Guy Has Intensely Close Encounter With Great White Shark

click to play video

Australian filmmaker and certified insane person Ash Gibb recently got cozy with a great white shark. In a video posted to his YouTube channel, Gibb gets into the water with naught but a snorkel and a GoPro, according to his description of the video.

He told ABC he was surprised by the shark even though he was hoping to have an encounter with one. "I dove down. I was in about five meters of water getting a great shot of this fish and I felt this massive thump from behind," Gibb said. "Very quickly I saw the great white shoot into the picture."

The shark circles a couple times and gets intensely close to the camera on a couple passes.

"At first I was quite excited. I thought, great, this is what I came for," he said. "The biggest thing for me was just focusing on my breathing. I didn't want to show that I was scared. I reminded myself of my belief about sharks, which is the fact that they don't eat humans on purpose. We're not their food. I think that's sort of what got me through a lot of nerves because it was very intense. Even though I wanted to go and do that, it was a very testing situation."

Even if he's shaking at the end (and assuming there are no photographic tricks at play), he's a madman with nerves of steel. The result is some fantastic footage of a great white shark.

Watch the video above to see an incredibly close encounter with a great white shark.

h/t Pedestrian via ABC

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Dustin Nelson is a News Writer with Thrillist. He holds a Guinness World Record but has never met the fingernail lady. He’s written for Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal, The Rumpus, and other digital wonderlands. Follow him @dlukenelson.