A group of five surfers had the surprise of a lifetime last weekend when a shark decided to hunt down one of them in the waters off Santa Barbara.
Video posted by Ron Takeda shows a fellow foil surfer holding a selfie stick recording the waves, with Takeda trailing him in the background.
Video shows two foil surfers ripping waves off Santa Barbara before suddenly a shark starts hunting one of them. Youtube/@smallwavetav Takeda said he wanted to test out new equipment — foil surfing boards are equipped with an underwater hydrofoil that help lift the board out of the water.
At one point in the planned 19-mile run, Takeda said he heard splashing white water and gurgling behind him, trailing his board.
He initially thought it was seaweed or his waist leash, but there was no drag, Takeda said. Another look back revealed a “big girthy dark torpedo shape,” he said.
He recounted yelling to his friend, “Hey is that a dolphin?” The shared video shows Takeda asking, “Is that a shark?”
“Yea!” his friend responded. “Don’t fall!”
The video later captures the race between Takeda and the shark, as Takeda speeds up.
“Oh my god, it’s coming for you!” his friend yells. “Run!”
“Go! Go! Go!” his friend continues yelling, as the chase resumes further into the background of the video. Toward the end of filming, Takeda only appears as a speck on the water’s horizon.
A shark chases Takeda in the background. Youtube/@smallwavetav Takeda said he was making tight turns but the shark trashed hard to match every turn. He tried not looking back to focus on the fleeing, but heard the water spraying off the dorsal fin.
“I was getting a little concerned because it was working hard to chase me, it was relentless, and chased for a long time,” he said. “I heard it thrashing behind me throughout this whole video plus many minutes past the video.”
After some periods of silence only for the shark to reappear, Takeda said the shark eventually stopped. His friend caught up to him with about 12 miles left in the planned run.
It was an intense chase, the friend said, identified as Youtuber smallwavetav.
“He turned left, it turned left. He sped up, it sped up. It was a full game of cat and mouse, but…with a 10-11ft shark,” he said.
The incident comes as experts warn of more shark appearances off of California, as unusually warm ocean temperatures and a potential El Niño could recreate conditions where sharks move closer to shore.
