Surfer's terrifying Old Woman Island tiger shark encounter
A MASSIVE 4.5m-5m tiger shark darting through the surf was the last thing Jake Roberts-Naiyok and his mates wanted to see this morning.
Sunshine Coast
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A MASSIVE 4.5m-5m tiger shark darting through the surf was the last thing Jake Roberts-Naiyok and his mates wanted to see when they hit the water for a wave this morning.
But that's exactly what they got when they paddled out at their local Old Woman Island break just after 7am.
"It was pretty scary,” Mr Roberts-Naiyok said from the safety of his office today.
The 25-year-old project manager had been sitting out the back with a few other local "young blokes” waiting for the next wave to roll through.
They were surfing the left side of the island and there were a few others surfing the right, with a number of boats also anchored up behind the breakers.
The alarm was sounded by one of Mr Roberts-Naiyok's group who was paddling back out after catching a wave and told his mates he thought he'd seen something in the waves.
What he'd seen was a huge tiger shark Mr Roberts-Naiyok estimated to be about 4.5m-5m in length.
The group paddled into the rocks on the island, climbed out and watched the large shark swimming around in the surf zone for about 20 minutes.
"It came right into the break,” Mr Roberts-Naiyok said.
"There was heaps of baitfish around.”
Mr Roberts-Naiyok said there'd been a number of turtles around this morning too and he wondered whether the shark may have been attracted by a turtle carcass.
He estimated the shark had come within 20m-30m of the group of surfers.
"We were close enough to see it going through the wave,” Mr Roberts-Naiyok said.
He said it wasn't uncommon to see sharks around the island and he'd heard stories of a large tiger shark frequenting the island, but it was rare to see them come in so close.
After about 20 minutes they watched the shark head out behind the surf zone and that was when they made their move, jumping in the water and paddling back to Mudjimba Beach in a close grouping.
"It was probably the fastest paddle home I've had,” he recalled.
"We were pretty well hugging each other on the way home.”
The project manager said a number of the boats left the area and they warned a few other surfers, but a number of them remained out in the water.
He said they advised lifeguards when they got back to the beach.
With massive surf tipped to grace the region this weekend Mr Roberts-Naiyok said he would probably be taking the jet skis out to assess the area over the weekend instead of paddling across when he does go for a surf.
The sighting came after a great white shark was reportedly spotted on Sunday breaking the water's surface off Old Woman Island.
Mark Veale and two others were surfing the southern side of the ocean when Mr Veale saw the 7-8ft shark breach the water.
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