iStockphoto / moisseyev
A surfer at Yamba Main Beach, Australia was filmed riding a wave with shark riding on the front of his surfboard.
The juvenile shark appeared to be deceased but it didn’t make the scene any less surreal as some (myself included) began galling it the most Australian video of the year.
The video, shared by Surfer magazine, has racked up hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok:
@kristingrace99 Shark on a surfboard! (Surfer was bringing a dead shark in to the shore). #Shark #MainBeachYamba #Yamba #Beach #surfer #surf #onlyinaustralia #nsw #australia @Clarencevalleygrafton
It is hard to know for sure what led to this video but presumably, the deceased shark was floating in the water and the surfer pulled it onto his surfboard where the shark stayed in place because the board has surf wax and sharkskin is abrasive, hence why it waggled back and forth without falling off, and he paddled the shark back to shore to get it out of the water so other predators didn’t come in to eat it. That is my best (and only) guess of what’s actually happening there.
The same TikTok video was also picked up by 9 News Australia. According to Pete Thomas of For The Win the shark species wasn’t identified.
Yamba Main Beach is a popular beach south of Brisbaine on Australia’s Pacific Coast. The beach is best known for ocean pools that are right on the beach and built into the natural rocks so the saltwater pools are part of the beach itself.
As is the case with any beach, there are sharks at Yamba Main Beach. According to Australia’s Dorsal Watch, there have already been 21 reported shark sightings in August at Yamba. The Dorsal Watch dashboard doesn’t specify the types of sharks or sizes of sharks seen at the beach, just whether or not there was a sighting.
iStockphoto / :bbevren