Great White Shark Attack Caught On GoPro

Refugio State Beach, a section of pacific coastline west of Santa Barbara, the perfect location for a shore dive. Local spearo Tyler McQuillen was spearfishing this shallow coastline when he encountered a Great White Sark.

Initally Tyler thought his friends were playing a joke on him by pulling at his fin. Shortly after he realised the shark had actually ripped off his fin, leaving him with two broken toes and a serious laceration.

A Great White's nibble. image source: news.com.au

In the heat of the moment Tyler lost grip of his speargun. He quickly recovered from the first encounter, re-gripped his speargun and was ready to give it a poke when it came back around.

Fortunatley for Tyler, it appears the shark was simply curious and just coming in to check out the action, otherwise this could have ended much worse. Tyler says, that he is "Extremely lucky to get out of this one alive."

After the incident, local authorities closed access to the area for 24 hours.