Great White Shark Strikes Surfer's Board at Waitpinga Beach

On the morning of June 5, 2006, Peter Dunn, a 40-year-old fireman and experienced competitive surfer, was surfing at Waitpinga Beach on the Fleurieu Peninsula, approximately 80 kilometres south of Adelaide, South Australia. The conditions were ideal for surfing, with clear water offering 20 metres of visibility, glassy one-metre swells, and an offshore breeze. At 11:30 AM, Dunn was positioned about 60 metres from shore in water approximately 1.5 metres deep, sitting upright on his 6'4" white trifin board while waiting for a suitable wave. He had been in the water for about 45 minutes. As he paddled to position himself for an incoming wave, two nearby surfers shouted a warning. Dunn then observed a large great white shark approaching from below. The shark, estimated at approximately 14 feet in length, struck Dunn's surfboard at a 45-degree angle, about one-third of the way down from the nose. The impact nearly knocked Dunn off his board, but he managed to lean forward and maintain his grip on the front of the board. As the shark rolled slightly to its left, Dunn glimpsed its eye and teeth, though no part of the shark's head fully breached the surface. Throughout the encounter, the shark's movements remained slow and casual, with no signs of aggression or rapid directional changes. After the initial contact, the shark returned in the direction from which it came. Witnesses in the carpark observed the shark streak through a nearby gutter containing a school of salmon, dividing the fish into two groups before disappearing from view. Dunn caught the next wave to shore without further incident. He sustained no injuries, describing the encounter as a nudge rather than an attack. The incident occurred in an area where shark sightings had become increasingly common in preceding weeks, and where a fatal shark attack involving a white shark had occurred in 1989.