Face to face with a Great White shark!

THIS is the moment extreme sports adventurer Paul Leneghan, of Laxey, came face-to-face with a great white shark off the coast of South Africa.

Paul, who was in an underwater cage in an area known as Shark Alley Gansbaai, near Cape Town, during a trip to South Africa, was travelling with his 15-year-old son, who, not surprisingly, chose to stay on dry land during this adventure.

Paul said: 'They tie tuna heads on to lines and bait the sharks to breach and snap at them just in front of you.

'But when it was our turn the tuna head bait was too close to the cage and when the great white closed his jaw on to what he thought was the tuna head he actually snapped shut on the cage!'

Paul added: 'It shook the whole cage with five of us in it – no problem. I was scared to bloody death, that was not in the script!'

In future, Paul hopes to swim with bull sharks.