Close Encounter: Surfer Touches Great White Shark & Doesn't Realize It

I’ve always heard that “they’re always there” and “they see you before you see them” and “you’d be surprised how close one has been to you,” but it’s still crazy to see this kind of footage proving exactly what I’ve heard all along.

This guy needs an award.. not only is he capturing wildlife footage on a par with almost nothing we've ever seen, he's documenting some damn near unprecedented behaviour and encounters Nearly 2 decades in to the platform and the ubiquity of drone technology and this guy still created a unique, engaging and educational channel with what he had - endless kudos

I really loved how you said “sharks aren’t the only ones that like to surf” instead of saying it the other way around. We gotta respect their home

Sharks swim in the surf as a way to conserve energy or “take a break” from always being on the move in order to breathe. The ocean swells about to break bring frothy oxygen rich water close to shore, the sharks use the the swells to get oxygen from the waves, having to use less energy to breathe as the oxygen comes to them as opposed to them going to the oxygen, so to speak

You need to be the new creative director of Shark Week!!! This is absolutely stunning!

I've surfed my whole life and have always wondered if I had been near a great white shark. This video proves that it's probably happened multiple times. The fact that guy saw nothing paddling right over the shark was eye-opening. Stunning.

I grew up in Southern California decades ago and spent a lot of time in the water. Surfer friends all had stories about being out beyond the breakers and seeing, even touching, sharks. They've always been there and thank you for telling the story in your calm, non-sensational way

As a surfer in Aus, I know they are there. These videos go a long way to help many of us understand their true behaviour when out past the breakers. Protect and conserve.

Shark: trying to hang out, make some new friends Surfer: smack Shark: swims away crying

I love your videos because it shows the true nature of sharks without biased editing. Thanks for what you do! This should be educational content

How I love the cool, calm, non-sensational narration on your videos, really nice contrast to stuff like Shark week and similar. Had this been on Shark week all of those surfers had been inches away from certain death. ;) The footage you capture is really amazing!

Imagine the shark getting slapped by a human and just scooting away like damn lady okay I wasn’t doing anything 😂😂

I spent a lot of time in the water surfing SoCal, Baja, etc. I always suspected they were there more than we knew. I know I've been eye-balled and I felt it. If they really wanted us, there'd be dozens of attacks every week. Your videos are really important, thank you.

Who is here after the LA Times story today? This is awesome footage! Thank you so much Malibu artist!

I enjoy watching your content. Love seeing animals in their natural surroundings.

Incredible footage. As a surfer, I am not sure if watching these is good or not. Your mind does crazy things when you are sitting out on a surfboard, and you know they are out there. I am comforted in seeing that they are always around, with so few attacks. I did see at least an 8-10 foot GWS at Sunset beach, north OC 3 years ago, right in the surf line. I freaked out, paddled out as quickly as I could, pulling muscles as i did so. Scared me half to death seeing that Giant Triangle front dorsal fin, and a long notched at the top tail fin, and it looked like those fins were at least 8 feet apart. The shark just headed out to the ocean between over 100 surfers, with no incident. Still was super scary, and to this day that image is burned into my brain. Thanks for sharing these awesome videos. Do you see many between Huntington Beach and Seal Beach?

If these surfers wore polarized goggles they would be amazed by what they see beneath the waves

I would love to see a part of the video where you get to talk to the surfers and show them the clips, capture their reactions, and tell them more about your amazing findings!!

It is actually very understandable and explainable as to why in waters so clear a surfer can still miss a shark. They're right on top of the water surface, they don't have up-high vision looking straight down, where light can reflect directly back up to your sight (as in the case of the drone). Instead, whatever they may see is highly distorted due to light refraction off the surface of the water, particularly in this scenario captured where the surfer was just beginning to catch the wave swell as he swept past the shark swimming below him. Still, a very very close shave there. Imagine that we can see all this now because of drone tech, how much more common such close proximity encounters were in the past and nobody would have been the wiser?

Shark just chilling, catching the waves and was rudely slapped, then moved away. 🥺 Thank you for these beautiful, well documented videos. Your voice is so calming. I just found your channel and binged most of the videos. 🙂