Australia’s Today show interviewed surfer Daniel Caban, 22, and photographer Nathan McClaren about their incredible brush with a great white shark. However, the interview didn’t exactly come off as professional journalism, as host Karl Stefanovic laughed hysterically at his own jokes made at the expense of the pair.
During the interview, Stefanovic seems more interested in the pair’s lifestyle choices and continually mocks them with surfer cliches thinly veiled as what you could call ‘banter’. Check out the video here.
We’re gonna need a bigger boat
So, the actual story of what happened. A couple of years ago, in the summer of 2016, surfer Caban was carving up the waves at Swansea Heads, just south of Newcastle in New South Wales, Australia, when friend and photographer Nathan McClaren captured an 11 ft great white shark bursting out of the sea within paddling distance of his friend.
Moments earlier, Caban had been paddling in the exact spot the shark burst out of the water before catching the wave seen in the picture below. McClaren said that after the close call, he rushed down to the water to warn Caban about how close he was surfing to the massive predator.
“About half an hour before the photo was taken, we thought we had seen something, but obviously it was so quick no one was really too sure,” McClaren said.
“The guys had been paddling across the bay to each break, and they had come over to that break and were surfing for about 15 minutes, and then suddenly there was this shark breaching.”
“As soon as we saw it, a couple of guys started running down, and we were tooting the horn in the car, and I started waving my shirt in the air.
“At first, the surfers thought we’d let them know there’s a big wave coming, and they started paddling back out. But then they saw we were getting pretty frantic, so they got the message and came in.”
“When Daniel saw the photo, his jaw pretty much hit the ground. He had been in the water for about an hour, and I’d say that shark was feeding around there the whole time. It goes to show the shark wasn’t out there to kill him, but it was definitely feeding out there.”
Were the reporters judgmental? Let us know below your thoughts on this shark tale. Why not check this out?
