A Western Australian teenager has had a terrifying encounter with a shark at a popular surf break in the state’s south.
Matt Marshall, from Mandurah, was body-boarding at Prevelly Beach near Margaret River on September 24, when a fin burst through the wave in front of him.
Despite initially thinking it was a friendly dolphin, after reviewing footage taken by a friend the teen realised it was instead a shark.
West Australian teenager Matt Marshall (pictured) had a terrifying encounter with a shark at Prevelly Beach in the state’s south, when a fin emerged from the water less than a metre away
‘You just see the fin pull off the wave, about a metre in front of me … so lucky it didn’t come towards me a bit quicker,’ the lucky teen told 7 News.
Friend and videographer Kobi Evans was recording the close call from the beach and believes the beast was around four metres in length.
‘He’s lucky he went for the wave essentially, because he could have been missing a leg for all we knew,’ he said.
The encounter didn’t stop Mr Marshall from returning to the water a short while later though, this time without spotting the unwelcome visitor.
Mr Marhsall (pictured) had been body-boarding on September 24 and said he initially thought it was just a dolphin
Friend and videographer Kobi Evans recorded the close call from the beach and believes the beast was around four metres in length. It came a day before a similarly sized shark knocked a Belgian woman off her board at a nearby surf spot
The incident occurred just a day before a Belgian woman in her 20s was knocked about by a four-metre shark at nearby North Point beach.
Thankfully the woman’s board took the brunt of the force, with chunks missing from where it struck.
The south-west corner of Western Australia is renowned for shark sightings and attacks.
In August 2010, 31-year-old Nick Edwards died while surfing at a beach off Gracetown, while just three years later another man, Chris Boyd, was killed in the same area.
This year, 17-year-old Laeticia Brouwer was also fatally wounded while surfing with her family further south at the popular Kelp Beds break, near Esperance.