Rare Aggressive Shark Sends Pro Surfers Scrambling in Bali (Clip)
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Shark attacks aren’t common in Bali.
Compared to, say, Australia or Florida or Northern California or South Africa or other surfing hotspots where surfers have the looming trepidation of a shark encounter every time they paddle out, Bali is much less known for shark-on-surfer exchanges.
But that doesn’t mean they’re not there; see below.
The clip comes from Varun Tandjung, son of Balinese surf legend Rizal Tandjung. It shows splashing in the water, like the shark is feasting on something, then Varun scrambling to shore. But after the incident, Varun still paddled back out.
He captioned the clip:
“chased out by a shark 🦈 still went out for 1 after🤷🏽♂️”
And the audio commentary on the clip, coming from those watching on the beach, went like this:
“That’s a shark!”
“Ohhh fuck!”
“What was that?”
“That’s not a dolphin, ay?”
“No, that’s a shark!”
“There’s a fish!”
In the comments section, longtime friend of Varun’s dad, Kelly Slater, wrote:
“Don’t fall!”
Reports say that it was likely a tiger shark feasting on a sea cow, just a few feet from where Varun and others were surfing at Nyang Nyang.
As mentioned, shark activity and attacks in Bali are rare. Back in 2016, a San Diego surfer was attacked by a bull shark while surfing the rivermouth wave at Balian, nearly losing his arm. But it seems like, according to some commenters on Stab’s post of the clip, things could be different now.
“Just like Hawaii,” wrote big-wave surfer and waterman, Mark Healey. “El Niño coming in hot. The deck always gets shuffled when this happens.”
And from Pyzel Surfboards: “Uluwatu is swarming with ‘em!!”
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