Clip: Great White Shark Lurks Around a Pack of Surfers in SoCal

Originally posted on SURFER | By Jade Eckardt | Last updated 3/11/24

Surfers are guests in the sea. Day after day, year after year, we bob around in the ocean, legs dangling, arms paddling in the unknown, bodies at the mercy of anything that wants to investigate.

Lately, we've seen a plethora of whale action, from mellow visits to accidental body slams. There have also been surfer manta ray encounters, surfers and dolphins sharing waves, and even sea otters snatching surfboards.

Then there's the monster under the bed—the men in gray suits. In the clip below, we see a beefy one hanging out with a group of surfers in a SoCal lineup.

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A post shared by Carlos Gauna (@themalibuartist)

Our latest great white shark and surfer footage comes from California-based nature videographer Carlos Gauna, aka The Malibu Artist.

Guana captioned the clip above:

"White Sharks in Southern California are near surfers more often than you think. Here's a scene showing a group of young surfers near a juvenile white shark and seemingly not aware of it."

The clip shows a handful of surfers paddling around a Southern California surf spot. A great white shark is just hanging out nearby, minding its own business. We'd think they'd be able to see it, but from what we can tell, ignorance was bliss.

In the comments section, a viewer noted a study we reported on last summer:

"The study that the CSULB Shark Lab published last year showing how often we overlap habitat with juvenile white sharks while recreating should be reassuring, but the drone images are always a little unnerving! Beautiful footage!"

The study revealed that great white sharks swim near people often, aka, a whopping 97% of the time. Which is pretty much all the time.

But take a look at the bright side. It shows they’re not out to attack surfers and swimmers as much as people think.

This article first appeared on SURFER and was syndicated with permission.

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