Surfer describes close encounter with 8-foot great white shark at Newport Beach
A surfer who was circled by an eight-foot great white shark off the coast of Newport Beach on Thursday is speaking out about the close encounter, which shut down the beach for several hours.
She was unharmed in the incident, but she said she didn’t think her report was taken seriously, at first.
It was perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime encounter for surfer Vivian Phongngo, who said she’s been swimming in the waters off Newport Beach since she was a little girl.
“Went to this beach my whole life with my friends,” she said. “I’ve never seen anything bigger than a stingray.”
On Thursday afternoon, that all changed.
Surfer Vivian Phongngo described her close encounter with a great white shark off the coast of Newport Beach on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (KTLA)
A warning sign was posted at Newport Beach on Thursday, March 26, 2026 following a shark sighting. (KTLA)
Sky5 was over West Newport Beach on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (KTLA)
A lifeguard rescue boat was spotted patrolling the coast of Newport Beach for a shark on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (KTLA)
Sky5 was over West Newport Beach on Thursday, March 26, 2026. (KTLA
“I look over to my right foot. I see something, and it’s a fish, and I was like, oh wow that’s a really nice fish,” she said. “And then it started circling me, getting bigger, and I was like oh my gosh, I think that’s a dolphin. And then like after three seconds, I was like no, that’s a shark.”
Phongngo said she was about 20 to 30 feet offshore when she realized she was being circled by a curious juvenile great white shark about 8 feet long.
She said, “I saw like the fin kind of come up near my left arm.”
Phongngo said that’s when she started yelling “shark.”
At first, a couple of other swimmers nearby thought she was joking, including Parker Gould, who was visiting Newport Beach from Seattle on spring break and was back in the water Friday.
“And you know, like going over the waves, going under the waves, and all of a sudden I heard a surfer and she was like, there was a shark, there was a shark,” Gould said. “Then I’m like looking around at my friends. I’m like, do we run? Is this like real? So then we start like swimming back.”
Phongngo said she immediately reported what she saw to lifeguards, who she said debated with her, thinking she probably saw a dolphin.
When asked if she thought they believed her, she said, “I don’t think they did.”
Newport Beach Lifeguards did end up closing the beach a mile up and down Tower 32, near the sighting, and called in partners to help locate the shark.
It was never found.
On Friday, Newport Beach Lifeguards maintain they did take her report seriously.
“We deemed that it was a credible shark sighting,” said Newport Beach Lifeguards Captain Gavin Wright.
By then, though, Phongngo said people were swimming for a good 40 minutes to an hour.
With her surfboard in tow, looking into the water less than 24 hours after the adventure, she’s safe on land but not quite ready to go back in.
She said. “I just kind of looked out in the ocean and i was like, yeah, I got to respect, respect Mother Nature.”
Lifeguards tell KTLA’s Angeli Kakade that great white sightings in Newport Beach are rare, but if you’re out in the water and you see one, try to stay calm, get out of the water as quickly as you can, and report it.
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