[masraum]

Crazy.

Dylan McWilliams doesn’t believe that old saw about lightning never striking twice.

Not after he was attacked by a shark Thursday in the waters of Kauai less than a year after he was mauled and dragged by a black bear in the wilds of Colorado. And certainly not after he was bitten by a rattlesnake in Utah a little over three years ago.

What is it about this guy that draws dangerous predators with sharp teeth?

“I don’t know,” the visitor from Grand Junction, Colo., said Friday. “I’m either really lucky or really unlucky.”

As it turns out, McWilliams, 20, spends more time outdoors than most folks. He’s a former tree trimmer, ranch hand and survival training instructor who loves extended journeys into the wilderness.

He discovered the beautiful landscape of Kauai last year when he backpacked solo around the island. He came back for another two-week backpacking tour Sunday but ended up on the north shore helping distressed residents clean up and move trees following last weekend’s torrential storms and flooding.

McWilliams observed the muddy coastal waters, and he knew that nearly all of the island was under a brown-water advisory. Huge storm events like that are notorious for turning the water brown and luring sharks for an easy meal.

By Wednesday, however, he was itching to get into the surf and decided to head south in search of clear water. He found it at Shipwreck beach in Poipu, part of the small section of the Kauai coastline not included in the brown-water advisory.

Bright and early Thursday morning the water was clear, blue and inviting with 3- to 5-foot waves, he said. There were a handful of others enjoying the surf, too.

McWilliams entered the water with his boogie board at around 7:30 a.m and caught his first wave.

As he was heading back out, another wave knocked him off his board in 15 feet of water about 30 yards from shore. That’s when he felt the searing pain in his right calf.

“At first I panicked,” he said. “I didn’t know if I lost half my leg or what.”

McWilliams said beneath him was what looked like a 6- to 8-foot tiger shark — he saw the stripes — and he gave it a swift kick before launching into a desperate swim to shore.