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A truly surreal scene unfolded over the weekend off of Santa Barbara, California when a group of foil surfers were chased by a massive shark. They were completing a 20-mile downwind ride from UCSB to Carpinteria when the large shark popped up right behind one of the surfers and displayed extremely curious behavior.
The shark repeatedly sped up and slowed to, appearing to graze the foil surfer several times. All of this took place while one of the other surfers in the group was filming and captured several minutes of the encounter on camera.
California Foil Surfer Chased By Huge Shark
For context, a typical foil board is 5′ to 9′ long. The one in the video appears to be on the longer side, at least 6′ but likely over 7′ or more.
Seeing that shark next to it, it’s clear the shark is larger than the board itself and that must’ve turned that surfers stomach into liquid in an instant. I’m sure it did not help that the guy filming tells him “don’t fall in” as if he needed that advice. The last thing he’d ever want to do in that moment was wind up in the water.
Check it out:
In a follow-up video, the guy filming joked “just so you know, it was actually a crisis actor dolphin that we hired.” Ultimately, it does not seem as if we will be able to determine the species of shark that was so curious in Ron Takeda, the surfer who got chased, but they were back in the water the very next day so the encounter did not seem to deter them at all from paddling out.
In fact, after the curious shark chased Ron Takeda for several minutes (~3 minutes) it peeled off and they had another 10 miles of paddling before they reached their destination.
Shout out to Ron for keeping calm and collected as he was being chased by the shark while foil surfing because many would not be able to remain cool in that instance. I’m not so sure I would’ve been able to stop myself from panicking just a little bit, but I’m also a Florida/Gulf guy and the Pacific Ocean’s vastness intimidates me.