Surfing News

Surfer Escapes Great White Attack at Cabarita Beach Amid Rising Shark Encounters

August 19, 2025

A surf cam has captured the almost-final moments of a surfer after he was hit by what was, likely, a twelve-foot Great White shark at Cabarita Beach, the site of the WSL’s Tweed Heads Pro a few years back.

One month back, phone cameras were there to record the Jaws-like scene of a shark chasing surfers in to the beach after biting a sixteen-year-old on the arms and legs.

In 2020, foilboarder Christian Bungate was surfing Cabarita when he was hit by a Great White described as a “tank” which left behind a souvenir tooth behind in the foil’s carbon foil fibres.

“I’m 100 per cent sure if I was on a normal surfboard it would’ve given the shark clear access to get straight back at me and it probably would’ve taken out my stomach,” he said. “Instead it caught the wing of my foil board, hence why there’s a bloody tooth in it. I left my board and I crawled up the beach and I lay on my stomach bawling my eyes out,” Bungate said.

This morning, at 7:26am, local surfer Brad Ross was hit while shredding the B-grade point on a pretty dreamy three-foot morn.

Details are necessarily scant ’cause it just happened but local reporter Nicka35 noted that a twelve-foot Great White shark was spotted by a drone shortly after the attack.

More as it lands etc.