A paddle boarder has spoken out after footage of her went viral showing a shark circling her board.
If there's one thing you really don't want to see when you glance down as you paddle board - especially for someone like me who has zero balance - it's a fin. However, it's the sight Malea Tribble saw when paddling along an area of water between the Bahamas and Lake Worth, Florida.
Malea was out paddle boarding in June last year when a fin arose from the depths below and, even worse, began to follow her.
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Footage of the incident shared to social media shows Malea - remarkably - keeping her cool as she's ushered back inland by her husband, Ricky.
While Malea makes it back to the safety of the boat, another paddle boarder, Gabe, remains out at sea and the shark ends up making its way towards him instead.
Onlookers can be heard shouting desperately at Gabe to stay where he is while questioning what type of shark they might be dealing with - suspected to be a hammerhead.
Thankfully, the shark ends up losing interest and Gabe is able to paddle back to safety and Malea later opened up about the horrifying ordeal.
Malea told Fox 35 that she 'initially felt a few taps' on her board but dismissed it as 'seaweed on my fin'.
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"I was about 30 ft behind the boat when my husband spotted the shark fin," she continued. "Based on his reaction, I knew immediately that it was a shark. I didn’t know how big or where exactly it was. I was surprised that it was bigger and much closer than I initially thought."
She added: "At one point in the video, he’s completely under my board. I also noticed how quick and sleek the movements were. The shark was seemingly just curious what I was in his house."
The clip was filmed by founder and Executive Director of The Crossing For CF event, Travis Suit, who reflected: "We are grateful Malea was not harmed and so proud of the calm and disciplined response the Tribbles had during the situation as paddle mentors in this event, providing a great example of how to handle close encounters like this. We are visitors when we are in the ocean, it’s really their home, so it’s to be expected."
According to the International Shark Attack File, there have been 18 recorded non-fatal unprovoked incidents between humans and hammerhead sharks, but none have resulted in death.
Poppy Bilderbeck