Moment a surfer is attacked by a 6-foot-long “aggressive” shark that leaves huge bite marks and forces the closure of a popular beach

A SURFER was attacked by a shark over Memorial weekend, forcing the beach to be closed.

Evan Garcia of San Clemente, California, was surfing on Sunday evening when a six-foot shark clung to his board.

The 25-year-old wanted to go surfing again at around 7:45 p.m. when he was suddenly pushed off his board into the water, he told Fox News partner KTTV.

After coming face to face with the animal underwater, Garcia quickly surfed back to the beach to warn others.

He left a bite mark on his board with a diameter of almost 30 centimeters, which he showed to the lifeguard, which led to the closure of the beach.

“I think you can only be that lucky,” said the enthusiastic surfer.

“When the thing hit me from below, I knew immediately it was a shark.

“As someone who surfs a lot and spends a lot of time in the water, you always know it’s a possibility, but there are people out there who have been seriously injured by sharks and I’m so glad that only my board was hit.”

“I had no doubt that the ball was going to hit the backboard from below, so it was definitely going to come at me,” he added.

“It was strong enough to throw me completely into the water.”

After safely returning to shore, the lifeguard sent a picture of the bite mark to a shark expert, who reviewed it and viewed footage of the incident on Surfline.com.

The footage shows Garcia being pushed off his board and into the water.

The surfer believes it was a young great white shark, measuring 1.2 to 1.8 metres long, which he said is “constantly seen on our coast”.

After the expert confirmed the shark bite, lifeguards removed the people from the water and the beach was closed for 24 hours.

San Clemente authorities closed all of the city’s beaches to seawater, citing “confirmed aggressive shark behavior near T-Street Beach.”

“The beaches will remain open, but access to the water will remain closed until 8pm this evening (Monday, 27/05/24) unless further sharks are sighted,” the statement continued.

Water access was reopened on Monday evening.

“I’m not too worried about them, but I certainly wouldn’t want to come face to face with one of them underwater, that’s for sure,” a San Clemente surfer told KTLA 5 after hearing news of the shark incident.

Garcia is currently on a surfing trip in Hawaii, although he made an appeal to the sharks there.

“I’ve had my brush with you sharks, I’m fine, please no more for me.”

Garcia has since said that he will hang the broken board on the wall as a souvenir and a reminder of his good fortune.

“This board saved my life,” he said. “I’m not going to throw it away.”

Beachgoers in the area have been assured that while shark sightings will increase, interactions with humans will be rare.

“This aggressive nature is rare. We have sightings pretty regularly, not daily, but maybe every two months,” Lt. Sean Staudenbaur of San Clemente Marine Safety told KTLA 5.