Video shows shark chasing Central Coast surfer for more than a mile. ‘Don’t fall!’
A pair of surfers got a big surprise last week while riding their foilboards in the ocean along the Central Coast.
On April 26, Ron Takeda and his buddy Travis embarked on a 20-mile foil run from UC Santa Barbara to Carpinteria, according to a YouTube post on @smallwavtav.
Foilboards are self-propelled surfboards with a fin and wings beneath them that allow the boards to ride about the surface of the water.
As the friends rode their boards under a stormy sky, Travis held the camera, showing him and Takeda ripping it over the choppy water.
Then suddenly, a fin appeared behind Takeda’s board.
The pair immediately realized he had a shark on his tail, and Travis yelled, “don’t fall!” with a chuckle, the video showed.
As the shark continued to follow Takeda, Travis yelled, “Oh, my god! Run! Run! Go!”
Surfer describes being chased by shark
Takeda posted about the incident on Facebook.
“I heard splashing white water and gurgling behind me. I looked back and saw whitewater trailing my board,” he wrote. “I thought I was dragging seaweed or my waist leash, but there wasn’t any drag associated with it.”
“I looked back again and saw a big girthy dark torpedo shape following me,” he said.
Every move Takeda made, the shark followed.
“He turned left, it turned left. He sped up, it sped up. It was a full game of cat and mouse, but ... with a 10- to 11-foot shark,” the YouTube caption said.
Finally, after about a mile, the shark lost interest and left the pair alone.
“It is a big ocean out there and a good reminder for how wild nature can be,” the YouTube post said. “Sharks are cool animals. If you treat them with respect, they will leave you alone. If you glide over them, they may become curious.”
This story was originally published May 2, 2026 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Video shows shark chasing Central Coast surfer for more than a mile. ‘Don’t fall!’."
