Tourists in Nusa Penida, Bali, Indonesia, had a jaw dropping encounter when a great white shark surprised them on their scuba dive.
Around 10 minutes into their third and final dive of the day, the group – led by local dive instructor Reynold Kaheming and guide Julio Soba – saw a shadow in the distance.
“None of us knew what it was (we thought it was a whale shark),” said guest Sarah Taylor.
As the huge shape emerged from the gloom, the divers could clearly see this wasn’t a plankton-eating whale shark. It was a great white shark.
"It would have been very entertaining if someone had been filming us as there was a huge amount of enthusiasm as we all swam towards this dark shadow out in the blue,” said guest Graham Dart. When they realised they were sharing the water with a white shark, they “very quickly skipped back!” added Taylor.
The massive predator turned towards them, as if to check them out, before looping back and swimming away slowly.
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“This is beyond the holy grail of diving,” said Swedish divemaster Fabian Clinton who captured the footage of the “amazing and scary” encounter from the “front seat with [his] shaky GoPro.” Clinton shared the video on Instagram in March 2025.
Seeing white sharks in these waters is extremely rare, although there was a previous sighting in September 2019 at a nearby dive site called Crystal Bay.
“Everyone was so excited about the great white shark encounter,” said Dani from Scuba Junkie Penida. “It's certainly a rarity here!”
The divers won’t soon forget this unbelievable moment, added guest Amber Doornekamp: "I had the most incredible underwater encounter in my life so far (maybe even forever?!).”
Top image: white shark in Nusa Penida/Fabian Clinton diving with Scuba Junkie Penida.
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