It's the kind of scenario that most of us will only experience in our worst nightmares: being circled by a great white shark while trapped in a tiny vessel in the open ocean. For two men, however, this exact thing happened while kayaking off the Australian coast last week.
Ken Gerke and David Barwise, both fishermen, were out angling when they spotted the dorsal fin of a great white cutting through the water towards them.
In the footage, Gerke can be heard panicking as he describes the movement of the shark.
"It's chasing me, Dave come here please," he says. "I can hear him thumping away behind me. He's a good three, maybe four metres. He's been looking at me for a while."
"I'm f***ing shaking," he adds.
The ordeal went on for an uncomfortable amount of time, but, once back on shore, both Gerke and Barwise agreed that it was a thrilling experience.
"I'm pretty sure he wasn't out to hurt us, he's just very curious and friendly," Barwise commented. "I think like a very big puppy dog in a way and he was coming over to check us out."
You can check out footage of the incident below:
Along with the video, Gerke posted to Facebook:
"Had an awesome encounter with a very large Great White Shark in the kayak this morning. The footage kicks in after it had circled me once already and I decided to move away… unfortunately she decided to give chase, she was very curious.
"Such an awesome experience, I’ve caught small Sharks in the past, had juvenile Bull Sharks cruise past the yak in local estuaries… but nothing like this Beast.
"The last part of the footage was taken by Dave Barwise after I moved over near him, he caught some awesome footage of the Shark checking me out.
"Please excuse the language, panicked breathing and shaky footage… but I’m sure considering what happened you can understand my excitement and fear."
Needless to say, these two are incredibly lucky to get away with their lives - and capturing the entire experience on camera was just an added bonus.
