Sure, surfers know there are sharks in the water — but a great white jumping into the air right next to them is enough to make most surfers scramble to shore.

That’s what happened at the USA Surfing Championships at Lower Trestles, just south of San Clemente, on Wednesday, June 19, in the middle of a heat with some of the country’s best young surfers competing for national titles.

California State Parks issued a shark-sighting advisory after spotting the shark propel itself toward the sky. The contest was put on hold and lifeguard boats monitored the water.

Then, surfers do what they do — they went back to catch some waves.

USA Surfing President Andrea Swayne gave surfers and parents an update on the advisory, the lowest-level advisory issued for a shark sighting.

“After lifeguard boats monitored the water, the contest resumed. Parents and surfers were advised to make a decision about whether their surfer wanted to continue competing,” a social media post reads.

The shark was a small one, six- to eight-foot, and still considered a juvenile at one to two years old, said Shark Lab director Chris Lowe, who reviewed footage captured by Surfline.com.

Lowe’s theory about sharks this age breaching: They are itchy and propel out of the water, slamming on their backs or bellies, possibly to get copepods, or little crab-like creatures with claws, off their bodies.

“One of the possibilities is they are trying to dislodge those,” Lowe said. “The other thing sharks do, they rub upside-down on the sand. You’ll see them scratch their back on the sand. These are different tricks animals do.”

Another hypothesis: Maybe they do it for fun. “Can’t rule it out,” Lowe said.

“They are kids, they probably do things for entertainment or curiosity,” he said. “But I would go for the itches.”

The San Onofre area, including Trestles, is a known nursery for baby sharks that come to shore to be in warmer water, a “hot spot,” experts call it. The water gets especially sharky this time of year, as July approaches.

For Lowe, news of the shark is “encouraging.”

“It makes people aware sharks are out there,” he said. “Lifeguards have protocols, it just reminds people there are things we need to be cognizant of, and we need to modify our behavior. If the signs are that it’s not actively aggressive, we can get back in the water. We need to be more careful and cautious, and it reminds us we’re still sharing the ocean and the best thing we can do is modify our behavior.”

It’s a reality the younger generation has to face.

“It’s the new normal,” Lowe said. “Had the shark not jumped and not been seen, that shark would have been there not bothering anyone and no one would have known it was there. We have to go back to the fact that sharks are out there. … We just don’t see them and by and large, nothing bad is happening.”

Former pro Ian Cairns was scheduled to stand-up paddleboard surf during an exhibition heat with former and current coaches, but because of the shark appearance, his time in the water was canceled.

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Woman treated after coyote bit her on Marin County beach “Totally ripped off man,” Cairns said, saying he was looking forward to SUP’ing Lowers with only a few other people out. “I was dressed, ready to go and we got there and got the news. The waves looked kind of fun.”

Cairns said everyone is “so blase” about the sighting, but he’s long worried increased sightings could turn the California coastline into what his native region, Western Australia, is coping with as shark attacks continue to rise.

“I think it’s a bigger deal than what people think,” he said.

Cairns teamed up with Clever Bouy last year, a sonar-tracking system that set up a trial at Balboa Pier to monitor sharks in the area. The results: 60 sharks during a 100-day period, only two of those spotted by lifeguards.

“There’s a lot more activity than people see,” he said.

If he was given the option to go surf just after the shark sighting, would he have gone in the water?

“For sure,” he said.