Surfing a fairly secluded reef-break, offshore across a channel. This place is in a very southern state of Australia.
Overcast weather, but a still, amazing day for the waves. I was surfing with only one other guy - we were trading waves and getting to know each other in between sets.
I asked what he did for a living and he was a marine biologist. We’d both recently moved to the area and were new to surfing it as well.
Despite it being extremely good surf, after 40 mins he says, “I don’t like this, something feels off, I feel like I’m being watched, like I’m bait”.
I didn’t want to leave as it was excellent surf, but this guy was a marine biologist so I took his instinct as a sign to play it safe. We paddled back across the deep channel together as quickly as we could without panicking and walked the 15 mins trek back to the carpark talking s**t the whole way. I got his mobile number for future surfs together given how small-town it is here and not knowing anyone.
We noticed a 15ft inflatable boat pull up near the reef and hang around for a bit without much thought. Later that night while looking at my social media, I read about three fisherman at the same location we were at that morning, at the same time - in their boat; as they pulled up to check their cray pots on the beach side of the reef, they were circled twice by a great white shark that was as big as their boat.
That guy most likely saved me from a horrible experience that day, I messaged him with the link to the Facebook page with the comments regarding their experience. Chills ran through my body for a good twenty mins. He was adamant he felt the presence of something and he was right.