Great white shark breaches near Southern California surfers

April 11 (UPI) -- A surfer at a popular Southern California break spotted a great white shark breaching nearby and was able to find the moment on camera.

Jason Miller, 31, said he was surfing among dozens of others Monday morning at the Lower Trestles surf break, part of San Onofre State Beach, when he spotted the great white shark -- the first one he had ever seen in person.

"I was sitting in the three-pack [of surfers] furthest out catching up with an old friend when I saw the white body out of the corner of my eye," Miller told GrindTV. "Only one other guy saw it ... I'd guess that I was 150 yards away [from the shark] and [the shark was] probably 8-10 feet in length."

Miller used the Cam Rewind on website Surfline to find the moment the shark jumped out of the water. He posted the footage to Instagram.

"First time I've witnessed a #GreatWhite breach. Just a little too close for comfort. I rode a couple more waves and called it a morning. Pulled the clip from the #Surfline rewind cam," he wrote.

Ralph Collier of the Shark Research Committee told Surfline great white sharks are known to breach as a means of sneaking up on prey from underneath. He said researchers believe there could also be other reasons the sharks jump into the air.

"It could be a form of communication between members of the species signifying dominance within a group, similar to the 'jousting' between male elk and/or deer," he said. "[But] we simply do not know."