WAILUKU, Maui — Kyle Gruen was swimming along a Kihei beach and stopped to look at fish clustering around a lava outcropping in the calm, clear water. "This would be a good place for a shark to hang out," he joked to himself.

He was about to dive to get a closer view when a large shark tore into his left side.

"When he came at me I was looking down with my right arm extended. I had no clue he was there," said Gruen, 29, of Vancouver, British Columbia, recalling Saturday's shark attack at Kama'ole Beach Park II.

"I felt him clamp down with a lot of force and it was all reflex pretty much from there," said Gruen, who added that he tried to "twist away and push away" with his feet, using a "reverse and ready" maneuver he learned as a lifeguard. The technique is used to push off panicky swimmers before they can drown their rescuers.

"I guess I have a little bit of Chuck Norris in me," he said.

Gruen had arrived on Maui just the night before with his twin brother, Jeff, and was due to be best man at his college buddy's wedding Monday in Wailea. Despite surgery on Monday to repair deep wounds in his left thigh and hand, Gruen attended the wedding in a wheelchair.

He is operations manager at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and a former competitive swimmer, swimming coach and water polo player.

Speaking to reporters yesterday at Maui Memorial Medical Center, Gruen said his first thought upon arriving at a new destination is always to take a "quick swim." So, he went to Kama'ole Beach Park II, across the street from where he was staying, and entered the ocean with his brother sometime after 12:30 p.m.

'SCARED FOR MY LIFE'

Jeff Gruen was back on the beach when the attack occurred around 1 p.m., about 30 to 40 feet from shore. Kyle Gruen said he didn't get a good look at the shark, which swam off after he pushed it away.

"I think he was as scared of me as I was of him," he said.

He described seeing only its face and a gray body with purple on top. Although he felt little pain, Gruen said he knew he was hurt badly because the fingers on his left hand were "flailing" — tendons had been severed — and he could see a deep tear on his left thigh. He started screaming, "Shark, shark!" and headed into shallower water.

"I was scared for my life," he said. "I was pretty worried about the shark coming back and finishing me."

As blood mixed with the seawater and filled pockets on the large rocks along the coastline, four people rushed out to help carry him in to safety.

"I was pretty nervous about bleeding out," Gruen said.

Donald Cole, 37, of Kihei, was one of the rescuers. He was at the beach with his wife and nine little girls celebrating his daughter's eighth birthday. When he heard Gruen yelling he sprinted into the water to help.

"I knew someone was in trouble so the adrenaline kicked in and you don't really care if there's a shark in the water — you still have to help the person," Cole said.

In addition to the large bite wound on his left thigh and hand, the left-handed Gruen suffered two teeth punctures on his inner thigh, one only an inch from his groin and a vital artery. He said he is expected to make a full recovery and was released Monday to share the wedding with friends, who gave him the nickname "Nibbles."

Although it was "a pretty scary event," Gruen said he feels "remarkably lucky."

"The injuries will make for good scars," he said. "I guess it will always make for a good story."

VISITOR'S KIND WORDS

A special visitor Sunday helped buoy Gruen's spirits amid the pain. Teenager Nikky Raleigh of Kihei suffered severe injuries to her right calf when she was bitten by a shark Feb. 27 while wading in shallow water at Makena State Park.

The 15-year-old said yesterday that she decided to see Gruen because another shark attack victim, Roddy Lewis, had visited her at the hospital.

Lewis nearly died after his legs were mauled by a tiger shark in 1993 while surfing in Wailua'iki Bay near Hana.

"That was the best thing. He gave me so much hope and I knew (Gruen) needed it," Raleigh said. "I told him he was going to be OK."

Along with the words of encouragement, she gave him a wooden-bead bracelet.

Raleigh has recovered from her injuries although she still experiences numbness from nerve damage and has occasional nightmares, said her mother, Cathy Johnson.

"When (Lewis) came in and showed Nikky his leg and how he could walk and how it wouldn't affect her life forever, she just thought that was the greatest thing, and she wanted to pay it forward," Johnson said. "She wanted to tell (Gruen) she could jump, skip, hop, skateboard and surf, and that he'll be doing just fine."

4 ATTACKS IN 2006

There were two other shark attacks this year in Hawai'i besides those involving Gruen and Raleigh.

On May 31, a spearfisherman was bitten on the left forearm off O'ahu's North Shore. And on March 23, also on the North Shore, a surfer was nipped on the left calf.

The last fatal shark attack in Hawai'i occurred April 7, 2004, when a surfer bled to death after being bitten by a tiger shark off Kahana, Maui.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.