Chilling moment when a great white shark slips between three surfers at South African surfing championships and seems to line up to strike…then decides it’s not on the menu
Chilling moment when a great white shark slips between three surfers at South African surfing championships and seems to line up to strike…then decides it’s not on the menu
- The footage was captured during a surfing championship in South Africa’s Jeffreys Bay
This is the chilling moment captured on film, where a great white shark glides silently between three surfers, blissfully unaware that death is only a few feet away.
The ten-foot-tall man-eater made his shocking appearance at the same surfing championships where a competitor survived an attack on live TV in 2015.
A drone was sent out following reports of a Great White behind the surf line and it can be seen swimming along the shore towards a dozen of the world’s best surfers.
Incredibly as the killing machine races towards two unsuspecting competitors, a third nearly surfs over his head, unaware that he is in the wave directly below him.
The Great White then lines up a surfer looking around trying to catch a wave in the Corona Open J-Bay 2023 stage of the Men’s Surfing Championships.
As the great white heads for two unsuspecting competitors, a third almost surfs over its head, unaware that it is in the wave just below it
One of the surfers can be seen paddling as the shark approaches at South Africa’s Jeffreys Bay
It then maneuvers right behind the surfer for the perfect attack position and then decides that the surfer is not on the menu today and slowly turns around.
Professional surfer Nathan Florence, 29, from Hawaii posted the incredible drone footage a friend captured in South Africa’s Jeffreys Bay to his Facebook page.
He said: ‘It was pretty crazy when we saw some guys come in fast and I asked them what the deal was and they said they saw a huge white shark come by.
“It was close enough, they said, to see his eyes, so we quickly set up the drone to see if he was there and sure enough, he swam to the world tour surfers.
“We tried to warn the first guy with the drone because we were far away and he pulled his legs up but he didn’t see the shark, then the shark checked another surfer.
“We alerted people on the beach who alerted the surfers and they all came in and the shark made its way up the coast and everyone went on with their day.”
‘What an amazing opportunity to see such a shark! South Africa is incredible!’ he said.
The shark can be seen close to shore at South Africa’s Jeffreys Bay
The shark approaches two of the surfers who are paddling their boards
The camera zooms in on one of the surfers as he paddles close to the shark
The shark cuts through one of the waves as a surfer rides it before swimming towards the two surfers
The shark stays close to the surfers as they paddle around it
Professional surfer Nathan Florence, 29, from Hawaii posted the incredible drone footage a friend captured in South Africa’s Jeffreys Bay to his Facebook page
Great whites can grow up to 20 feet long and weigh 2 tons and have up to 300 razor-sharp serrated teeth arranged in rows in their giant jaws to hunt prey.
They can swim up to 35 mph and normally feast on seals, sea lions and dolphins, but can confuse people in wetsuits with what they naturally eat and then bite.
In the last 25 years 37 people have been killed by sharks off the coast of South Africa and at this time of year when the sardine flights take place they are very active.
In 2015, Australian three-time world champion Mick Fanning, then 39, was seen being attacked by a Great White on live TV, but managed to fend it off.
The latest Great White murder was the owner of a pizzeria, Kimon Bisogno, 39, in September in Plettenberg Bay, just up the coast where she was swimming.
A gruesome photo here shows the massive damage Great Whites can do, but this 38-year-old victim who was attacked two years ago in Jeffreys Bay thankfully survived.