![\"Max](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Max-Eder-great-white-shark.jpg\")
Aptos native Max Eder looks out at the ocean off Seascape Beach. Credit: Kevin Painchaud \/ Lookout Santa Cruz<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\tQuick Take<\/p>\n
An Aptos surfer whose close encounter with a great white shark went viral is sharing what happened from his perspective, including the moment he realized a drone hovering overhead was trying to warn him of danger.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
For nearly 35 minutes, it had been the perfect Santa Cruz County surf session.<\/p>\n
The morning sun lit up a clean south swell off Seascape Beach, the lineup was nearly empty, and Aptos surfer Max Eder had already caught one wave worth remembering.<\/p>\n
Aptos native Max Eder looks out at the ocean off Seascape Beach. Credit: Kevin Painchaud \/ Lookout Santa Cruz<\/p>\n
Then a drone appeared overhead.<\/p>\n
It hovered. It dropped lower. Its propellers buzzed louder and louder.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere wasn\u2019t anybody on the beach,\u201d Eder recalled. His friend, Rex Boyes, who was surfing with him, looked at him and said, \u201cI bet you that drone is trying to warn us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eder looked up at the drone, then scanned the water around him.<\/p>\n
Seconds later, he spotted a massive shadow moving beside his surfboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like this big ominous figure that kind of was flanking me, and then the dead giveaway was this huge dorsal fin,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was maybe a foot and a half away, 2 feet tops.\u201d<\/p>\n
A great white shark was swimming alongside him.<\/p>\n
Drone footage taken by Nick Bertocchini captures the frightening moments when a great white shark approached Aptos surfer Max Eder on June 10.<\/p>\n
The June 10 incident, captured from above by drone operator Nick Bertocchini, has since exploded across social media and national TV, giving millions of viewers an aerial perspective of one of the closest documented shark encounters involving a Santa Cruz County surfer.<\/p>\n
But Eder says the experience he lived was very different from the one people watched online.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe drone footage was 10 times more frightening than the actual encounter,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Born and raised in Aptos, the 55-year-old Eder has spent decades surfing local breaks. He has seen sharks breach in the distance and noticed suspicious movement in the water before, but never experienced anything like this.<\/p>\n
![\"Max](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Max-Eder-great-white-shark-3.jpg\")
Aptos surfer Max Eder at Seascape Park Beach. Credit: Kevin Painchaud \/ Lookout Santa Cruz<\/p>\n
\u201cThis was the first time I looked at something and knew without a doubt it was a shark.\u201d<\/p>\n
Almost immediately after Boyes voiced his suspicion that the drone operator was trying to get their attention, Eder said he turned and found himself staring at the shark.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a fight-or-flight situation at that point, and you kind of have basically three options available to you: one is to panic, two is to calmly try to remove yourself from the area, and then the best one is some of the comments I have read were like, face off with it and stand your ground,\u201d he recalled. \u201cAnd you know, I chose Option 2.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew thrashing around wasn\u2019t the right thing to do, so I just focused on paddling smoothly back to shore.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Eder headed toward the beach, the drone captured the shark circling behind him and briefly breaking the surface with its dorsal fin.<\/p>\n
Boyes, meanwhile, didn\u2019t waste any time in removing himself from the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat guy paddled faster than I\u2019ve ever seen anybody. Next thing I know, he was on the beach,\u201d Eder said.<\/p>\n
Only after both reached the sand did the reality begin to sink in.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were both rattled,\u201d Eder said. \u201cIt was fantastically beautiful but completely frightening at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The waves were still breaking perfectly, and the session had lasted barely half an hour. There was even a brief conversation about paddling back out.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018I\u2019m out of here,’\u201d Eder laughed. \u201cI got my one good wave.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experience became even more unsettling when the two surfers viewed the drone footage that Bertocchini shared with them. Watching the shark\u2019s path from above changed everything.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sat in my truck and watched it a couple of times and just thought, \u2018Wow, that was way too close for comfort,’\u201d Eder said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re in the water, you can\u2019t see what\u2019s happening underneath you. The video lets you see every move it made.\u201d<\/p>\n
He believes the shark\u2019s behavior was more than simple curiosity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was circling and coming from behind,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I also think that if a shark truly wanted to attack, you would never even see it coming.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/great-white-drone-3.png\")
Drone footage of Aptos surfer Max Eder as a great white shark approaches him while surfing off Seascape Park Beach. Credit: Nick Bertocchini<\/p>\n
As the video spread across the country, so did the messages and online commentary.<\/p>\n
Friends from Texas texted him. Local surfers called to check on him. Complete strangers weighed in from behind keyboards.<\/p>\n
Some praised his calm reaction.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Others joked that they were \u201crooting for the shark.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eder recalls sitting with his wife reading the comments. \u201cWe were reading some of those comments in funny voices and laughing,\u201d he said. \u201cBut then you stop and think, if somebody actually had to tell my family I was killed, they probably wouldn\u2019t think it was funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
The experience hasn\u2019t changed how he views sharks or the ocean.<\/p>\n
Instead, it reinforced a perspective built over a lifetime spent in Monterey Bay, where he says an abundance of marine life \u2013 whales, dolphins, sea otters, seals and, yes, sharks \u2013 are evidence of a thriving ecosystem.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s their world,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re just tourists in it.\u201d<\/p>\n