A great white shark was caught on video launching itself out of the water just yards behind a boogie boarder at Newport Beach — creating a shocking scene at the popular Southern California destination.The family behind the camera had no idea what they had captured until they reviewed the footage hours later."We were praying on the beach, and we were like, 'Hopefully a miracle happens.That'd be super-cool [if] a miracle happens,'" Soaren Stevenson, a California-based college ministry leader who filmed the video, told Fox News Digital in an interview Tuesday.10-FOOT GREAT WHITE SHARK SPOTTED SWIMMING DANGEROUSLY CLOSE TO YOUNG PEOPLEAs the family replayed the footage, Stevenson said he wasn't sure what he was seeing. Then he zoomed in.
"I was like, 'That's not even a dolphin — that's a shark.'"A great white shark is seen in the video above breaching just yards behind a boogie boarder at Newport Beach.(Soaren Stevenson via Storyful)No one else on the beach appeared to notice the shark, Stevenson said."He definitely didn't know how close it was," Stevenson said of his brother-in-law, who was boogie boarding just ahead of the breaching shark. "I was like, 'That's not even a dolphin, that's a shark.'"Although he grew up in Hawaii and has encountered sharks before, the brother-in-law viewed the whole incident as "a once-in-a-lifetime-type experience," Stevenson said.CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR OUR LIFESTYLE NEWSLETTERThe encounter left Stevenson with a new appreciation for animals that share the ocean with surfers and swimmers."It's kind of surreal to think that the shark is in the same waters as my [brother-in-law], and he didn't even know it," Stevenson said.Soaren Stevenson, who filmed the video, said he and his family were praying on the beach, hoping "a miracle happens," before the shocking encounter unfolded.
(Soaren Stevenson via Storyful)"It just makes me realize that when you go out there to surf, you can come way closer to such a beast than you ever think y...