Dana Point’s quintessential waterman and extreme sports athlete Chuck Patterson—famed for being a champion big wave surfer and central to popularizing the sport of stand up paddling (SUP), among other pursuits—was SUP surfing with friends at San Onofre State Beach on Monday when the group watched as two Great White sharks spent a good 15 minutes circling them.

The next day, August 10, Patterson decided to return to do some reconnaissance on the duo of toothy, white-bellied predators. He filmed the sharks—at around 3 p.m., roughly 250 yards off shore—by rigging his GoPro HD waterproof camera to a 10-foot pole to try to capture footage of the sharks. Ha…ironic…a 10-foot pole...

Evidently this pair of sharks are not a bit camera shy. Patterson did capture footage and posted it on August 11 to Vimeo on the web.

Patterson took a break from fielding hundreds of phone calls and emails about his video—which went viral overnight—on the morning of August 12 to speak with me about his experience. I couldn't help but ask, "What were you thinking? Weren't you scared?"

Patterson said that early on in his mission to document the creatures, a "big" one snuck up behind him and slapped his board with its tail. "Right then I had a moment of clarity. It brought me to my knees and I was thinking to myself 'What am I doing?'" he said. "There were no other surfers even close to me at that point. Then another shark began circling around me very calmly and I gathered myself and began filming. It was an amazing experience. Even though we definitely have to respect these creatures, it is nice to see the shark population is thriving out there. I think it's a positive sign pointing toward the relative health of our ocean."

For the next 12 to 15 minutes Patterson collected video footage and still shots of a shark he estimated to be in the seven- to nine-foot range as it circled curiously around his board. The eerily quiet video captures silence except for the splashing and gurgling of the sea—providing a window into the natural habitat of one of the Earth’s most fascinating animals.

Park Ranger Brian Lane and Doheny State Beach Supervising Park Ranger Jim Serpa also reported encounters with White sharks in the area on August 10 and 11 respectively. Both Lane and Serpa wrote of their shark encounters on the Shark Research Committee website. Lane’s account includes the sighting of an estimated eight-foot white shark, 100 to 200 yards off of the beach in about 10 feet of water. Serpa reported sighting two smaller White sharks in the range of five to six feet long in the waters off of the break known as Dogpatch. Log on to www.sharkresearchcommittee.com to read their reports.

Click here to view Patterson’s amazing footage. It definitely gives new meaning to the saying, "Respect the locals."