Fisherman Mark McCracken was fishing in a kayak along the Californian coast near Santa Barbara when he realized he was being attacked by a hammerhead shark.
"I couldn't tell if he was biting [the kayak] or if he was head-butting it, but as soon as I saw it, I just started going at him with the paddle,” McCracken recalls.
While fending off the shark, McCracken manage to videotape the ordeal, which he later posted onto his Instagram account. The footage shows the shark making multiple passes at the kayak, but McCracken holds it at bay with a timely butt of his paddle.
“I had to hit him over 20 times before he finally gave me some space,” McCracken continued in a comment. “But [the shark] still stalked me for a half mile all the way back to shore.”
“Even after I was on shore, he paced back and forth in about three feet of water like he was just waiting for me to come back out,” McCracken added.
“Pretty bizarre and crazy experience to say the least.”