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Sydney surfer captures his near miss with a great white shark on camera

The video will probably make your palms sweaty

Doug Bolton
Thursday 25 June 2015 10:57 BST
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A man surfs in stormy seas in Sydney, Australia
A man surfs in stormy seas in Sydney, Australia (Tony Feder/Getty Images)

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An Australian surfer managed to capture the moment he was circled by a great white shark on camera.

The nerve-wracking video was shot at Manly Beach in Sydney, which lies on the shore of the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand.

It's a popular haunt for the city's surfers, but this one gets more than just big waves when he goes out to sea.

Using a waterproof camera, he takes a look under the surface as he paddles fairly close to the beach.

Clear in view is the grey shadow of a great white shark, its distinctive fin appearing ominously through the murky water.

The surfer's breathing becomes more panicked and his paddling speeds up, as he tries to move into shallower waters to get away from the threat.

Somehow remaining relatively calm, he moves towards the shore slowly. Taking another look for the shark, he finds that it's gone.

Great white sharks have a fearsome reputation, but there's a chance that this particular one was just curious. Then again, like most people, this surfer clearly wasn't willing to take the risk.

Attacks are rare but not unheard of in the area. The last fatal attack in Sydney was in 1963, but earlier this year, further up the coast in Ballina, New South Wales, Japanese surfer Tadashi Nakahara was killed after he was bitten in the legs by a shark, believed to be a great white.

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