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Video: Paddleboarder's 'Gnarly' Encounter With A Shark
A paddleboarder who went in search of sharks off of Manhattan Beach found one. The encounter with a great white shark left him "shaking like a leaf," as he says in the video captured via helmet camera.
After hearing that two sharks had been sighted off the coast by surfers, Durand, who told ABC 7, "I like to live on the edge, I like to do things that scare me," paddled out yesterday morning hoping to get some footage.
He was about 200 yards off the coast near El Porto when a young shark swam right underneath him. "I didn't know if he was going to jump up on the board, take a bite out of the board," he said.
He decided to get some even closer footage of the shark by taking his helmet off and putting it in the water, then, as he told ABC, he realized it wasn't the smartest idea: "I go, what are you doing? Pull your hand out!"
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Durand said the run-in left him "rattled... I've had my adrenaline going full tilt all day." As he exclaims in the video, the experience was "gnarly."
According to ABC, juvenile sharks are common in SoCal because female sharks give birth here. The one Durand encountered is estimated to be about seven feet long.
Here's the video, in which Durand can be heard swearing profusely throughout.
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This work is only possible with community support. Every investigation, service guide, and story is made possible by people like you who believe that local news is a public good and that everyone deserves access to trustworthy local information.
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