That was the last she heard from the 19-year-old son she described as a fearless athlete with "the sweetest heart." 
 
 "You wouldn’t believe these waves, Mom. I can’t wait to get to them," he told Candace Ransom, who told him to have fun and call afterward. 
 
 Before they plunged into the chilly waters, Ransom pulled out his cellphone. 
 
 No wind, glassy conditions -- they agreed it was going to be a great session for Garcia on his surfboard and Ransom on his beat-up, red bodyboard. 
 
 Six-foot waves were breaking when Lucas Ransom and his longtime buddy Matthew Garcia arrived at Surf Beach west of Lompoc on Friday morning. 
 
 The two young men had been in the waves for about 45 minutes when a shark appeared out of nowhere and pulled Ransom under. There was no warning, Garcia said. The shark appeared to be about 18 to 20 feet long, he said. 
 
 Ransom looked at his friend a couple of feet away and said “Help me, dude,” before getting lost in the waves, Garcia said. "It was very stealth," he said. "You would have never known there was a shark in the water. It was all really quick." 
 
 Ransom’s left leg was ripped off at the pelvis, his parents said. Garcia tried to give him chest compressions as he pulled him to shore, but Ransom was bleeding profusely and died before they got there. 
 
 Witnesses told authorities that the young men were about 100 yards offshore when the attack occurred. Fire personnel from Vandenberg Air Force Base pronounced Ransom dead at the scene. 
 
 Authorities quickly closed Surf Beach and two other beaches nearby for at least 72 hours. Surf Beach is on Vandenberg’s 42 miles of coastline, but the public has access to it from California Highway 246. 
 
 Federal and state wildlife officials are working to identify the type of shark that attacked Ransom. A shark expert said Friday that, based on its behavior and Ransom’s injury, it most likely was a great white. 
 
 "It takes a shark of massive size and jaw to inflict that kind of injury," said Andrew Nosal of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. 
 
 Great whites seek prey at the water's surface and attack with enormous ferocity from underneath, Nosal said, adding that the silhouette of a surfer on a bodyboard looks a lot like a sea lion on the surface. After they bite, it's too late. 
 
 "It may be mistaken identity," he said. 
 
 About 75% of fatal shark attacks are caused by great whites. Even so, attacks are exceedingly rare, Nosal said. The last fatality in California was in 2008, when a 17-foot shark killed a retired veterinarian who was swimming off Solana Beach. 
 
 -- Steve Chawkins and Catherine Saillant ||||| LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 13-year-old boy skin diving for lobsters was attacked by a shark Saturday along the Southern California coast but was quickly pulled from the water by other divers and flown to a trauma center, authorities said. 
 
 The boy was in critical but stable condition more than nine hours later at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego, spokesman Carlos Delgado said. 
 
 The boy underwent surgery but no other information about him, including his name, was released. 
 
 The boy suffered traumatic upper torso injuries, city Lifeguard Capt. Larry Giles told reporters earlier at Beacon's Beach in Encinitas, about 27 miles (43 kilometers) north of downtown San Diego. 
 
 The attack occurred just before 7 a.m., during the opening hour of California's popular spiny lobster season. 
 
 The boy was attacked in about 9 feet (2.7 meters) of water approximately 150 yards (137 meters) offshore. He was brought to shore by three bystanders, Giles said. 
 
 Emergency responders arrived, and the boy was flown by helicopter to the trauma center. 
 
 "He was conscious, he was above water, and the bystanders were able to get him up on the beach ... and he was talking all the way to when he was being transported," the captain said. 
 
 The three rescuers were identified only as an off-duty police officer from nearby Oceanside, an off-duty state lifeguard and a friend who were also diving for lobsters. Giles said the trio provided a "tremendous amount of aid to that young man." 
 
 Witnesses estimated the shark was about 11 feet (3.3 meters) long, but the type was not known, he said. 
 
 Lifeguards immediately turned to clearing people out of the water. Giles noted there were multiple other divers in the area. 
 
 The waters off about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) of beach were ordered closed for 48 hours, and a nearby surfing competition was canceled before it got underway. 
 
 Lifeguards were being brought in from various agencies while a San Diego County sheriff's helicopter scouted from the air. In the immediate hours after the attack, there was no sign of shark activity or signs of typical prey such as seals, dolphins and porpoises, although a seal was reported in the area earlier, Giles said. 
 
 "This is a nonfatal incident; we don't want anybody else getting injured," he said. 
 
 The most recent fatal shark attack in the area was in 2008 when a swimmer was killed at Solana Beach. A more recent attack along the Camp Pendleton coast of north San Diego County was not fatal. 
 
 Earlier this month, a man died after being bitten by a shark off Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
– A UCSB student died yesterday after being attacked by a shark while boogie boarding off the coast of Santa Barbara. Lucas Ransom, 19, was pulled off his board about 100 yards from shore just before 9am; his left leg was ripped off at his pelvis, according to the LA Times. Ransom was just a few feet away from friend Matthew Garcia—who said the two had joked the night before about the chances they would be attacked by a shark—at the time. He said, “Help me, dude,” before disappearing in the waves, Garcia said. "You just saw a red wave and this water is blue, and it was just red, the whole wave." Garcia saw his friend's body board pop up shortly thereafter, swam to the body, and did chest compressions as he brought him to shore of Surf Beach, an open-to-the-public spot on Vandenberg Air Force Base, located some 130 miles northwest of LA. Ransom, described by his parents as an avid swimmer once credited for saving a drowning child at a local pool, was a junior majoring in Chemical Engineering. Based on the size of Ransom's injury, experts believe he may have been attacked by a great white. Click here for more.