HONOLULU (AP) — A woman bitten by a shark at a popular Hawaii surfing beach this month is recovering from the attack she described as like a "football tackle."

The 51-year-old woman who was swimming off Makaha Beach said she did not know she had been bitten until she saw her own blood.

"I turned around where the surfers are and I just felt this huge, huge tackle, like a football tackle," the woman who identified herself as Aunty Lulu told Hawaii News Now (http://bit.ly/2dEAEEe). "I was just so ready to fight and get out of the water, and when I looked up to get up and try to figure out who it was, I just saw flesh, all over flesh, my blood, my shoulder was coming off, my arm was barely there."

She suffered bites on her shoulder and forearm in the Sept. 7 attack, said Jason Patterson of the Ocean Safety Division of Honolulu's emergency services department.

A surfer spotted the woman and tried to get her on his board before lifeguards paddled out on rescue boards and brought the woman to shore at Makaha Beach.

"She said she couldn't breath and she had a hard time breathing," said Danny Boro, who helped bring Aunty Lulu closer to shore on his longboard.

Aunty Lulu was taken to a hospital in serious condition but is now recovering.

She said she has been swimming at the Oahu beach for 16 years and does not blame the shark for the attack.

"It's not the shark's fault," Aunty Lulu said. "It's their home, they've been doing what they've been doing for centuries feeding."