Shark forces pro surfers to flee water at Aust'n WSL event

Pro surfers have been forced out of the water at a World Surf League (WSL) event in Western Australia after a shark came within meters of launching an attack on the unsuspecting group.

The final warm-up session of the Margaret River Pro was called off on Thursday evening due to the surfers' sudden brush with death.

It comes after Australia's three-time world surfing champion, Mick Fanning, survived a terrifying attack from a suspected great white shark while competing at South Africa's J-Bay Open last year.

Western Australia is a notorious hotspot for shark attacks, with 14 fatalities recorded on the state's beaches since 2000.

Unawares to the group of surfers, which included Kanoa Igarashi, Jeremy Flores, Caio Ibelli, Alessa Quizon and Wiggolly Dantas, the shark had actually been circling the area for almost 30 minutes before being spotted.

"We were all waiting to get one more wave, and everyone was talking to each other with their backs to the ocean," Ibelli told surfline.com on Friday.

"When I turned back, I saw the biggest shark not very far from us. When I called it out, everyone started paddling in super fast.

"We all caught the same wave ... everyone was pretty scared."

Quizon said she heard all the male surfers "screaming" from behind her, but it didn't initially dawn on her what all the commotion was about.

"I turned back and saw all the boys riding on one wave, and I started thinking 'is something happening?'," she said. "Then I thought immediately, 'Oh, shark'."

Dolphins had earlier been seen swimming alongside competitors in the surf, but Igarashi straight away recognized that the waterborne creature was something else due to its "submarine"-like qualities.

"It was creepily emerging out of the water and it kept growing. I looked over and thought 'woah there' s a dolphin next to the shark' but it was actually the tail fin," Igarashi said.

"The tail fin was like seven, eight feet away from the main fin and it was thrashing around and then shot down. I looked over at (Ibelli) and he had the most scared face I've ever seen."

The organizers of the Margaret River Pro have moved to reassure surfers of their safety, vowing to send out shark-detecting jet skis to patrol the competition area over the course of the two-week Australian event. Endi