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It was a perfect day for kitesurfing, the spectacular white beaches of the Western Australia south coast set against a cloudless sky.
But lurking beneath the cool blue water was a danger French travel blogger Isabelle Fabre almost didn’t notice until it was too late.
As she whipped across the shallow water off Fitzgerald River National Park last Sunday she saw a black shape below the surface, but dismissed it as just the shadow of her kite.
“Then I thought it was a dolphin doing a trick, you know when they spring out just in front of you and give you a heart attack,” she said.
However, Fabre, 30, soon realised that not only was the menacing shape bigger than her board, it was circling her.
“When it passed beneath me, I realised it was a huge Great White shark,” she said.
She tried to turn around and surf away from the creature, but the wind was too gentle and every time she dipped into the water she thought “this is the end”.
By now her friend Cyril, who was shooting drone footage of her kitesurfing, had also spotted the shark, which Fabre said measured at least two metres, and was frantically shouting for her to get out of the water.
“I was struggling to get my ass out of the water and thought ‘I am done’,” she said.
“I heard Cyril shouting shark Isabelle, get out… he saw everything through the drone and thought I was done too.
“I saw my life parade in front of my eyes every time I felt myself touch the water.”
Finally Fabre reached the beach, shaking with fear at how close she came to death, but at least with a great story to tell her 9000 followers.
“Now I can say that I have ridden a great white shark!” she said.
Sourse: nzherald.co.nz
