A close encounter of the toothy kind

Two PE diving buddies, Eugene van Wyngaardt and Kyle Murie, managed to get themselves an A-Grade dinner party story whilst spearfishing just off Thunderbolt reef last week.

In an area known as Pinnacles, south of Thunderbolt (which is on the wildside), what started as a fishing trip for a coupla yellowtail quickly turned into a heart-stopping moment for the guys. 

Eugene had just speared two nice yellowtail, and then noticed that there were no ragged tooth sharks around. Something which is unusual for this area. He started was thinking "wonder why, maybe a big white around?" And as the saying goes, careful what you wish for.

Minutes later after surfacing from his dive, a great white passed right underneath him. A big female at least 5m long. She turned and came in very close, on then on her second approach Eugene had to push her away with his speargun!  And get his legs out the way pretty pronto.

Whilst this was all happening Kyle had hightailed it the 30m swim back to the boat, jumped in, cut the anchor line and then reversed the boat back towards Eugene. Once they were both safely in the boat, the shark still circled them another 3 times.

Shew, those hearts musta been pumping custard ou's! Glad you got out safely and have nothing more than a super cool shark story to tell.

Thanks to Eugene & Kyle for the video & story.