The terrifying moment a paddleboarder has an up close and personal encounter with a 9-foot GREAT WHITE shark
- Mike Durand was enjoying the waters off Southern California's Manhattan Beach
- Durand saw two of the juvenile sharks, but only one came directly up to his paddleboard
A Southern California man went looking for sharks on his paddleboard on Wednesday, but he ended up being the one watched when a 9-foot great white shark came right up to his board.
Mike Durand had already spotted one of the juvenile sharks as he plied the waters off Manhattan beach. When that one swam away, he thought the thrill had ended.
Then another beast came right at him.
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Up close and personal: Mike Durand took his paddleboard out at Manhattan Beach to spot sharks but one specimen ended up taking even more of an interest in him
'He's swimming around me,' Durand says in video he captured with his GoPro camera. 'Hopefully he's not coming to get me.'
'Holy s**t! He's checking me out,' says Durand as the torpedo-shaped shark swims directly under the paddleboard.
The encounter lasts only a moment, but the shark's proximity understandably rattles the veteran surfer.
'I'm shaking like a leaf,' he says as he gasps for air. 'Gnarly!'
'I'm shaking like a leaf!': The 9-foot great white shark spent some time cruising around Durand, who is understandably rattled in the video he captured of the encounter
Circling: As the beast circled, Durand kept his camera steadily trained on the 9-foot juvenile great white
Durand's curious shark was a juvenile, about half the length of a full-grown adult.
The largest specimens of great whites, which frequent waters off the coasts of every continent but Antarctica, can grow in excess of 20 feet and are able to detect a single drop of blood in 25 gallons of water.
Durand and his employees at SwellMagnet.com, a site that posts free surf reports and streams surf cameras, posted his heart pumping footage on Youtube and the story quickly spread to local news.
But the original post on Durand's Youtube account likely sums the experience up best:
'It's all fun until someone loses an eye, (or leg).'
Memorable: After some very tense moments, the shark swam away and Durand was left with a very thrilling story to take back to his friends and family--and thanks to his video, to the entire world
First time for everything: Durand is a veteran surfer, but his experience shark-seeing on a paddle board has become one of his more memorable experiences
Thankful: Surfer, family man, and now a relieved paddleboarder, Durand caught his video with a GoPro camera as he paddled. He runs swellmagnet.com, a site that offers free surf reports and streaming surf cams
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