A surfer off Cape Cod was only on the water a couple of minutes before experiencing a heart-pounding encounter with a great white shark, and the very moment he realized what was happening was captured in a stunning photo.
Photo by © Joe Mault/Orleans Camera.
Joe Mault, owner of Orleans Camera, told USA Today/For The Win Outdoors that he had gone to Nauset Beach in Orleans on Friday morning to shoot the building surf from the offshore storm.
He noticed Devon Zimmerman of Brooklyn, N.Y., suiting up to go surfing and thought he’d have a chance to capture an image of him catching a wave.
“Shortly after working his way through the break he paused to assess the surf,” Mault told For The Win Outdoors. “A moment later I noticed what I initially thought was his surfboard leash, but it was the wake of the great white shark. The fin broke the surface and Devon looked over his shoulder.”
It was at that moment Mault captured the amazing image.
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“It was pure shock, and you see it is literally the moment I recognize what’s going on and my only response is to lift my feet out of the water and drop my jaw,” Zimmerman told WCVB, referring to Mault’s photo. “I thought this little seal was popping up. I turn around and it was actually the head of the shark, and then I saw its dorsal fin and utterly froze.
“I thought, ‘OK, I don’t want to splash too much to bring too much attention to myself, but I also have to go very fast.”
Mault told WCVB it was “definitely tense.”
“I continued to shoot him as he paddled back to shore, as quickly and quietly as he could,” Mault told For The Win Outdoors.
Zimmerman has surfed his whole life, having grown up on the West Coast, but this was his first great white shark encounter.
Zimmerman’s wife, Sarah, told WCVB the photo “made me sick to my stomach,” and said Zimmerman was “incredibly lucky.”
Mault told For The Win Outdoors he plans on selling the image and donating a portion of the proceeds to The Atlantic Shark Conservancy.
Photo courtesy of © Joe Mault/Orleans Camera.
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