a scratch – a miraculous turn of events for an encounter with one bull shark, let alone three. “I owe a lot of credit to the gentleman on the boat getting to me. Brad, Micah, and Kristen,” he added. “And one person who I kept saying he indirectly saved my life, was Caleb. Before ascending, I was going to ‘float’ my gun up to the top so I didn’t have to worry about it. Caleb, 120 feet under water, grabbed my gun and gave it back to me. If it wasn’t for him, I would not have the one device that kept me between those sharks.”
Piendak was also careful to note that he did not blame the predators, nor would it keep him out of the water for long. “I would also like to say sharks, of any kind, have never attacked me before, and generally they do not care about humans,” he concluded. “I did have two lionfish in a container on my hip, but have never had an issue with it until that day. My plan is to clean all of my gear thoroughly so there is no fish smell on them, and then continue diving. I love the sport, and look forward to being under water again soon doing what I love.”
