Florida Shark Attack Survivor Recounts 1981 Ordeal That Claimed Friend’s Life

In August 1981, what began as a routine day on the water off Florida’s Atlantic coast turned into a harrowing fight for survival that would permanently alter the life of a young woman and claim the life of one of her closest friends. Tamara Ennis, then 21 years old, was working as a hotel restaurant waitress in Daytona Beach when she joined three friends for what was supposed to be a short sailing trip near Ormond Beach. Instead, the outing became a deadly ordeal that tested endurance, instinct, and willpower.

Ennis set out with Randy Cohen, Christy Wapniarski, and Daniel Perrin, the owner of the 17-foot catamaran they were using. The group sailed about a mile offshore when weather conditions began to shift rapidly. As Ennis later recalled in an interview for A&E’s Survivor series, she noticed “dark clouds and lightning closing in on us.” Realizing they were already far from safety and likely unable to outrun the storm, the group made the decision to remain in place and “wait it out.”

By that time, the catamaran was approximately three miles from shore—far enough to complicate rescue efforts, yet close enough that the coastline remained faintly visible on the horizon. The situation quickly worsened when a leak appeared in one of the boat’s pontoons. The vessel overturned, leaving the four young adults clinging to the remaining intact pontoon in open water. None of them had life jackets.

The waters they drifted in were known shark territory. As hours passed and darkness set in, the group waited for rescue that did not come. Ennis later described the moment they realized help might not arrive. “The reality hit us, and we were just quiet. And Christy, who was sitting in front of me, she was very quiet, and I could tell also that she was just making peace, and I had a sense that she knew she was gonna die.”

When daylight finally returned, Ennis made a critical decision. She believed their only remaining chance of survival was to swim for shore. Christy Wapniarski, just 19 years old, could not swim. Ennis reassured her that the saltwater would help keep her afloat. A Coast Guardsman later reflected on the decision, saying, “They should never have left the boat, even if it was leaking.” Still, with no rescue in sight, the group entered the water.

Ennis, a former high school swim team member, took the lead. About an hour into the swim, disaster struck. She recounted, “I was up in front and it was only probably about an hour into the swim that I looked back and I heard, um, Christy screaming and yelling for Randy to come get her.” At first, Ennis believed Christy might be drowning. That assumption quickly changed when she saw Christy violently lifted from the water and pulled back under.

She explained, “I realized I saw her thrashing about in the water. And then she went straight up, just like in the movie, in the Jaws movie, when she went straight up and straight back into the water. And I knew she’d been hit by a shark.” Ennis shouted warnings to Randy, but he initially believed Christy was simply struggling to stay afloat.

According to Ennis, Christy cried out, “‘I’ve been bitten! Come here, Randy! Swim to me. I think I’m going to die!’” Ennis continued: “And he was swimming while this happened and he didn’t see that it was a shark. He just thought she was drowning. So the last time I saw her go up and down she just went face down into the water. I knew that, you know, I knew she’d be dead. She was completely pale, completely white, I knew she’d lost all her blood.”

Fearing for her own life, Ennis made the agonizing decision not to turn back. Soon after, she felt a sudden bump beneath her in the water—another sign that sharks were nearby. “I just had a split second vision of Christy and me saying, ‘That’s not how I wanna go. There is no way I can die like this’.”

To control her fear, Ennis relied on mental focus, telling herself she had as much right to be in the water as the sharks did. After five exhausting hours of swimming, strong currents separated her from both Randy and Daniel. Alone, she fought a rip current by swimming sideways to break free. A lifeguard eventually spotted her roughly 100 yards from shore.

When she reached safety, Ennis immediately alerted authorities. “I just told him instinctively – ‘I’ve just swam about nine miles, there’s a boat out there, one person’s dead. And there are a couple of guys and I don’t know if they are dead or alive’.” About an hour later, Daniel was found walking along the beach unharmed. Randy was located shortly afterward and airlifted to a hospital for treatment.

Christy Wapniarski’s body was never recovered.

In the years following the tragedy, Ennis returned to working on boats in the Bahamas, despite lingering fears. Reflecting on the experience, she said, “I still to this day won’t go in dark water but surviving that also gives you a whole new outlook on life.” She added, “Dying wasn’t an option for me during that time so I just had to keep good thoughts and say, ‘Ok, I’ve made it another minute, I made it another five minutes, I made it another hour.’ And just keep going and thinking about, you know, your family, or your future, and not giving in to the negative thoughts is how I survived.”

The 1981 incident remains one of the most haunting survival stories from Florida’s coast, underscoring both the unpredictable dangers of open water and the extraordinary endurance required to survive against overwhelming odds.