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March 23, 2006

Liz Dunn faced her worst fear when a shark bit her leg, piercing it to the bone, while she surfed the North Shore yesterday.

"The bite was almost not the scariest part -- it was seeing the fin," a jagged dorsal fin a foot and a half wide at its base, said the 28-year-old visiting surfer from Canada. "I knew it was a big, serious shark."

Dunn was attacked shortly before 11:40 a.m. at a surf spot called Leftovers, about a mile south of Waimea Bay.

"I had just gotten the perfect wave --- one of the best waves of my life, but I rode it so far that I ended near the murky water," said Dunn.

"I felt a big bump under my board," said Dunn, who guessed it was a big rock or a turtle. She saw something move, then felt the bite on her calf.

The gray shark kept circling her, with the large fin above, then below the water, and Dunn feared the worst.

"I screamed, 'Shark, help!'" Dunn said.

"It felt like it took a taster bite," she said.

The bite left three puncture wounds near her shin. The largest was 2 1/2 inches wide and went to the bone.

Dunn admit she has a shark phobia, but she feels a little safer now knowing that statistically it is less likely she will get bitten again.

Also, "I know I don't taste good, 'cause I got spit out," she said.

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surfing , shark , shark attack , bite , surfer