Foil Boarder Escapes Injury After Shark Bites Board off Exmouth Coast

A foil boarder escaped without injury after a large shark bit his board roughly one kilometre off Wobiri Beach, near Exmouth on Western Australia's North West Cape, on March 10, 2026. The rider was reportedly in the water when the animal struck his board, leaving the equipment damaged but the rider physically unscathed.

Reports describe the shark as a suspected three-metre great white, though that identification has not been officially confirmed by authorities. The original account placed the incident at around 5:00 pm local time, while a separate WA news roundup described it as occurring in the morning; the exact time remains unreconciled pending official clarification.

The incident drew immediate reaction from the foiling and surfing community on Seabreeze, where forum members aired a combination of relief and genuine unease. Youngbreezy, a WA-based member with 1,225 posts, captured the mood bluntly: "In the last few months all the things I told myself about sharks, locations, time of the year, behaviour etc. have all been bloody shattered!!! Bloody 3m GW taking a bite out of a foil board in Exmouth in summer, we weren't supposed to have GW attacks that far north and definitely not in summer!!! Faaaarrrk."

Fellow member hilly, one of the forum's more active voices with 8,009 posts, echoed the geographic surprise: "heavy! Exmouth!? Defs think you're far enough north to avoid whiteys up there!" He added a note on sea temperature that underscored how out of place the encounter felt: "showin 28C on the sat, maybs a bit cooler inshore eddy, but hell! And feeding on foils, not just passing thru deep. nowheres safe."

Member flowstate rounded out the thread with a wry aside that anyone familiar with the board-building world will appreciate: "thank God it wasnt a Smik. Scotty woulda been out of business ;)"

The Exmouth encounter is the latest in a string of shark interactions involving foil equipment in Western Australian waters. A separate and distinct incident at the Margaret River Bombie break near Prevelly involved 61-year-old wing foiler Andy McDonald, who was rammed from below by a white shark that bit a large chunk from his board and briefly dragged him underwater. McDonald described the impact as feeling like a "freight train," was thrown into the air, and ended up punching the shark repeatedly before it dove and disappeared. That attack was captured on surf cam. The two incidents are unrelated but have compounded the sense within the community that no stretch of WA coastline, and no time of year, can be written off as safe water.

No official statements from WA authorities, local police, or the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions have been reported in connection with the Exmouth incident, and it is not confirmed whether any beach advisories were issued following the encounter. The identity of the Exmouth rider has not been made public.