[imagesource: YouTube / The Malibu Artist]

Spend enough time in the water, like those who surf regularly, and you’re going to cross paths with a shark at some point.

The chances of it being anything more than a fleeting encounter, if you’re even aware that it happened, are incredibly slim.

Since South Africa started keeping detailed records in 1905, there have been 248 unprovoked bites (incidents in which a bite on a live human occurs in the shark’s natural habitat with no human provocation of the shark).

In 2021, according to Statista, there were 73 unprovoked shark attacks on humans worldwide, of which nine were fatal.

South Africa recorded three unprovoked bites during the whole of 2021, although two fatal and tragic recent great white shark incidents in Plettenberg Bay have brought the issue to the fore.

Carlos Gauna, who goes by ‘The Malibu Artist’ on YouTube, has filmed countless hours of drone footage of great whites. Earlier this year, he filmed one encounter that went viral, amassing more than 10 million views on his Instagram account:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Carlos G. 🦈🐳🌌 (@themalibuartist)

Gauna says some of the surfer’s friends recognised him and reached out:

Consequently, we were connected and I was able to meet Victor at the last minute during a trip down to film white sharks. This video is his reaction, and his perspective of the events. Victor ended up hanging around with me, where we filmed another encounter just minutes later.

Victor is a remarkably chilled dude and he likely knows that remaining calm is one way to greatly reduce the chance of an unprovoked bite.

Two days ago, Gauna managed to snap this remarkable image:

 

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A post shared by Carlos G. 🦈🐳🌌 (@themalibuartist)

These sharks should be relieved that the likes of Port and Starboard, the orcas with a taste for great white liver, are nowhere to be seen.

[source:malibuartist]