In California Surfing News: Mavericks surfers got a major dose of adrenaline on March 24, 2019, but for once it had nothing to do with surfing huge waves.
Instead, it came from a close encounter with a humongous great white shark, estimated to be 18 to 20 feet long, that cruised within inches of one jet ski and forced the evacuation of the entire surf break.
“This was by far the biggest and scariest creature I’ve ever seen in the ocean.”
“It looked like a whale,” explained Stanley as he watched it rise out of the green depths of the ocean.
Stanley said the shark swam just inches under his jet ski, close enough for him to see the scratch marks on its skin and its dark gray eye.
“I could have reached out and touched it,” Stanley recalled.
He estimated the shark to be about 16 to 20 feet long since it was much longer than his jet ski and rescue board.
Realizing that the surfer had no idea the shark was out there, Stanley turned on his jet ski and revved it loudly several times in an attempt to draw the shark’s attention away.
It worked and Stanley was able to scoop up the surfer on his jet ski but the shark then started heading for the waiting lineup of surfers at Mavericks.
Stanley raced out to those surfers and alerted them about the huge shark, pulling as many as he could onto his rescue board and towing the rest in on their surfboards.
“I had like 8 people in,” recalled Stanley “I basically evacuated Mavericks!”