A 10-year-old surfer had a narrow escape after unwittingly sharing a wave with a great white shark at a beach on Australia's east coast.

Eden Hasson's father Chris realised the shark was in the water as he looked at photographs he had been taking of his son, who was surfing with friends at Samurai Beach, about 110 miles north of Sydney.

He quickly yelled at the boys to get out of the water.

Mr Hasson said: "He finished on the beach, it was a beautiful wave and curiosity got me looking at the first shot; I couldn't see anything.

Image: Eden Hasson, 10, captured on camera surfing next to a shark. Pic: Chris Hasson/Associated Press

"The second shot I zoomed in and I realised what I had captured.


"I quickly pulled him in and called 'shark' to the other four boys out there. And we had a look on the beach and obviously everyone is high-fiving and going, 'Wow,' you know, 'what a photo'."

Mr Hasson said that like "every grommet" - slang for young surfer - his son was "always going back out for one more" wave.

Experts have looked at the picture and believe the shark is a juvenile great white, about 2.5 metres (8ft) long.

Mr Hasson said he was pleased to get the snap, but admitted he was "a bit worried" about the incident.

"Yeah I guess it ended well and it was a good story for him to tell on the first day at school at show and tell," he said.

"I think the shark was startled more than anything."

Eden says he was "shocked" to see what he was sharing the water with.

"But I wasn't too scared because it was like it just happened and if I was on the wave and I saw it, I probably would have freaked out and fell off," he said. "I was lucky I didn't fall off."

Australian conservation society Taronga says there were 26 shark attacks reported last year, with two fatalities and 16 people injured.