classic33
Leg End Member
They say bad luck comes in threes, and for Dylan McWilliams, a 20-year-old from Colorado, that has unfortunately proved true.
The young outdoorsman has survived his third bloody brush with the animal kingdom - a shark attack while body boarding off the coast of Hawaii.
"It's kind of crazy," Dylan told the BBC from the island of Kauai. "I don't seem to have a lot of luck but it's kind of lucky in unlucky situations."
He was enjoying the Pacific waves on Thursday morning when he felt something hit his leg. He explained: "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."
Worried about the trail of blood he was leaving, he told local media after the attack: "I didn't know if I lost half my leg or what."
The shark, believed to be a tiger shark between 6 and 8ft (about 2m), left distinctive teeth marks in Dylan's leg that needed seven stitches.
"My mum was worried," Dylan said of his call to his parents soon after paramedics saw to his injury. "I don't know if they want me doing all this stuff," he admits, but he believes they support him.
The outdoors enthusiast from Grand Junction in western Colorado, has been backpacking across the US and Canada for the past few years, funding his travels with odd jobs working as a ranch hand and even as a survival training instructor.
His grandfather was the first person to teach him survival techniques at the age of three or four, and a love for the outdoors was born.
"I've been teaching kids and people, whoever wants, how to survive in the wilderness and live off the land like the explorers did," said the Crocodile Hunter fan from his camping spot on a Hawaiian beach.
He was putting those survival skills to use on a camping trip in Colorado last July, when at 4am, while sleeping outdoors, he was woken up to find his head being clamped in the jaws of a bear.
Dylan McWilliams is now impatient for his wounds to heal so he can get back on to the surf. Despite his run of bad luck, he encourages everyone to experience the outdoors. "I still go hiking, I still catch rattle snakes, and I will still swim in the ocean."
When asked if he thinks he will have another brush with dangerous wildlife, he said: "I hope not, but I spend most of my time outside with animals... so I guess anything could happen."
