Ron Takeda and his friend Tavis Boise were filming themselves while hydrofoil surfing just off the coast of the University of California, Santa Barbara, when they noticed something was wrong.
It was a shark that followed their path for several kilometers, forcing them to flee for several long minutes until they were safe, as Takeda himself stated:
“It was a real game of cat and mouse, but with a 10-foot shark. Most of the time, it felt like the shark was about six feet behind or even underneath us.”
The video quickly surpassed one million views on social media and sparked debate about the authenticity of the footage, although the protagonists confirmed that it was a real situation.
ALERT: 11-foot shark chases a man for 10 minutes off the coast of California.
— E X X ➠A L E R T S (@ExxAlerts) April 28, 2026
The man says the shark chased his friend, Ron Takeda, for about 2 miles during their ride near Santa Barbara.
"While in the middle of a 20-mile downwind foil run from UCSB to Carpinteria, Ron Takeda… pic.twitter.com/Q8pZHvWeCD