Some of the world's best surfers endured a spooky moment on the eve of the Margaret River Pro in Western Australia as they were forced to flee the water after spotting a shark.
Surfline.com reports World Surf League competitors Kanoa Igarashi, Jeremy Flores, Caio Ibelli, Alessa Quizon and Wiggolly Dantas - as well as Margies wildcard Leo Fioravanti - were getting one final warm-up session in at the main break on Thursday night when a shark appeared about 15m from where they were sitting in the line-up.
"It looked like a submarine," Igarashi told Stab Magazine. "It was creepily emerging out of the water and it kept growing, the fin - it never stopped. I looked over and thought 'woah there's a dolphin next to the shark' but it was actually the tail fin!
"The tail fin was like seven, eight feet away from the main fin and it was thrashing around and then shot down. I looked over at Caio and he had the most scared face I've ever seen ... I'm calling a 15-footer."
The terrified group later discovered the shark had been hanging around for 30 minutes. "We were all waiting to get one more wave, and everyone was talking to each other with their backs to the ocean," Ibelli told surfline.com.