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If you’ve surfed for more than a few days, it’s very likely you’ve surfed close to a shark. They’re in the ocean, as you know, but for the most part, we don’t see them. According to one study, they’re close to surfers far more than you’d expect, but attacks are exceedingly rare. In the video above, a great white — not a small one, either — gets a little too close for comfort when it spots a surfer.
Great whites are curious animals. They’ll often sneak up from behind in an attempt to discern whether whatever they’re curious about is prey or not. It’s a tactic we’ve seen many times, and it’s on full display here. There’s no way of knowing what would have happened if the surfer hadn’t spun for a wave and faced the shark, but it’s probably a good thing that he did.
The encounter occurred in San Diego, where Preston Dau was filming with the help of a drone. When he spotted the shark, he went in for a closer look, but with no way of warning the surfer what Preston was looking at, he was nervous, to say the least. “Can’t say that I wasn’t worried when filming this,” he wrote.
