(KTNV) — A Las Vegas native living in Florida had the scare of a lifetime while paddleboarding for charity.
Malea Tribble had a close encounter with a hammerhead shark in the waters between the Bahamas and Florida.
Tribble was competing in an 80-mile paddleboard charity fundraiser called The Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis when she encountered the shark.
The Sierra Vista High School graduate now lives in Ft. Lauderdale. Tribble spoke with Channel 13 about those intense moments on the water, telling Tricia Kean she first felt a tapping on her board, but assumed it was seaweed.
"...I felt a couple taps on my board, and I initially thought it was maybe seaweed or something," Tribble said. "A lot of times when you're paddleboarding, you can pick up seaweed off of your fin. But it happened a couple times, so I was kind of like, that's weird, but I kept going."
It was her husband, Ricky, her relay race partner, who alerted her of the danger.
"My husband turned around and looked right at me, and his face just dropped," Tribble said. "And when his face dropped, I knew it wasn't seaweed. I thought it was probably a shark. And I looked right at him and he told our captain, 'put the boater neutral, don't say a word.' ...So I asked him, I said, 'it was a shark?' And he says, 'yes, go to the boat.'"
Part of the encounter was captured on video, as Tribble carefully made her way back to the boat.
"At that point, it was following me, it was following my board, my every movement," Tribble said. "The good news for me is I didn't see it. I felt it, but I didn't see it, and I focused on staying upright and on my board and getting to the boat, so I really didn't have time to react or think or look around me at all."
It's the closest Tribble says she's even been to a shark on the open water.
"The shark came under the boat and came under my board again, and I'm telling you, he looked right at me. It was the most surreal experience," Tribble said. "And that's when I saw that it was a hammerhead."
After their encounter, Tribble and her husband went on to complete the relay.
Tribble tells Channel 13 the cystic fibrosis charity is dear to her heart, and a hammerhead shark won't stop her from helping the cause.
