'I was lucky I didn't fall off': Boy, 10, surfs over 'great white shark'

The astonishing moment a 10-year-old surfer had a very close encounter with a "great white shark" has been captured on camera by his father.

Young Eden Hasson was riding a wave off Samurai Beach at Port Stephens, 110 miles north of Sydney, when his dad Chris spotted the shark was next to his son in the photographs he had just taken.

"I saw the second photo and (thought) no way...I quickly called him in and whistled," Chris said.

He added: "(Eden) saw a shape in the wave and thought it was seaweed and felt something as he went over the top...but he thought nothing of it until he saw the photo."

Mr Hasson said shark experts had since told him it was a juvenile great white shark about eight feet long.

James Cook University shark researcher Andrew Chin said that the photographed shark was possibly a small great white.

"From the angle, it looks like the shark was spooked and is rolling away from the board to escape it," Chin said.

"There is no way that this is a hunting approach," he added.

Eden, who was not hurt in the incident, said he was glad he did not realise how close he came to the shark until he was safe on the beach.

"If I was on the wave and saw it, I probably would've freaked out and fell off," Eden told Nine Network television.

He said: "I was lucky I didn't fall off."

Eden's father has said his son started surfing with his siblings, aged 12 and 5, a day after the incident, which took place on January 24, to enjoy the final week of the school summer holiday.

"Everyone's back to business. It's too good a lifestyle sport not to," Chris said.