An Australian surfer’s narrow escape from a 1.5-meter shark filmed as onlookers fear for his safety.

The footage of the surfer & the shark will make your toes curl

Matt Wilkinson’s close call happened on NSW far north coast and Matt said he had no idea the massive predator had approached him while paddling on his surf board at Sharps beach.

Matt said, I was surfing out the back at Sharpes Beach and just cruising on my own and I heard a splash and a noise and looked around and couldn’t see anything. Then the drone came down and told me that there was a dangerous shark in the area, return to the beach.

I got to the shore feeling a bit weird and the lifeguards showed me the footage and I realised how close it came without knowing it was there. It looks like it’s going for my leg and it’s changed its mind.

The pro surfer’s had close encounters with sharks before

The champion surfer’s narrow escape is his second close encounter with a colossal shark – he competed before Mick Fanning was attacked by a great white in South Africa.

I feel grateful and pretty weird at the same time but happy it decided not to go me. When I saw the footage I saw the similarities, like I had a yellow leg rope on and Mick’s board was yellow is what I was thinking about when I came in. I called my wife because I didn’t want her to see the footage before I saw it. She doesn’t want me surfing for a couple of days now.

The eye watering film was shot by an unmanned aerial vehicle operated by Surf Life Saving NSW.

Sharpes beach was evacuated and will been closed for 24 hours.

Beau Monks, the drone operator who spotted the circling shark said,

It sort of came out of nowhere, then went right up to Matt. It moved pretty fast. I was tracking it and notified the lifeguards and used the speaker on the drone to get everyone out of the water.

Safe to say I won’t be going in the water anytime soon!

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