A fisherman swimming along the bottom of the ocean just off the South African coast went head to head with a great white shark, fighting it off with the sharp tip of his spear.

A terrifying video shows fisherman Johan Potgieter diving 19 meters under water, searching for reef fish to eat when a great white suddenly appears only an arm’s length away.

Mr Potgieter, and his fellow divers – Francios Smuts, Rene' Nel and Erik Fourie – came into close contact with the deadly shark on August 27 in Arniston, 209km to the east of Cape Town in South Africa.

Mr Potgieter was looking to his right and didn’t notice the shark until it swam closely to his left and his muffled screams are heard as he instinctively prods the shark away with his speargun.

Mr Potgieter (pictured) was swimming along the South African coast in search of reef fish to eat

The great white shark appeared suddenly to the left of fisherman Johan Potgieter on August 27

The great white speeds away before making a quick 180 degree turn and swimming directly at Mr Potgieter, who screams again and prods the great white again with his speargun, causing the shark to abruptly turn away.

‘The Shark was clearly now in attack mode. I had to show some dominance back to him to avoid being bitten,’ Mr Potgieter writes in the Youtube video description.

Mr Potgieter is then seen furiously kicking his flippers trying to reach the water’s surface and yells out to his fellow divers to watch out for the shark.

A man is seen sitting in a small boat nearby and another diver is seen bobbing in the water.

Mr Potgieter poked the shark, which was within an arm's length away, with his speargun to scare it

The great white speeds away before making a sharp turn and swimming directly at Mr Potgieter

After shrieking for his diving team to be safe, the fisherman ducks his head back under the water and sees the shark swimming right underneath his feet.

‘I could not believe this shark had followed me up to the surface,’ he said.

‘I have seen many great whites and never see aggressive behaviour like this. All I could think was get to the boat and get the heck out of the water,’ Mr Potgieter added.

The fisherman's speargun may have saved his life after he used it to prod the shark

After swimming furiously to reach the water's surface, Mr Potgieter ducked his head under the water again to see the great white shark had gotten closer and was swimming right under his feet

The boat is seen quickly motoring over to pick up Mr Fourie and Mr Potgieter, who threw their spearguns into the boat before throwing themselves into the dingy.

The fisherman don’t know where the third diver, Mr Smuts, was and worried for his safety.

‘Did you see it almost ate me!’ Mr Potgieter yells to the team.

The divers spot the shark continuing to circle close by and as the boat begins to race off, they see Mr Smuts pop up out of the water and they rush to pull him out.

Mr Potgieter and a second diver jump into their boat but the diver doesn't resurface immediately

He panted heavily as he sat on the edge of the boat and kept an eye out for shark which was still swimming close by

Mr Potgieter described how he fended of the great white that tried to attack him

He used his speargun in defense and startled the shark

‘Francois didn’t know about a thing…he said he only heard a loud nose close to him, which was probably the shark making a sharp turn and swimming away,’ Mr Potgieter said.

The group moved to a new diving spot 13km away and continued to fish for the rest of the day but felt ‘uncomfortable to say the least,’ he said.

The Youtube video, posted on on October 19, has 53, 911 views.

The third diver popped out from the water and is rushed into the boat