Thrillseeker survives being bitten by a tiger shark, a rattlesnake and a 300-pound bear in the last four years
They say that three strikes and you're out. Fortunately, a Colorado man survived the infamous adage last week that a few adventurous hearts would desire to match.
On Thursday, Dylan McWilliams was bitten by a shark in Hawaii and still lived to tell the tale. Fascinatingly, in the last four years, he has already been bitten by a bear and a rattlesnake reports the BBC. In a conversation with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser on Friday, McWilliams remarked: “I don’t know...I’m either really lucky or really unlucky.”
It is obvious that the 20-year-old Grand Junction resident spends a lot of time outside his home.
McWilliams was body boarding off the coast of Hawaii when he survived his third bloody encounter in an actual man-versus-wild scenario. "It's kind of crazy," Dylan told the BBC from the island of Kauai, Hawaii. "I don't seem to have a lot of luck but it's kind of lucky in unlucky situations."
McWilliams was seemingly cruising on his board, enjoying the gargantuan waves of the Pacific when he felt something hit his leg. He said, "I saw the shark underneath me. I started kicking at it - I know I hit it at least once - and swam to shore as quickly as I could."
Hawaii News Now reported that McWilliams sustained deep cuts to one of his limbs, but as luck would have it, the injury was not life-threatening. He was attacked on Thursday about 50 yards from Shipwreck’s Beach off Poipu.
Adding that he was wishing the shark would not continue to follow the trail of blood he left behind, McWilliams grimaced: "I didn't know if I lost half my leg or what... the scariest part was swimming back."
The Star-Advertiser reported that McWilliams had to get seven stitches for the leg injury where the predator had left distinctive teeth marks. According to the thrillseeker, it was mostly a tiger shark between 6 and 8ft (about 2m).
Dylan said that his parents were worried after he called them about the incident soon after the paramedics tended to his injuries. He admitted, "I don't know if they want me doing all this stuff." However, he believed that they support him nonetheless.
The adventurer from western Colorado manages to fund his travels working odd jobs such as a survival training instructor and sometimes as a ranch hand. He has been backpacking across the United States and Canada for quite a few years now.
"I've been teaching kids and people, whoever wants, how to survive in the wilderness and live off the land like the explorers did," he said from his camping spot on a Hawaiian beach. McWilliams told the paper that back in July last year, he had to get nine staples on his scalp after his Colorado campsite was invaded by a spine-chilling 300-pound bear.
“The bear grabbed the back of my head and started pulling me and I was fighting back as best as I could,” he told Hawaii News Now. “It dropped me and stomped on me a little bit, and I was able to get back to the group and they scared it away.” McWilliams went on to narrate another shocking incident to the Star-Advertiser about an encounter with a rattlesnake that he had about three and a half years ago in Utah.
"I was walking down a trail and I thought I kicked a cactus but couldn't see one, and then saw a rattlesnake all coiled up."
He told the paper that by good fortune, he fell ill only for a brief period after the snakebite as he had taken only a small amount of venom. "There was a little venom so I did get a bit sick for a couple of days," the aspiring police officer said.
"We have to respect [animals'] boundaries but I don't think I was invading or provoking any of the attacks - they just happened."
The backpacker from Kauai Island remarked, "I've always loved animals and spent as much time with them as I could." He says that these incidents occurred only because he was at the wrong place at the wrong time. "I don't blame the shark, I don't blame the bear, and I don't blame the rattlesnake," he added.
McWilliams encourages everyone to experience the outdoors despite his lethal encounters. "I still go hiking, I still catch rattlesnakes, and I will still swim in the ocean," he says.