A man surfing at Pilaa near the Kilauea Lighthouse was attacked by a shark on Sunday.

“I thought it was do or die, I thought I was going to die,” Jeff Horton told KHON2 in Hawaii.

“I had my feet dangling, hanging below my surfboard, and I saw this thing coming up,” he said. “And my instinct was ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,’ and the thing comes right up. And I yanked my foot out right where it took the bite. Bit my board and missed my foot. And it flipped me and I rolled on top of it.”

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The former boxer then proceeded to punch the shark in its face, repeatedly. “And then I took one shot in the eye and the thing kind of gave up,” he said.

“And, like, I’ve been surfing every day and I never once thought I could be victimized like this.”

Horton insists, however, that’s it not enough to keep him out of the water.

Watch the video from KHON2 below.