Man who saw friend die while two feet away claimed 'if you’ve seen horror movies, multiply it by 10'
A man who watched helplessly as a shark fatally mauled his friend to death just two feet away from him has told how the scene was ten times worse than something you would see in a horror movie.
Matthew Garcia was just 19 years old when he had to drag his best pal Lucas Ransom's lifeless body back to shore off the coast of California, northwest of Los Angeles, after the shark attacked and bit the teen's leg.
The lads had excitedly headed to Surf Beach - which is situated on the property of the Vandenberg Air Force Base, but is open to the public - with their boogie boards in October 2010 before tragedy struck.
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Matthew told how his friend was 'stoked' for the day and had eagerly woken up before him that morning as he was really looking forward to hitting the water because they 'hadn't had any big waves for months and months'.
But with hindsight, he reckons there might have been some signs something sinister might happen.
Speaking to CBS at the time, the then-teenager explained: "The morning started out kind of eerie - I mean we woke up at like 5.00am and I looked out my balcony window and the moon was just red. It was a full moon and kind of just, red.
"It's never usually there, but we just got up and decided that we were going."
The lads - who first met in high school and spent three years as college roommates - had only been in the water for around 45 minutes and were just 100 yards from dry land when the shark snuck up on them.
Recalling the terrifying moment, Matthew said: "You would never think anything was wrong, it [the ocean] was very placid and calm - even he [Lucas] said it was kind of eerie that it was so perfect.
"Just out of nowhere. It was like a ninja just came through and took him underwater. It was very stealth-like."
Just a couple of feet away from him, Lucas was being attacked by what experts believed was a great white shark, which chomped down on his leg and pulled him underwater - leaving Matthew swimming through his pal's blood.
He recalled how his friend desperately turned to him and said, 'Help me, dude', as the predator continued to maul him.
"He knew what was going on," Matthew said. "It was really fast. You just saw a red wave and this water is blue - as blue as it could ever be - and it was just red, the whole wave."
The youngster told how he 'couldn't do much' to help chemical engineering student Lucas at first, as the 'smooth, majestic and fast' shark kept a tight grip on him.
"As it grabbed him, it kind of pushed me out of the way and all of a sudden I went from being two feet away to being six feet away," the US teen explained.
"Typically from a shark attack, you know someone's not going to be in great shape, so right when it happened, I knew that it wasn't going to turn out well. I knew right then. Right after I seen him, it was just an eerie sight.
"It was kind of...if you've seen horror movies, multiply it by like 10 or 15, or even more than that."
He told how Lucas was 'floating in the water' as huge waves began to break over them.
"After I got hit, I came up and he was coming over a wave," Matthew said. "He popped up and the second wave was coming, that's when the wave was just completely red."
The then-19-year-old managed to grab Lucas and get him back to shore while trying to administer CPR.
Sadly, the young lad bled to death due to the 'massive' wound he had sustained to his left leg and passed away a short time later at Surf Beach, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department said.
Authorities managed to recover Lucas' boogie board, which had a huge chunk bitten out of it.
Matthew said he wanted to remember his 'larger than life' pal for 'how he made everyone feel amazing all the time'.
Topics: World News, Shark Attacks, Sharks, US News
Olivia Burke