Braving the open waters of the Atlantic Ocean for a cystic fibrosis (CF) fundraiser while being pursued by a 10-foot hammerhead shark wasn’t what Malea Tribble had in mind when she set out shortly after midnight June 25 for an overnight paddleboarding trek from Bimini Island in the Bahamas to the shores of Lake Worth Beach, Florida.
Midway through the 80-mile race, Tribble, 38, of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, nearly became the shark’s “Catch of the Day.” Quick thinking by her husband and paddleboarding teammate, Ricky Tribble, got her to safety before she and a third teammate who was in the water a short distance away fully grasped what had happened. The harrowing ordeal was captured on film by their spotter who accompanied them in a nearby boat throughout the 16 hours at sea.
“Malea and I were doing a relay, which means we would switch paddling duties every so often and basically split up the trip,” said Ricky Tribble. “When I looked back toward her, I thought I saw something behind her and that maybe it was a dolphin. But dolphin fins are curved and flop up and down, whereas this just stayed right up. That’s when I told our captain there’s a shark behind Malea. I joked afterward that I think I lost a year of my life from how my heart just kind of froze in that moment.”
Malea Tribble said she felt the shark brush against her and initially thought it was a clump of seaweed. “But then it happened again,” she said. “That’s when Ricky and the guys on the boat started motioning toward me. I didn’t see the shark until after they got me onto the boat, which was probably a good thing and why I was able to stay so calm.”
The shark didn’t immediately give up, first swimming under the boat and turning around to give them another look before circling menacingly near their third teammate, Gabe Barajas. At that point it apparently decided they weren’t worth the effort and ventured back out into the open waters in search of fast-food service elsewhere. Malea reentered the water about 10 minutes later. A marine biologist, who was part of another paddleboarding team that took part in the event, confirmed their estimates of the shark’s size from photos and video, they said.
The charity fundraiser drew nearly 200 participants and brought in a record haul of more than $700,000 for Piper’s Angels Foundation, a North Palm Beach, Florida nonprofit that helps families of those born with the chronic lung disease. The proceeds brought the total raised by Crossing for Cystic Fibrosis, stylized as X4CF, to more than $2.75 million since its inception 10 years ago.
“It’s quite uncommon to see sharks during the Crossing,” said Piper’s Angels Founder and Executive Director Travis Suit. “Out of the hundreds of paddlers over the years, we’ve only had a few close encounters. This circumstance was even more unique in that seeing a hammerhead is extremely rare.”
It was the second time participating in the event for Ricky and Malea Tribble, who work as marketing professionals in the gaming industry and raised $10,594 through social media and fundraising platform Classy.org. Both have embraced the sun-and-surf lifestyle since moving from Las Vegas to South Florida during 2020 and told The NonProfit Times they’re planning to sign up for next year’s event. Registration begins Aug. 1.
“When we moved here, it was my goal to have us become true Floridians and do things we never would have been exposed to before,” said Malea Tribble. “So, I started looking up all the nonprofits in the area and that’s when I discovered this event. Being from the desert, we never had stuff like this at all, and so I told Ricky we just have to do this.”
The cause has deep personal meaning for Ricky Tribble, whose uncle died of CF at age 32 and who is himself a carrier of the gene. Tribble’s father, Howard Tribble, served five years as president of the Nevada chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, he said.
Piper’s Angels Foundation takes its name from its founder’s daughter, who was diagnosed with the condition at age four. She’s now a 15-year-old high school sophomore, cheerleader and avid paddler who took part in the contest along with five others with CF. One of these “CF Warriors,” as they’re called, is a double-lung transplant recipient who traveled from England to compete. Participating in an athletic endurance contest of this type would have been unthinkable not so long ago for those born with CF. There is no cure, but medical advances have progressed to where it’s now sometimes possible for those who begin an early regimen of treatment to live a near-normal lifespan. In the past, those diagnosed with the condition were considered lucky if they lived past the age of 20.
“It’s important that people who know me as the girl who had the shark encounter know I’m not scared and that I’m willing to get back out there,” said Malea Tribble. “Kids born with cystic fibrosis have to live with their fear every day and don’t have the option to quit, so I want them to see how strong you can be even after something scary like this.”
