A bodyboarder came within one metre of a suspected 3.5-metre great white shark before racing along a beach to warn dozens of other people to leave the water.
Footage captured after the terrifying encounter shows the large shark cruising through clear water close to a popular surf break.
Luke Petersen was bodyboarding at Curl Curl Beach on Sydney’s northern beaches on Tuesday morning when the animal slowly approached him.
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Despite early claims that the shark had bumped and chased him, Luke later clarified that it had not made physical contact, as reported by Whats The Jam.
Responding beneath footage shared by local surfer Tom Bawdy, Luke wrote: “Bit of Chinese whispers must have got around the beach today.
“The shark didn’t bump me. It just came within a metre to suss me out and actually did a 180 and swam away.”
Luke warned another surfer beside him and the pair calmly caught a small wave back to shore.
He then travelled along the beach whistling and calling for the remaining surfers to get out of the water.
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He described the shark’s behaviour as apparently inquisitive and said he deliberately avoided thrashing around before making his way back to land.
Up to 30 surfers and a swimmer were in the sea at the time, Luke told Whats The Jam.
Local surfer and clothing brand owner Tom arrived shortly afterwards and filmed what appeared to be the same shark moving through the surf.
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In his video, a visibly shaken Tom said: “There it is. This is really rocking me.
“I don’t want to be eaten. I’m not going surfing today.”
Luke said he also launched his own drone after returning to shore and spotted the shark again.
However, he criticised what he regarded as a slow official response and claimed he saw no shark-surveillance drone pass while he was in the water between 9am and 10am.
In his Instagram comment, he said almost an hour passed before he heard the first shark alarm.
Luke also claimed surfers initially relied upon one another to spread the warning along the beach and called for improvements to the process for raising alarms and erecting shark-warning signs.
Drone operator and owner of Three Seagulls café, Dan England, also took footage of the shark later that day.
He reportedly launched his aircraft approximately half an hour after Luke came ashore.
He said two drone operators were tracking sharks around the northern and southern ends of Curl Curl but became frustrated when surfers apparently ignored attempts to warn them.
Surf Life Saving NSW disputed suggestions that its surveillance programme had failed to respond.
The organisation said the Curl Curl drone operator had been flying at the northern end of the beach and was then diverted south.
According to Surf Life Saving NSW, the operator corroborated the sighting, activated the drone’s built-in alarm and tracked the shark until it left the area.
The close call comes amid a deadly year in Australian waters, with nine shark attacks reported so far in 2026, including four which killed Nico Antic, 12, Steven Mattaboni, 38, Michael Jensz, 39, and Daniel Turpin, 35.
The dramatic footage left social media users feeling nervous even from thousands of miles away.
One person simply said: “Terrifying.”
Another person added: “This is stressful and I’m in a bathtub in France.”
The shark’s species has not been officially confirmed.
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